JimBlackBooks.com
1960 - 1969
To be a part of making history is an awesome thing. Archer City Schools, their buildings, faculties, activities, and students have done that since 1926. My family—including three generations of teachers and a bus driver—have been a small part of the story. The following is that story.
In the summer of 1948 the Mullis family—J. D., Hazel, Tommye Jane and Lucretia—moved to Archer City, Mother to continue her career as teacher and librarian and Daddy to pump leases on the Abercrombie east of town and work for Doug Strange in his hardware store. Housing in Archer City being scarce at the time, we lived the first year in Trula and Shorty Nelson’s two-room garage apartment. Lucretia and I loved it there because we had two boys to play with—Ronnie and Lee Nelson. With them, we climbed trees, played cowboys and Indians, and chased horned (“horny”) toads across the Nelsons’ concrete cellar.
In order to pursue her degree in library science, Mother attended summer classes at Texas State College for Women in Denton, taking us girls with her. The following summer—1949-- Daddy bought the house that became “home.” Located at 215 West Cherry, it was just across the street from the school, which was great for all of us. I started first grade that fall with Mrs. Lasater, later to be Mrs. Elmore (who died just this year at age 99). Mrs. Bennet had first graders also. Of these first graders, thirteen of us graduated—along with fourteen others—in the class of 1961, including the following: Delava Jean Bratt, Harrell Cross, Donna Findley, Judy Ann Glenn, Lawrence Lowack, Lemuel (Butch) McLemore, Tommye Jane Mullis, Jimmie Owen, Charles (Jimmy) Pitts, Brent Proffitt, Ronald Reed, Lee Roy Smith, and Jerry Wayne Walsh.
As the years passed, band and other extra-curricular activities took up much of my time. Of special delight was band because, for one thing, I could ride the bus to all out-of-town football games to play flute. Other activities included FHA, annual staff, UIL literary events, one-act play, and junior and senior class plays.
Undoubtedly the saddest event of our high school years came during freshman year when classmate Severine Frerich was injured at baseball practice and died a few days later. He was buried on his 15th birthday in St. Boniface Cemetery in Scotland. Our entire class was stunned. Our tender-hearted classmate, a teary-eyed Butch McLemore said this: “Why Severine, the best kid ever?”
Fast forward to senior year, 1960-61. In addition to the thirteen already mentioned, these graduated in the class: Suzy Abercrombie, Lena Petit, Carolene Allen, Glenda Alsup, Larry Canady, Carlton Deen, Rex Jarvis, Sandra Porter Deen, Eileen Marsh, Tony Pollock, David Schlabs, Gayle Stewart, Judy Thurber, and Gwen Yeager. Our year culminated with a class trip to California, including stops at Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, Knott’s Berry Farm and Disneyland—on a Greyhound bus, a first for most of us.
Following graduation came Baylor, Midwestern, marriage, family, divorce, and teaching jobs in Wichita Falls, Holliday and Wylie. I had no idea I would ever return to Archer City to teach, but that’s what happened in 1989 after marrying Bob Wright and returning to the area. In July Don Shearmire called, asking if I would consider teaching sixth and seventh grade language arts. Wow! My life had come full circle. The nine years there turned out to be awesome, as I became reacquainted with the school itself and with former friends, teaching children and grandchildren of people I had known as a young person, and having an opportunity to write a new chapter in my story. Retirement came in 1998, the 30th year of my teaching career. I couldn’t think of a better way to end it! The following year my son Scotty Lofland was hired at ACISD to teach and coach, becoming the third generation to be a part of a most wonderful place.
Our numbers have diminished over the years, beginning with Lee Roy Smith, who was killed soon after we graduated. The Class of 1961 celebrated its 50th reunion in fall 2010 with quite a few in attendance. Several of us continue to get together as often as we can to share a meal, take a trip, and gossip (just a little)!
Sadly, the building we called our home is no more. Our memories of those days, however, are in our hearts and often on our tongues as we reminisce about “The Good Ole Days.”
WILDCATS forever!!!
Tommye Jane (Mullis) Lofland Wright – Class of 1961
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I started the first grade at Archer City and graduated from Archer City High School in 1961. Mrs. Lassiter, later known as Mrs. Elmore, was my first grade teacher. Every morning she would check to see if our fingernails were clean and if our shoes were polished and our hair combed and our teeth brushed. I always got good marks on all of that.
At some point in those early years, we had to take sack lunches to school. I believe the cafeteria had burned. Somebody may want to verify that. The playground was so much fun at recess. There were always groups playing jacks and jumping ropes. Those were two of my favorite things to do at recess. I always thought my second grade teacher, Mrs. June Clark, was so pretty and nice. I can remember sitting at my desk and looking out the window at people picking up paper on the school yard, as punishment. Guess that was better than getting “licks” which some people managed to do. I was always afraid I would get into some kind of trouble. But that was saved for my brother Ross Glenn.
My third grade teacher was Mrs. Wilson. I learned how to read a ruler in her class. Also, she was an artist and she taught us how to sketch trees and mountains. My trees and mountains never did and still don’t look very good. But it was fun. One memory from that class is the day Mrs. Wilson hooked a pair of pliers on one of Jimmy Pitts’ front teeth and told him if he ever bit anybody again, she would pull his teeth out. It worked. Teachers cannot get by with that type of effective threats today.
Then on to Mrs. Nell Trent. Oh, boy, nobody messed with her either. She believed in the paddle. She probably would have been a good batter on a softball team. I never received any of her wrath, but several did.
I ate lunch in the cafeteria every day. We had lunch cards that Mrs. Gerron would “punch” each day that you ate there. That was my first experience with smothered liver and onions. Cannot remember who the teacher was, but she made me eat that awful smelling dish and much to my amazement, I liked it. Does anybody remember the graham crackers and peanut butter desserts we had? Yum yum.
Junior high brought on Mrs. Hawkins. Very stern but thorough teacher. I guess I will have to give her kudos for piquing my interest in geography. Thanks to that interest, I have been very fortunate to have traveled to several countries in this world. Two good experiences in junior high were the teachers, Mr. Waldrip and Mr. English.
On to high school. I was scared to death of all those people I had never been around in my life. To this day, I cannot figure out why Mrs. Crowley made us dress up a doll from a Shakespeare Play. My mother had to make my doll’s clothes. I never could sew. Thought I was going to fail Home-Ec because of that. I had to take a zipper out of a dress so many times, the material would not hold the zipper. Some of my friends joined band. Well, that was not for me. Every day at lunch, there were serious ping pong games and volley ball games in the “old” gym. There were coke machines and candy machines in the hallway on the ground floor on the way to the cafeteria. Those Dr. Peppers with peanuts crammed down the bottle were so good. Lunch time was the “playground time” for high school. I have often wondered how in the world all of us managed to fit into that old gym in the old building. Some of the best memories I have of high school were outside the school house and most of those stories cannot be printed. But all those stories were made with friends from inside the school. The basketball game bus trips were always fun—more fun that sitting on the bench. As a cheerleader, my senior year, we rode with the band to the football games. There were four of us and we made up our own routines and our mothers made our “cheerleading” costumes. We had one costume for pep rallies and one for the games. There was not a cheerleading school to go to back in “them thar days.” As you know from reading Tommye Jane Wright’s tales, most of us that ran around together, still run around together. I will never forget the time we were discussing “modern” day schools that have exchange students. Somebody said, “Well we never did have anything like that.” I said, “Oh, yes we did, we exchanged Dottie Murphy for Carlton Deen. She went up a grade and he came down a grade.” I was on the Cat’s Claw paper staff. I wrote a column called “Cat Tales.” A gossip column that was highly censored by Mrs. Barton, darn it. Well, I could go on and on but it would take too much time and space. So in closing, all I can say now is Thanks for the Memories.
Judy Glenn Nichols - Class of 1961
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The building had a lot of personality.
One year after one of our faculty meetings, Mr. Wallace, our Superintendent, and I were leaving the third floor by the stairway when we met the popular Coach Williams coming up the stairs from the first floor. Mr. Wallace told Coach Williams that we had had a faculty meeting that morning. Coach Williams said, “You did!” That was the end of the conversation.
Grady Graves - Head Football Coach, Athletic Director, Teacher 1961 - 1965
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Archer City High School’s First-ever Foreign-language Class and Spanish Club
Before the beginning of the school year in 1960, it was not possible to sign up for a foreign-language class at Archer City High School. No such class had ever been offered. However, as a few of us scheduled to graduate in the spring of 1962 noted, some college admission forms required that applicants’ high-school records show two years of credits in a foreign language.
Figuring that the only way to meet that requirement was to create our own foreign-language class, we recruited a couple of adventurous classmates to join in our efforts, and together we persuaded our high-school principal, Mr. McPhearson, to add a Spanish class to the curriculum. Next we recruited our teacher, Ms. Cearly, the only faculty member to be found who had ever taken a foreign-language class (Spanish) herself. We each purchased two Spanish-language text books. (There was no allowance in the school budget for superfluous purchases; according to policy, we already had plenty of state-issued free books.)
Eight members of the “Class of 1962” (Joe Bledsoe, Alice Brothers, Linda Crowley, Hugh Dorris, Malinda Morris, Billie Morrison, Mary Sue Perdue, and Donny Small) enrolled in Archer City High School’s first Spanish class. The first thing we learned in Ms. Cearly’s class was that conjugating Spanish verbs was difficult. As a counterweight to the hard work of memorizing hundreds of unfamiliar vocabulary words, an inspiration struck our class like a bolt of lightning (relampago in Spanish): launch a “Spanish Club”—the primary purposes of which would be to advertise to the student body the fun and benefits of foreign-language study and to raise funding for an “educational experience,” a trip to Six Flags Over Texas.
Our Spanish Club’s special projects included decking ourselves out in Mexican-style cheerleader costumes and conducting football pep rallies in Spanish. “Vivan los Gatos!” Of course no one knew (including ourselves) whether the words were correct, but the student body caught the spirit of it and cheered wildly at appropriate moments. The Spanish Club authored and produced several original comic Spanish-language stage productions (again, the language was understood by none, but the humor shone through to be enjoyed by all). My favorite play told the story of Santa Claus’s escapades after being kidnapped by a band of bandidos during his Christmas Eve sleigh flight over Mexico. His bag of toys was held for ransom. Elaborate heroics ensued to rescue Santa and the toys, and save Christmas. “Feliz Navidad!”
Other Spanish Club projects, such as homecoming mum-corsage sales and a sales booth in the school hallway for sending Valentine’s Day telegram greetings to other students, raised funds to cover our Spanish Club trip expenses to Six Flags Over Texas in the spring of our senior year, 1962. Park admission price that year was $2.75; parking was 50 cents, a hamburger 35 cents, and a soft drink 10 cents. We were excited to make the trip. Construction on the Six Flags park had commenced in August of 1960 and was completed one year later in August of 1961. And because the name "Six Flags Over Texas" refers to the flags of the six different nations that have governed Texas (Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States, and the Confederate States of America), the park was divided into six themed sections. Obviously, the Spain and Mexico sections were specifically pertinent to our studies.
The Six Flags in Texas was the nation’s first Six Flags park, and was certainly unfamiliar territory to us. Regarding our trip to this brand new place as a very special occasion, and being completely uninformed as to what to expect, we all dressed up in our Sunday-best outfits—the girls in straight-cut wool skirts and guys in nicely pressed slacks. Mistake! “El error!” Dressed as we were, riding burros along Mexico’s “el Camino Real” and helping Spanish explorers fend off alligator attacks on the Lavaca River proved to be exceptionally challenging. Jeans and tee-shirts would have been more comfortable attire.
“Si!” Spanish Club membership exploded from our tiny group of eight students in that first year to a sizable group of 42 members in the second. It must have looked like we were having a good time. We were. However, I do not know whether all 42 of the second-year Spanish Club members also enrolled in the Spanish class itself. Perhaps not.
Speaking for myself 54 years later, I cannot claim to have retained any Spanish-language skills whatsoever. Therefore, I asked my daughter, a bilingual speech therapist certified in both Spanish and English, to translate into Spanish the following thought for me:
“Cuando era una niña, estudiar Espanol, entonces ahora no puedo hablarle.” When I was young, I studied Spanish, but now I cannot speak it.
Alice Brothers Blanco – Class of 1962
