Kouts High School - Kostang Yearbook (Kouts, IN)

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“Class History” Back in the year of 41” when people just dreamed about interplanetary dis- coveries, a fleet of forty one space cadets, with jets a roarin', entered into Kouts School. Thirteen of these 41 are still with us. The boys were: Donald Gingerich, Samuel Martin, Paul Newsom, Algot Olson, Gordon Reinhertz, James Schultz, and Vernon Young. The girls were: Muriel Dowd, Nancy French, Doris Kneifel, Joanne Railing, and Lola Sutter. During our first year of school, we learned to read, to write and to add a little. Our biggest problem was learning to keep quiet during class. One thing I can remember is our two divisions of reading class; the Blue Birds and the Red Birds. One day fhe Blue Birds got into the colored paper in the closet and Miss Beers made us stand up at the blackboard. It seems as though Doris Kne'.fel gave Miss Beers a lot of trouble by wading in the mud puddles all the time. Our academy didn’t do so well in the second grade, for we lost twelve and gained nine. Two of those were: Ronald Snow and Harold Fritz. When we called roll in our third year of school at the academy we found that ten had deserted us and only four had helped make up for it. Phyllis Birky joined our academy. In the third grade Dr. Dittmer came to school and vaccinated us for small pox and diptheria. This year Harold Fritz had some bad iuck when he broke his ankle while playing on the merry-go-round. Nancy French hit Sam Martin in the eye with the baseball bat, too, remember? It was also a job for some of us girls to clean out Paul Newsom’s desk every two weeks or so. When the fourth year of school rolled around we found we hadn’t done so badly. We lost five and gained four. Mildred Hibbs came to stay with us. During our stay there we got some new chairs in the 4th grade room. It seems as though some of us just couldn’t stay off them. As a matter of fact we were on them when the last bell rang after recess, and Miss Chelf made us sit there the rest of the day. This year brought bad luck to Lola, who liked to ride on the outside of cars. One day she fell off and the car ran over her hand. She spent some time in the hospital. This being the year of the war, we brought sacks to school and filled them with milkweed pods that we picked outside of town. In our fif h grade we went a little off on the low end by losing five and gain- ing three. Our total now was twenty-nine. Electing class officers was something new that year. We got Mrs. French a Christmas present, and we were even hap- pier than she was when she opened it and found it was a glass coffee maker. We gave a Christmas Operetta, and for the first time we saw Nancy with her hair combed out, rather than in braids. In our sixth year we still had a big class but we lost five and gained four. Two of those gained were Donald Peters and Margie Luthi. Our sixth year we really had a surprise; a man teacher. We also found out he was boss. He had two ways of punishing us; you either copied a few chapters out of our history books or he used the paddle he had in the closet. Some of the boys learned the hard” way, didn’t they, Ronnie? Lots of things happened this year; our first class party, the operetta Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn”, a basketball team and cheerleaders (Jo, Doris, and Lola). Remember the day we all wore lipstick, girls? My, how those boys teased us. Hockey seemed to be a wonderful sport for the boys this year; more than one or two came to class with skinned ankles. Vernon Young missed a whole semester this year on account of rheumatic fever. Phyllis Birky and Algot Olson used to have fun rolling apples down the aisles in the sixth grade, also. In the seventh grade at the space academy we came out even all the way; we lost one and gained one. As we were in the seventh grade, we no longer had one

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SYLVIA NAGAITIS “Syl” Class Secretary-Treasurer 2, 3, 4 Chorus 1, 2, 3, 4 Band 3, 4 GAA 2, 3, 4 GAA Treasurer 4 Band Secretary-Treasurer 4 Paper Staff 3 Annual Staff 4 Music Festival 3 Budget Committee 4 Band Librarian 3 Usherette For Commencement 3 Typing Award 2, 3 Scholarship Award 2, 3 Class Plays 3, 4 Dramatics 1, 2 PAUL NEWSOM “Prunie” Band 1, 2, 3, 4 Chorus 1 ,3 ,4 Annual Staff 4 Class Plays 3, 4 Dramatics 1, 2 ALGOT OLSON “Olie” Basketball 4 Class Plays 3, 4 Dramatics 1, 2 Band 2, 3, 4 Music Festival 3, 4 Track 3, 4 Agriculture Award 2, 3, 4 Crop Judging 2. 4 Poultry Judging 3 Band Day at I. U. 2 Chorus 3 4-H 2, 3, 4 Dairy Judging 2 Movie Projector Manager 3, 4 Basketball Manager 3 DONALD PETERS “Dad” “Doll’ Basketball 1, 2, 4 Track 1 Band 2, 3, 4 Chorus 2, 3, 4 Plays 3, 4 4-H 1, 2, 3 Annual Staff 4 Band President 4 Senior Statistics JOANNE RAILING “Jo” Chorus 1, 2, 3, 4 Band 1, 2, 3 Cheerleader 1, 2, 3 GAA 2, 3, 4 Class Play 3 Annual Staff 4 Kouts Times Staff 3 Play Usherette 3 Baccalaureate Usherette 3 Solo and Ensemble Contest 3 Music Festival 3 Typing Award 2 Chorus Spring Concert 2, 3 Band Day at I. U. 2 Dramatics 1, 2 GORDON REINHERTZ “Gordie” Band 1, 2, 3, 4 Chorus 1 Student Council 1, 2, 3, 4 Class Plays 3, 4 Student Manager 4 Vice President of Student Council 4 Dramatics 1, 2 JAMES SCHULTZ “Jim” Basketball 1, 3 Track 1 Dramatics 1, 2 Class Plays 3, 4 Class Vice President 4 Band 1, 2, 3 Chorus 1, 3 Baseball 1, 2, 3, 4 FRANK BARNARD “Bud” Chorus 1 Usher 3, 4 Class Plays 3, 4 Annual Staff 4 Koutscript Staff 3 Grain Judging 3, 4 Basketball 1, 2 Baseball 1 4-H 3, 4 Baccalaureate Usher 3 Commencement Usher 3 PHYLLIS BIRKY “Phil” GAA 2, 3, 4 Kouts Times Staff 3 Annual Staff 4 Chorus 1, 2 Stage Manager 3, 4 Usher 3 Candy Seller 2, 4 MURIEL DOWD “Merle” GAA 2, 3, 4 Candy Seller 2, 3, 4 Chorus 1, 2 Annual Staff 4 Student Director 3 Class Play 4 Kouts Times Staff 3 Commencement Usherette 3 Librarian 4 Choral and Band Concert Usherette 3 Staff Secretary 4 Spring Concert 2 Dramatics 1, 2 LOLA SUTTER “Lulu” Cheerleader 2, 3, 4 Band 1, 2, 3 Chorus 1, 2, 3, 4 GAA 2, 3, 4 Student Council 3 Budget Committee 4 Librarian 4 Junior-Senior Trip Committee 4 Annual Staff 4 Commencement Usherette 3 Class President 1 Solo and Ensemble Contest 2 Candy Seller 4 Band Librarian 3 Music Festival 3, 4 Typing Award 2 Citizenship Award 2 Scholarship Award 2 Band Day at I. U. 2 Class Plays 3, 4 Dramatics 2 Kouts Times Staff 3 Office Assistant 4

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“Class History” teacher or one room. w This was the year for romance in our class. Jo, Lola, and Nancy received compacts from Gordon, Phillip, and Don Peters for Christmas. In our eighth year’s escapade we didn’t do so well, for we gained none and lost three. This year we found ourselves looking forward to eighth grade graduation. We de- cided on our class flower as yellow rose, but the night of graduation we were given white carnations instead. This was the year Miss Dittmer started teaching us par- limentary procedure. Some one was always getting up and telling our president, Doris, hat she was out of order. Jim was really a brain this year. Mr. Broad asked him to bring in some stock market quotations and Jim brought him an advertise- ment for dog food. Muriel and Margie gave Mr. Broad lots of trouble, too; Mr. Broad told them to keep quiet and so they talked sign language. Our gain and loss always slacking, we gained one and lost two in our ninth vear at the academy. The one gained was Sylvia Nagaitis. In our freshman year, we all thought we’d be separated from our firends by taking different subjects, but we found that nearly all of us took the same ones. Some things that stands out in our memories are the pantomine plays we gave as freshman; the “Comedy of Errors” and “Sleep ng Beauty”. Didn’t Gordon make a lovely “Sleeping Beauty”? Ronnie made a wonderful horse for our Prince “Margie”, too. This year we also had our first invitational party. Who were some of the couples, you asked? Let’s see; Lola and Harold; Nancy and Phillip; Margie and Mel; Doris and Jerry; and Sam and Susie Struve. We still had lots of bashful boys, then. When we counted off in our tenth year we found we had evened the score by gaining two and losing two. In our tenth year we presented the play “Who’s Af- raid” directed by Mr. Jensen, our sponsor. What fun Sam and Don had practicing tackling Jim, who was supposed to be a burglar. Mr. Jensen took us to Chicago, too. I don’t know if it just happened that way, or because it was Friday the thir- teenth that day, but we lost Don P. and Harold in Field’s Museum. In our Junior year at the academy we gained three and lost three. One gain- ed was Frank Barnard. This year we presented our Jr. play entitled “Cornin’ Round the Mountain”. We had lots of help putting on this play, besides that of our student director, Muriel. By the time the play was over, Muriel says she was a ner- vous wreck. Sam, Nancy, Sylvia and Harold wrote a play called “There’s One In Every Family”, which we presented to the school. Then came the prom, over which we had lots of heated arguments. Finally we got all committees appointed, every- thing planned and our contract signed with Bill Morthland’s band. Remember the colored hands we had from making all the flowers? It seems like nothing was start- ed until a few days before the prom; then we worked like mad. Three of the girls surely had a mess dying all the cheese cloth. After we had all the rolls of crepe paper up, someone threw a wet towel through it and ripped it. Also, the wire broke after we had most of the trees up. Jo and Midge didn’t get much sleep the night before the prom. They worked until 12:30 that night and then were here again at 5:30 the next morning. Say, girls, how did you get in at that time of the morning? Kind of hard finding an open window, wasn’t it? By the way, where did some of the boys accidentally cut the trees they were to get from Nagaitis’? In our graduating year at the academy we presented our Senior play entitled “Forever Albert”. We had loads of fun practicing and we had even more fun put- ting it on. Frank seemed to be our class clown. He surely entertained us at Mar- gie’s surprise birthday party. We took a trip to Indianapolis this year to see the state legislature. Then this spring, the Jr. and Sr. classes went to southern Indiana. This brings a close to some of the events and small incidents that took place in our twelve years of school. We hope you find these interesting and as funny as we found most of them. Class of “53”