Morley Consolidated High School - Tigers Yearbook (Morley, IA)

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Snninrllrnphntn We had just finished dinner. Nancy was picking up the dishes, so I thought I'd lie down long enough to catch a few winks before I went out :l.n the hot sun agein....during haying a guy feels like flapping whenever he can. But before I reached the couch, there was Nancy, with a twinhe in her eye, holding out to me an impressive loolcmg envelope. It's from Junior Gerdes, she said, and there's a Master Sgt. in front of his name. I knew if I gave it to you before dinner, everything would be cold before you got around to eat. I smiled back. She had gotten to know me and nv habits pretty well these past 18 years, of course, I knew hers too, but I wouldn't dare mention the fact. Well , she asked, aren't you going to open it? Maybe I Should , I replied, as I stared to tear the envelope open. But I was still looking at the impressive rank in front of Juniors' name, and my thoughts were wandering way back to 1955, the year we gaduated from Morley High. There were nine of us.....ell boys but two.....Nancy who I married after I got out of the ABmy....andGClara Pinllard, who enrolled at Iowa State Teachers right after graduation. Looking back, I rember it now: none of us boys could make very definite plans for the future...thee was still a threat of an all out war....and we knew that selective service would catch up with us before long. Factories and othee places of employment were relectant to hire those just out of High School, because they knew they would no more than get trained until we'd be leaving for the service. Sometimes down in the locker room we'd have bull sessions ....a.nd dicuss the We were about a hundred percent in agreement that the soon we got it over with the better. Lbnnio and I both wanted to get it over with inthe fewest years possib1e....si'ter all, we did have definate plans.....that's wiv we took the Army. Gene wanted college..., andPrisc:Llls wasn't through school, so he thought a couple of years at Ames, before tm Service would suit his purpose better....that way he could take some military training in college and come out a 2nd Louie . So he kept talking Ames. Keith and Allen had been buddies all through high school, so it wasn't too much of s surprise when they talked Navy instead of Army. Lonnie liked the Navy too....but the enlistment period was too long for him. John always said he wanted to be a singer.....so he'd shrug his shoulders and jolclngly say, that maybe they'd let him sing in an Air Corps' Chorus someplace. We all knew we had to give a few years of our youth to 'Uncle Sam' and of course we were Booall willing to do so....for then in later life if we decided to buy a chunck of land, or a business....we would know that we as Americans had earned the right to buy it, because we had first proved that we were willing 'to defend it. Yes, even then, we had a clear picture of what it means to be a good America.n....but it was Junior who re ally dropped the bomb shell when he said he intended to make a career of the Arnw. And he had, for here after 20 years he must still be in uniform. I guess I must have looked a little odd, because Nancy said: Why don't you get that silly grin off your face and open it? We haven't heard anything of Junior for at least 10 years. And.... she added Uplease, read it aloud. Dear Jim ....It started..... I see by the Anamose paper you are still around Morley . Farming, eh? I've been a subscriber to the local paper ever since I entered the service. It 's the best way' I know to keep up with the home town news. But in the past years yours' and Nancys' names are about the only ones out of our graduation class that I ever see mentioned. Where is the rest of our gang ? I'm getting out of service next month, and I just wondered if maybe we might be able to get together someplace. I'm retiring. I paused and looked at Nancy. F.etLring , I said , already? Well, it has been 2Oyears , Nancy sighed. I said that it sure didn't seem that long ago since one and then the other of us enlisted. Then, as I was think- ing how fast the time had flown, I recalled somthing Junior had said just before we graduated: 1'm going to make a career out of the Arny....where else can you retire after 20 years on a good pension? The rest of us said: Ba1oney at the ti.me...but now I wondered. I started to read again: I'm retireing. You see I'vs saved a nice little goose egg' and I think I'll build me a little chicken ranch out here on the west coe.st...this California weather has really got me. But, before I start anything as important as that, I'm coming back to Iowa. I'll be droppingin about five weeks from Sun., if that's 0.K.. Will you see what you can do about rounding up 'the gang and let me know? Be seeing you....Junior. Do you suppose we can paper the kitchen before then? Nancy asked. Sure....sure....anything nooo on I mused. Getting the gang together was more of a chore than I figured. Finding Lonnie was sa y he and Carol and their three boys were back, from their farm in Ill., last year when Carol's class gathered for a picnic....and afterwards they had called on us. Their boys Ind nmde quite an impression on our Suzie....she's just at the boycrazy stage. But we really were surprised when Carol walked in carrying another little son in her arms. Lonnie said Carol had wanted a girl, she said that wasn't so, that he was the one that was dissapointed....that he dldn't even look at it for three days. But I noticed they both secretly gloried in the boy. Keith wasn't too hard to find. He's a vetrinarian now. After the Navy he had taken adva- naageof the schooling he could get and he's sure doing fine for himself....a new lavender Ford....a pretty blond doll for a wife, and a three year old the very image of her mom, but with Keiths' beautiful curls. He's practicing up around Waterloo. After a long distance phone call to Des Moines, I located Gene. He's following in his fathers' shoes. After serviee...first a model farmer and then a Representative. He and Priscilla flew in for the occassion, landing in our pasture. That way they could spend the