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

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night on the old home place....and still be back in time for Mondays' morning session. They haven't any children but I heard Gene tell Lonnie they'd be glad to take the new nephew back with them. Gene gave me Cls.ra's address, when I phoned h:Lm. She was way out in Neb., so I had to write her....and I didn't know, even the morning of the gathering, whether she would be there or not. But in' she came...driving her own car too....a '7l4 Chevrolet. She didn't look a day, well, not much more than a day..older than when we graduated. And she was wearing a diamond big enough to put your eyes out. She's been teaching school in a smalltown out there for 12 years now....and the Banloer finally got up nerve enough to ask her. She says, she waited 12 years for him to ask her....now he can wait 12 months while she gets her hope chest completed. The whole class is invited to the wedding too...so maybe we'll meet again. John teaches music at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon...and he also sings every Wednesday night over WHT - TV. Nancy and I alwayssit spellbound by our TV set that night. This three dimension, color TV is so real that it's almost like he is here in the room with us... but when we unconsciously speak to him, he never answers...except to smile and sing another song. He's s busy man but he too took t:Lme to come. Rls wife teaches history at the college. They have an eight year old son and a five year old daughter, but they didn't have the children along. 'We needed a little relaxation away from those two , John said, five and eight, and already using a college vocabulary...and the questions they can askl' Allen,... well, it took some time to locate him. Ney that his fame :Lsn't known all over these parts and far beyond. But you never imow where he is going to be. It's been that way ever since he invented that contraption that changes the channel one TV set by one's thought waves. Tm device works wonderfully well when there is only one person in the room... but can be e terrible headache when there are several. He did manage to get here in time for dinner... landing :Ln his helicopter almost in n-out of the door. Allen is still s:Lngle...never had t:Lme .to do any cou:hting...too busy with his inventions...but now that he's always 'popping up in the news...he's getting proposals every day. While we were eating I heard Gene's voice: 'Say Allen, ca.n't you figure out some other way to control those darn things? Priss and I are always at odds about the program that we are going to listen to. Our brain waves clash when we get as ..close to the set as we can...then all we get is static. Sure I can settle that, said Allen. 'Just buy another set and be sure to put them in different rooms . 'Then you can use your brain power on one and she can use hers on the other. The only thing iss its too bad to waste that much brain power ln one evening . It did prove to be e nice get-together. When we turned out the lights that night Nancy turned to me and sad.d: You know, I'm glad I turned down that chance of becoming a model... it's much more fun on Sunday afternoons to take my easel and paint the beautiful scenery around here ...but tomorrow I am going to start a new picture. In fact, I'm going to paint two of them. I might even give one of them to Clara as a wedding present. The first one will be like our class back in l95S...a 'mmch of happy eager ld.ds...e.nd the other one like we are today... men and women typical of all America...twenty years older and maybe a little less cock-sure but wiser and more contented. I yawned. Yep, those would be some pictures! Say, Nancy, I just happened to think... Junior meant it when he said he was going to make the army his career so tht he could retire :Ln twenty years Qlucky dogl but he must have changed his mind about having only one date in a year....x-emember ???? Back in the good old days even a cute little 'trick' like Margo could not tempt him to have more than me. But surely that gorgeous red-head didn't marry him after only one date. If he didn't change his mind...he must have started courting her a long t:Lme ago. I guess she didn't think that remark was funny. Anyway all she said was: Go0d night, Jim. X U xy, Y? bf I . I nowe ' I f . a l surprse zlxf f 'W' I