Onarga Township High School - Onarquois Yearbook (Onarga, IL)

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As we took leave of the El Swanko, we pulled onto the highway, and a shrill blast of an airhorn revealed to us in the rear view mirror the smiling face of Shirley Tilstra. Shirley was at the wheel of the BigMacKelleher, which was slated to be retired with her father, but which is back on the road due to Shirley’s driving desire to be a tailgater. As we proceeded down the main stem of Onarga, the soft spring breezes bore faint strains of music. A figure approaching in the distance caught our eye, and the question arose, “Who’s that coming?” And John replied, “That’s the Man With the Banjo.” Closer observation revealed Frog Wilson with a tattered old 5-stringer and closely behind tagged one Wendell Bewsey with a fiddle. Between the two, they were emitting melodious strains that were second only to a symphony at Carnegie Hall. While touring the fertile country side around Onarga our heads were turned by a white picket fence stretched as far as the eyecould see, and which John informed me enclosed the vast acreage of the Rusty Pool estate. The only way to describe Rusty’s success is to say that he is a real cool Pool. The Pool estate is bordered on the west by the plush pasture lands of Ann Smith, the cattle-baroness. Ann is our former classmate Ann Snow. Annie still has Morris around to do the milking. She said she was talking to Ann Wasmer Fisher over the back fence on the whereabouts of her husband, Larry, who skipped out on his farm duties for a day with the old’ rod and reel. Trails of smoke in the sky caught our eye and John told me that Florence Townsend is coining a small mint as a sky writer, and is realizing her secret ambition, to herd an F-80 across the wild blue yonder. Her flying mechanic, Jasper Bailey, is still just tinkering around. John went on to tell us about our old classmates, Una and Dorothea. Una is now the wife of Rev. Sonny Shepherd, and Una, Dorothea, and Sonny are missionaries in darkest Africa. The girls find that the natives are very good pupils, and the reason is the fact that they can’t understand what they are listening to. Mickey Harding, mow the wife of Paul Bailey, is in the Nursery business. She and four of her boys grow trees, while Paul and their other four boys plant them. John tells us that Beverly Kietzman is now traveling from army camp to army camp with husband. General Bob Zirkle, who is conducting a nation wide survey on “wat the soldiers are saying”. Bev. takes the quotations down in shorthand. We are informed that Ruth Egley is now President of the Onarga State Bank where she sits at her desk, thumbs through $100 bills and whistles “The Wearing of the Green”. Roberta Ford, so the story goes, is still up in the chemistry lab. trying to perfect a hydrogen bomb that will kill mosquitoes only. As we drove past SandraLathrop’s wesawHerb Becker’s car out front, and John told me that Herb is still trying to take Sandy away from it all”. But Sandy still doesn’t want to go. Just up the street we came to the Military School, and the fact that Alice Jone’s car was parked there prompted John to tell me that Alice is teaching Religious Education there. Teaching is not one of Alice’s major accomplishments, but the Military School is. Jot in completed his cycle of fond memories when he told me that, “Fifi” Joan Haerr, married an oil tycoon, and decided that she wouldn’t have to share it all with him, so she pushed him in an oil well and put herself in full control. Now she drives slowly around through the teeming throng of common working people in her big Cadillac with a loudspeaker on top, shouting You, fools, you I With John back in Shepherd’s Fold, Wilfred and I headed back for Kankakee with joy in our hearts for all the home town kids made good. Bye, for now. Your old buddy, Mary Lou

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