Friday, February 06, 2009
Friday- Cathy And Joe
A fond memory-
Joe R. (Class of '62?) was dating Cathy W.
Farm boy Joe was tough as nails and strong as Hercules. Nobody messed with Joe.
The whole school congregated in the gymnasium for one of those pre-game "school spirit" meetings. When the speechifyin' was done, someone played a few records for those wanting to dance. Mostly gals danced with gals. The sound of Toni Fisher's "The Big Hurt" filled the gym. Joe took Cathy by the hand, led her to the dance floor, and they proceeded to cha-cha. He smiled. She smiled.
And from that point on I knew even REAL MEN men could get out on the dance floor.
Thanks Joe.
I almost missed Friday this week. Would you have missed it if I had missed it?
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17 comments:
I thought maybe you took a Friday off! This reminded me of "Sock Hops". Weren't they fun? I'm not sure if I ever saw a guy dance at a sock hop, but they sure liked sitting around watching the girls dance.
Hey, I think I know who Joe R. was...if it's who I'm thinking of, he was Ode's nephew.
That's the guy, Cissy. A class act.
Married a gal from the class of '65.
Brother of Cissy Apple here, and CG grad. of “73” but just barely. As a frequent guest of the office of Vandy I can attest to the fact that he could scream and holler at you. He could flat lay the wood paddle to your butt and you could still love and respect the guy. I remember one day in my senior year at the Christmas party. It was my second visit to see ol Vandy in a single day! The first visit was for fighting, the second visit was for being with the group of guys that acted like a bunch of jackasses during the Christmas celebration, when we rolled a quart sized beer bottle across the gym floor and Mrs. Meeks almost tripped over it during one of the choir’s song, I remember 6 or 7 of us guys crowded in Vandy’s office after the little incident and I’m thinking “ damn, my second trip here in one day, dead man walking!” Vandy started out speaking slow and very calm, this was just a mere ploy by the old guy. He was playing good principal bad principal. I can hardly remember what happened yesterday, but I remember that ass chewing that happened over 35 years ago like it was yesterday. “Oppp you boys were acing like a bunch of jackasses in there,” (still calm and sitting but you could tell Mount Saint Helen’s was getting ready to erupt, face getting redder and redder and the pitch of the voice starting to peak.) “I know you boys were just trying to have a little fun but,” (O God, here it comes! Face now the color of molten lava, he’s moving to a standing position behind his desk and slams both hands down on his desk as us 6 or 7 jackasses jump to the ceiling) “IT’S NOT MY JOB TO PICK UP BEER BOTTLES !!!, LAST NIGHT AFTER YOU BOYS LEFT, THERE WERE BEER BOTTLES ALL OVER THE PARKING LOT!!!” (crap! He’s bringing up what happened last night? What’s the statute of limitations on being a jackass, why is he stirring up crap that happened so long ago, after all we were just blowing off a little steam, we had done our part by helping to decorate the gym and the Christmas tree and this is the thanks we get?) “I KNEW YOU BOYS WERE THE ONES THAT HUNG BEER BOTTLES ON THE CHRISTMAS TREE AND I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THAT, BUT I HAD TO GO OUT IN THE PARKING LOT AND PICK UP ALL YOUR BEER BOTTLES. IF YOU WANT TO ACT LIKE A BUNCH OF JACKASSES THEN GO TO THE VALLEY AND ACT LIKE A BUNCH OF JACKASSES” (dang, there he goes again talking about the Valley, I live in the valley, hell it ain’t that bad!)
The rest of the “conversation” is pretty much a blur, I just remember us tough guys sitting there stone silent, eyes big and silver dollars taking our verbal lashing without making so much as a peep. Then another 3 whack with the paddle, 6 for me that day and now my rear ends about the same color as Vandy’s face. We left the office in silence, the cocky grins now wiped cleanly off or faces knowing we all got exactly what we deserved. Whenever I think about that day I still grin, just not a cocky grin. Thanks Vandy, lesson learned.
Mark Riley class of “73”
Crown: Why am I not surprised? I had it so easy since you had paved the way for me four years earlier. Vandy never even knew I existed and if there was some reason I did see him, his only response was, "You're related to Riley?" None of the teachers believed we could be related. Come to think of it, maybe I WAS adopted.
Why do you think I never told anyone that Mark was my brother? You know the closest contact I had with Mr. Vandermeer was when I was waiting in line in the foyer to get my photo taken. The band was upstairs in the band room playing a waltz. Mr. V. came out of his office, grabbed my hand, and waltzed me around the foyer!
My face in the photo was beet red from the embarrassment of the surprise dance!
Oh, and I also went to the Vandermeers two years in a row to type up their Christmas card envelopes. They paid me darned good money too.
At our ten-year class reunion, I was already well on my way to inebriation when I went up to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Vandermeer. I was way silly by then. And after I sobered up, I can remember going up to Mr. Vandermeer, who was sitting with Mrs. V; and I patted him on top of his sweet bald head and told him, "You're a dear man!"
...and he was.
Crown-
We're kindred spirits, sorta!
Joe R. did graduate in 62, married Elaine T. and now lives in Morgan County.
Greybeard, I just read your shattered glass story, wow, I'm trying to remember if Vandy's desk had a glass top when he did the slamming of the hands in 73, maybe after your deal he never replaced it, seems to me if it would have been glass in 73 it would have shattered again. That was a cool story, got a good laugh out of that, thanks, I wonder how many other times he did that?
Crown
Lots of very 'good' stories about Vandy. He played that Good Guy/Bad Guy well, Didn't he? C&C, Great Story. Great to hear that he was loved and respected by most. Rita and Cissy, Sock Hops after the game were the place to be for us. A little girl watching and some up close and personal slow dancing. I made a fool of myself one time on the 'dance floor' during a 'fast' song- that was enough for me (and others)....Our class had its share of good dancers, though. Both male and female. I was just not one of them!
I remember Elaine! Gosh, that's going back quite a long time.
I couldn't dance a lick, and didn't care.
I found if I was on the dance floor during the up-tempo tunes, grabbing the nearest cutie for the slow ones was easy.
What surprised me was the number of gals from our opponent schools that would show up at these events...
(Exotic!)
Find someone you like?
Walking the oval above the seats...
Seeing and being seen...
Wonderful.
What I'd give for the chance to go back and do that again, just one night.
I just found Robin P. on facebook. She still looks as good as she ever did. They are back living on Paddock Road, I suppose in Cotterman's old place. Cissy, you'll need to add her as a friend. Crown: You need to get on facebook. It's starting to get overrun with old people like us, er I mean you.
I'm surprised that there are not more of '65 class on facebook. I've got a family site that I pay for but am thinking about dropping because most of my family now is on facebook.
I've found old friends from California and Texas. Great site to get re connected.
Hope everyone had a great week end, I know I did just seeing all this snow melt.
Carol
Carol: We have used myfamily.com for years now to keep up with all the family events. That way no one is left out or forgotten in the mayhem. We're all really close and myfamily.com has kept us that way as we add generations to our family.
Facebook is entirely new to me and I figured it was just for kids, it's really nice to find old friends. Although we'd probably never just use facebook since you never know what kind of story or picture or whatever we have on our family site that should most likely not be shared with the public. lol.
It'd be a Mark story if it shouldn't be shared with the public...right? So that alone makes it ok.
Cissy: Kinda goes without saying doesn't it?
Crown told me last night he had a million stories he could add to this page. No doubt most are all of the trouble he was in or caused. Still funny stories though. He re-inacted his beer bottle Christmas story last night. But I think he was more impressed with Greybeard's glasstop shattering moment. Now THAT's a classic.
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