From Billie Joan Clingman

A friend and I went around to the lower grades after lunch or recess (as we used to do) asking if anyone had found a black cat with purple ears and polka dot tail. OF COURSE, there was a teacher in that room and we got in big trouble.

I remember too when some of the boys went to Mr. Farmer and asked if I could play on their softball team! I was humiliated!!!!!!!!!! Of course, that was 1946 and he could not believe what he was hearing--------got a little huffy.

Do you remember Whistle Stop? Peggy Morgan and I went EVERY time. I think I was asked to dance maybe two or three times. To this day I can't recall why I kept going.

I can still recite the Preamble word for word---------whereas I cannot recall where I put my car keys. I thought the WEEKLY READER was just a bunch of horrible junk, and I always got a lump in my throat when we sang The Star Spangled Banner.

I remember thinking that playing Spin the Bottle was very wicked and one time I walked the aisles of the Vogue FOUR times! Such good kids! Greathouse was such a good time in my life. I think our teachers cared about us and made a real effort to give us as good a start as they could. Here's to them all----------

---Billie Clingman Hollenbeck - billie109@aol.com 
Click Here for Billie Beyond 1947

From Jeanne Bandt

Here are some of my reminiscences of the eight years I attended Greathouse School.

I remember walking to the new Greathouse on Grandview from the old Greathouse on Shelbyville Road.

My favorite Teachers were Mrs. Simms and Mrs. Bennett.

One time we were on the stage singing "We Gather Together To Ask The Lord's Blessing and Irvin Loeser was behind me singing "We Gather Together To See A Big Feather". I couldn't keep from laughing and the Teacher kept telling me to be serious.

I remember during the War buying stamps to fill up a book in order to get a $25. War Bond. My Dad, Alvin J. Bandt, would bring the stamps to the School every Tuesday.

I have many more memories of the good times we had at Greathouse and I am looking forward to the Class Reunion.

---Jeanne Bandt Beard - gbeard001@msn.com  Click HERE for Jeanne Beyond 1947

From Mildred Carter

I remember:   
    
The Drum and Bugle Corps. I wanted to be in it, so my parents presented me with a bugle. BUT I never learned to play it and would march around with the rest of the Corps pretending to blow it.

Doris Haeberlin and Ann Bowen always beating me in the Spelling Bee. Ralph Huffsey always getting sick when the nurse came.

Peanut butter buns for lunch. But they were best if you put a Hershey bar on top of the peanut butter and sat on it to mash and melt the ingredients together.

Don Thomas accidentally jabbing me with a pencil and the lead breaking off and getting stuck in my shin (it is still there). Having a crush on John Byington and getting a D (my only D ever!) in conduct because I talked too much. Mr. Farmer told my mother that I would get straight A's if I would keep my mouth shut!

Savings stamps, collecting tin foil, gas rationing. Whistle Stop. The neighborhood celebration when World War II was over.

Going to the Vogue for double features on Friday night, Saturday AND Sunday afternoon. Remember the serials and cartoons on Saturday afternoon? Riding to Big Rock on our bikes. Walking to and from St. Matthews, no matter what time of the day or night it was and being safe when we did it.

Confession: Using lipstick, someone wrote something "bad" about Miss Ruebelt on the stall walls in the girls' bathroom. I never had her as a teacher but, after all these years, I confess that I was the one with the lipstick! I do not even remember what I wrote. I had never done anything like that before and have never done anything like it since.

---Mildred Carter Farmer - kymillie@insightbb.com  
Click Here for Mildred Beyond 1947

From Ronald Smith

During the summers of 1947-1948, I played softball on the Greathouse-St. Matthews YMCA team at Greathouse softball field. Many of our classmates always played on my team. I played 2nd base.

After the games, I would visit with James at the rear of the school and talk about life, school, etc. James had a 22 rifle and would shoot the rats running around the dumpsters.

My first "true love" was Barbara Holzaphel. She worked as a waitress at the old Pryor's Fried Chicken at Hubbard's Lane and Shelbyville Rd. We "dated" about 3 months. I was in the Army overseas in Japan in Sept 53- April 55 when Doris Haeberlin-Schneider sent me a newspaper clipping of Barbara's passing.

I was a Regular every week guest at the old "Whistle Stop" teen club at Greathouse. Good times and Fun, many years till they closed the club.

---Ronald Smith - Click Here for Ronnie Beyond 1947

From Bill Young            Greathouse School Flashbacks

My memories of Greathouse School are a bit foggy but I remember being the Lieutenant on the school patrol in the eighth grade. My duties were to check all of the crossings that served Greathouse. My crossing was at Grandview Avenue and Breckinridge Lane. The County Patrolman was Marvin Weakley. My wife, Ella Mae, reminds me often that having lived on Nanz Avenue, she crossed at this intersection and she remembers the "cute" guy that assisted her in crossing this busy highway. How was I to know that later in life, our paths again crossed, and we would fall in love and marry many years later.

The other remembrance was that my mother was a substitute teacher in the Jefferson County schools. My worst day at Greathouse was when I had her for one of my classes and many of the kids thought that I was receiving special treatment. This was certainly not the case; I spent an embarrassing and long day in her class.

---Bill Young - wyoung3010@netzero.net  Click Here for Bill Beyond 1947

From Janette Tankersley

I have many happy memories of Greathouse. I came there from I. N. Bloom in the Highlands in the 3rd grade and continued until Graduation in 8th grade.

It was my job to stop by the school office, pick up the bank deposit, and take it to the bank in St. Matthews. That would not happen in this day and time. But 1947 was another lifetime ago.

I remember walking to and from school from Bonner Ave., where I lived. There was a bus that turned around at Browns Lane.

I walked from home to the Vogue Theater and sometimes with Thelma Dawson. We would stop someplace between Plehn's Bakery and the Vogue and get a large dill pickle, either on the way or on the way back, and eat it as we walked. I'll bet we smelled good.

I sometimes was seated in front of Don Baker or Don France-both of them at one time or another dipped my pig tail or pony tai; in ink.

I remember the Potato Festival. I was in the drum and bugle corps. I blew a bugle. For the festival we were dressed in a turquoise cape with yellow lining. We wore tall hats with a bill on them, with crepe paper streamers coming out of the top.

I sang with a high school band that played for the teenage club at Greathouse and also at Highland Jr. High. One of the teenage clubs was called Whistle Stop and the other was Blue Jean heaven. I think Whistle Stop was at Greathouse.

Click HERE for Janette Beyond 1947

From Milam Beasley              A long list of memories:

The boys in our class not being given graduation certificates on the date of graduation, due to our taking spoons out of the lunch room, making bracelets out of them, and walking thru the halls the last day of school, chanting in unison "L-A-V-A, L-A-V-A"

Bob Bowers wearing a dress to school to counteract the girls being able to wear blue jeans on a certain day.

Listening to the World Series in the schoolroom; playing marbles in the schoolyard before school and at recess. Our 8th grade play "10% Tommy"

When we boys were in the 7th grade, running from the 8th grade boys that were attempting to take our pants off and give us "red bellies."

Eddie Kaiser, our basketball coach.

Spin the bottle at some of our parties and Wilbur Wood having a face full of lipstick (the lucky guy).

The Nutcrackers Suite and how Mrs. Bowen tried to drum it into our heads.

God Bless.

---Milam Beasley - beasnest@earthlink.net   
Click Here for Milam Beyond 1947

From Ann Cummings

I remember our Friday plays we used to stage in front of the whole room in Mrs. Davis' 5th grade. I remember the SLAM books...how I hated them. I remember Ann Bowen being so beautiful. I still have a picture that was put up over the blackboard. I remember how sad graduation was.

I remember how my dad used to make everyone at Whistle Stop dance so he could see light between the boy and girl...how military can you get. I also remember my Dad planning my 13th birthday party in Cherokee Park and what fun we all had. I remember taking my socks off on the way to school because nobody but me wore them…and my Dad found out.

I remember the girls' basketball games playing boys' rules and how shocked I was when I got to high school and had to learn girls' rules. We won the county championship in the Greathouse gym. I remember our football team and Gordon Thompson, the football hero I remember the wooden floors in the hall and how much noise they made and I remember the acting bars on the playground... I remember fire drills and Bill Young in his School Safety belt. Does anyone else remember being sent out into the hall for misbehaving?

I remember Spin the Bottle…scared me to death and I remember riding bikes to get ice cream with Barbara Holzapfel. That's enough. I may cry.

---Ann Cummings - makc98@hotmail.com  Click HERE for Ann Beyond 1947

From Henry May

1. First a memory of Ralph Huffsey, who seems to have been the main organizer of the reunion activities and who, therefore, deserves to be roasted lightly. When I played on the softball team, Ralph played center field. He was apparently put in that position because he had an outstanding arm and could throw the ball as far as he wanted to, which was important when a ball was hit to deep center. The coach must have praised his ability to get the ball back from deep in the outfield. Ralph may have made many successful plays, but I don't remember any of those. However, I do recall that, on more than one occasion, there would be a play at home base and Ralph would wind up that exceptional arm of his and we would all watch for a close play at home ..... while the ball sailed 10 feet over the backstop.

2. Before he became principal, Mr. Farmer taught regular classes, and I wound up in one or two of them, or perhaps he was my homeroom teacher for a while. I don't remember anything that he taught us, but I clearly remember that, whenever he said something that he thought was the least bit funny, or if somebody laughed, he would remark, "I popped a corny!" I remember thinking at the time that that kind of humor was more appropriate for second or third graders, and here he was addressing a group of young adults on the verge of full man/woman-hood.

3. And who could forget those memorable surveys, which seemed to circulate twice a week at times, to measure the consensus of the class as to whom had the best body parts? I never knew who started the lists, but every so often I was handed one with names of classmates and body parts ..... eyes, teeth, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc. etc. and checked off my opinions of the day and passed it on to the next person on the list. I don't remember who it was, but one of the girls once brought me the latest list to fill out, and I observed that a category had been left out; the "rear end". The girl didn't understand, or at least feigned not to, and I had to point to the body part I meant. She got a disgusted look on her face, turned around, and marched off.

I am sure that surveys of this kind would be deeply frowned on in this day and age, although in my defense tushes seem to have come into their own as an object of admiration.

4. I remember learning that Don France had a weak stomach and was very susceptible to suggestions. Of course, I and several other boys would take full advantage of his weakness once we found out about it. When we saw him eating spaghetti (or anything long and slender), we would ask if he was eating worms. That's all it took; he would put down his fork, and as I remember, would go without eating the rest of his lunch. Later, I found that all I had to do was look at his plate, then at him, and that was all it took. I think Donnie spent a lot of hungry afternoons at school. But I recall clearly that he was a "good sport about it all"; he never complained or showed any anger.

----Henry May - hankster@flash.net    Click Here for "Hank" Beyond 1947

From Martha Willis

Memories of Greathouse: I have all of my report cards from the first grade through the eighth. The first grading period of the first grade I got a C in Citizenship for "her inability to take care of her things, a messy desk, and her lack of good sportsmanship when playing with a group." I must have been a little brat! That was the last C I had until the eighth grade. Then things really went downhill! Out of six grading periods, I got two D's in Conduct, one C in Citizenship, and two C's in Application. The third six weeks I received a D in English-"due to her constant talking in Class." I must have really had a great time that year!

Patsy Gill Kirn and I remember taking care of the school store. I don't know if that was every morning or just once a week or so. Also, I remember we spent several weeks it seems in the hall doing a Thanksgiving scene on a blackboard. Since I am artistically challenged, I think about all I did was hand Patsy the chalk!

I remember "slam books" - little spiral notepads that we passed around the room. We would put our name on it, then pass it around for everyone to write comments in. I always feared that someone would write something awful about me; however, if anyone did, I don't remember it.

I also have a copy of "The Tantrum," one of the eighth grade plays we did. During rehearsals for the play I remember going behind the curtain at the back of the stage during the after lunch recess and giggling and talking. There was a couch back there and maybe some other pieces of furniture. I don't remember who was present or if this went on for several days, but I do remember Mrs. Osborne (or one of the teachers) coming back there and telling us that we couldn't socialize there. We had to go outside.

--Martha Willis Scott - m.scott@insightbb.com  
Click Here for Martha Beyond 1947

From Bill Voit

Special memories - Ralph getting sick or passing out when the shots were near and Dickie Kessler and Jim Profitt running Gordon Thompson's pants up the flagpole.

" Big Secret" -Mrs. Rose, 6th grade teacher, I believe, was my aunt - my mother's sister. She lived on Brown Ave. - the other side of Shelbyville Rd. from Brown's Lane and the "old Greathouse School" was behind her old house. She pointed that out several times when we visited.

--Bill Voit - billvoit@prodigy.net     Click Here for Bill Beyond 1947

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