Home Town Proud!!!
While I am always proud of our little community and the things we can accomplish and the lifestyle we maintain, there are just moments when proud (not the arrogant, sinful kind of proud, but the kind that denotes great respect) is taken to a new level.
This happened today when our girl's basketball team won the first round of the State Class D-1 playoffs. Hard work and much effort went into their win, and we applaud them for their teamwork and sportsmanship. You make us proud, Lady Knights!
Since my kids graduated from high school, the last one moving on about 12 years ago, we have had a distant interest in school. Our lives kind of moved on to couples' interests, and while we keep track of what is happening at our local school, we don't get over there much. But when things like this bring attention to the school, I always have to think back through the years and realize how much things have changed. I actually wrote a piece for the local paper about this maybe 15 years ago, but I can't find it now, and I don't have time to sift through that many years of Springview Herald's to find it, so I will try to recreate it from memory. And, of course, it would be an outdated story anyway since so much has changed in the past few years.
The first big change I always notice every fall is the number of students. I graduated in 1971 from good ol' KPHS in a class of 24, which was about average for the years I attended. This gave us a total student population of approximately 100 students each year. I am not sure what the total school population is now, but I'm pretty sure my graduating class outnumbers the entire school of today. I know it makes things hard as far as fielding a sports team or putting together different organizations within the school, but I am glad the school is still open. I actually breathed a big sigh of relief as my last child graduated that I was able to graduate all four of my kids from the same school Mike and I graduated from, as well as several of our parents. But alas, it seems this will be the last generation of McCoy family members to graduate from here as none of my grandchildren will be attending or graduating from KPCS.
And this brings me to another change: We were known as KPHS, Keya Paha County High School. This differentiated us from all the elementary schools spread thoughout the county. Now we are KPCS, Keya Paha County Schools, which includes the two elementary schools still holding classes within our borders.
Another big change is in sports. Boys played 11-man football each fall. During the winter sports season, the girls played volleyball and the boys played basketball. As spring approached the boys began their sports season in track. You will notice the lack of sports opportunities for girls...and most of us didn't care that much. I'm sure there are girls who would have taken part in many of those sports, but since it wasn't available, we were content with things as they were. It seems like girls' track was first to arrive with basketball making its appearance sometime later. At that point, they changed volleyball to a fall sport so that both boys and girls could play basketball in the same season, although it almost seems there was a time when the girls played basketball in the fall, but I may be wrong about that. By this time I didn't have kids in school and was busy having babies and milking cows and tending house, etc.
Game day was a big day with everyone wearing team spirit wear. The girls, who were most likely part of the Pep Club, wore their red and black uniforms while the cheerleaders, both the varsity and junior varsity groups, wore their cheerleading outfits. The cheerleaders were responsible for organizing pep rallies and promoting team spirit. The pep club was expected to sit in the student cheering section and follow the lead of the cheerleaders during the game to encourage the players to do their best. That is, unless they were part of the pep band, in which case they sat together and played fight songs to keep up the team and spectator spirit. And who can't still sing "Hail to the Varsity"?
Hail to the Varsity!
Cheer them along the way.
Onward to victory,
May we win again today!
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Cheers for the Varsity!
Long may they reign supreme.
Shout til the echos ring,
For the glory of our team!
Attending out of town games did NOT involve a bus. In fact, our school did not own a bus until several years after my time. Parents took turns loading their cars with students, boys and girls in different cars, and hauling them to games. Many parents followed the team anyway so they might as well take a load of students. Of course, cars were bigger in those days and it was entirely possible to sit 4 high school girls or 3 boys in the back seat while a couple of others occupied the front seat.
The biggest change in sports came about just a few short years ago when the decision was made to coop sports with our former sports rival, Bassett. So somehow, a marriage between the Keya Paha County Indians and the Rock County Tigers created the North Central Knights! Everyone's red and black team wear was either put on mothballs or worn for everyday because it was now replaced by blue and black sports wear. (Not sure what Bassett did with their purple and gold sports wear, but probably about the same thing.) I remember that feelings ran deep concerning this merger, but the fact is that today's win would not have been possible had it not happened.
Sports is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to changes. Life was so much different 50 years ago. Until the second semester of my senior year, in other words, January 1971, girls were required to wear skirts or dresses to school. At that time the student council voted to allow girls to wear pantsuits. This may have been in response to the fact that the mini skirt was making a big showing about that time and the decision was made to promote modesty. And now jeans are the most common wear amongst girls. Boys also had a dress code. No t-shirts, a belt must be worn, no side burns and hair had to be above the collar. I'm not sure when the dress code relaxed but it certainly bears no resemblance to the days of my generation.
And, even though I kicked this off about sports, we did happen to study also. One class that every girl was required to take at least one year of was Home Economics, which I don't believe is even offered now. It was assumed that most women would marry, have a family and keep house, and the school wanted us to be prepared to step into our future roles. We learned to organize a kitchen, a system I still use to this day, plan a meal, shop for said meal and then be able to prepare and serve it with style. We learned basic sewing skills, and each of us was required to make one garment. I realize many of my classmates may not sew anymore, but I'm pretty sure they can all hem a skirt or pants and sew on a button. (I have a grown daughter who brings items home for me to hem and reattach buttons.) Changes in the way we live our lives these days have rendered much of this class obsolete, sadly!
When I was a sophomore, I took a typing class. This was my first introduction to a keyboard, at the age of 16! Computers were not a reality for the average person...they were big monolithic machines that were used by huge corporations to do 1/100th of what a PC can do today. So we learned to type! We had 4 electric typewriters and the rest were "manuals". We took turns throughout the year using the electric typewriters. In this day of computers, you don't realize how important accuracy was because correcting a mistake was tedious and time consuming, involving an item called correction strips. These days most preschoolers understand the keyboard operations better than we did in high school. The fact that it wasn't a required class has caught a few adults lacking in a necessary skill. Mike didn't take a typing class because he didn't plan to be a secretary...and now he needs to type sometimes. He resisted until his work place required that hours be submitted online, and since he felt it necessary to be paid, he also felt it necessary to learn at a later age. He no longer works at that job but still finds it necessary to type words like "Ebay" and "Amazon". He also has a new understanding of the words "cart" and "check out".
Otherwise, we had a lot of the same classes, math, science, English, social studies, foreign language, business, and industrial arts for the boys which was a match to Home Ec for the girls. We also had chorus and band. Speaking of band, we had an awesome marching band. They always marched in the homecoming parade, many times doing some pretty fancy stuff, and also marched at half time of the Homecoming game. A few years after I graduated our marching band took honors in competitions and had the privilege of marching at other schools' events. Possibly the uniforms are still being stored at the school in some forgotten closet.
One big innovation that has helped to keep our school alive is "distance learning". This was made possible through advancements in technology that weren't available in our days. Students get to take classes being given in another school by using interactive technology. I honestly don't understand how it all works, but I know it's a good thing for our local students. I understand that college credits can be achieved in this same way, but I'll let someone else expound on that since it's beyond me.
I guess I'm a bit out of the loop about the social life of our local school but suspect that it isn't as busy as ours was. After most home games one class or an organization would organize a "sock hop". That probably isn't a word that has much meaning to the younger generation, although maybe they do know about it. We played records and danced in our socks in the gym, always with teacher supervision. Then we had the big dances, the Homecoming Dance, the Sweetheart's Ball and, of course, the banquet and prom. Each of the big dances had a live band and lots of crepe paper decorations. We always had, and still have, our homecoming royalty. We also had a sweetheart king and queen. Each class elected a boy and girl to be candidates, and of course, the seniors always won. This always assured each girl of receiving three new dresses each year, one for each of the big dances. (Mine were usually sewed by my mother!)
Another social event I don't see a lot these days is "dragging main". We used to drive up and down main with our friends in the car while we talked and honked at all the other cars doing the same thing. This probably stopped when the price of gas went sky high in the mid 70's. Looking back this seems to have been a waste of time and gas but we felt it was an important social activity at the time. I actually did this during our Q125 celebration when we had "cruise night". Somehow it didn't hold the same thrill driving around with the grandkids!
In the "olden days" many students boarded in town. This means they didn't drive home at night but paid room and board to stay with another family in town. Cars were not as dependable and the roads were not as nice. I don't think anyone does this anymore. Even when our kids were in school, it seemed wise to have them make the drive home every night so we could have time with them. (They would claim it was so they could do chores!)
I could probably go on for many more paragraphs but you get the idea...things have changed! I am pretty sure one day the kids who are now in school will be able to write a story similar to this in whatever forum they have to communicate at that time. And they will say the same thing: Things sure have changed!
This happened today when our girl's basketball team won the first round of the State Class D-1 playoffs. Hard work and much effort went into their win, and we applaud them for their teamwork and sportsmanship. You make us proud, Lady Knights!
Since my kids graduated from high school, the last one moving on about 12 years ago, we have had a distant interest in school. Our lives kind of moved on to couples' interests, and while we keep track of what is happening at our local school, we don't get over there much. But when things like this bring attention to the school, I always have to think back through the years and realize how much things have changed. I actually wrote a piece for the local paper about this maybe 15 years ago, but I can't find it now, and I don't have time to sift through that many years of Springview Herald's to find it, so I will try to recreate it from memory. And, of course, it would be an outdated story anyway since so much has changed in the past few years.
The first big change I always notice every fall is the number of students. I graduated in 1971 from good ol' KPHS in a class of 24, which was about average for the years I attended. This gave us a total student population of approximately 100 students each year. I am not sure what the total school population is now, but I'm pretty sure my graduating class outnumbers the entire school of today. I know it makes things hard as far as fielding a sports team or putting together different organizations within the school, but I am glad the school is still open. I actually breathed a big sigh of relief as my last child graduated that I was able to graduate all four of my kids from the same school Mike and I graduated from, as well as several of our parents. But alas, it seems this will be the last generation of McCoy family members to graduate from here as none of my grandchildren will be attending or graduating from KPCS.
And this brings me to another change: We were known as KPHS, Keya Paha County High School. This differentiated us from all the elementary schools spread thoughout the county. Now we are KPCS, Keya Paha County Schools, which includes the two elementary schools still holding classes within our borders.
Another big change is in sports. Boys played 11-man football each fall. During the winter sports season, the girls played volleyball and the boys played basketball. As spring approached the boys began their sports season in track. You will notice the lack of sports opportunities for girls...and most of us didn't care that much. I'm sure there are girls who would have taken part in many of those sports, but since it wasn't available, we were content with things as they were. It seems like girls' track was first to arrive with basketball making its appearance sometime later. At that point, they changed volleyball to a fall sport so that both boys and girls could play basketball in the same season, although it almost seems there was a time when the girls played basketball in the fall, but I may be wrong about that. By this time I didn't have kids in school and was busy having babies and milking cows and tending house, etc.
Game day was a big day with everyone wearing team spirit wear. The girls, who were most likely part of the Pep Club, wore their red and black uniforms while the cheerleaders, both the varsity and junior varsity groups, wore their cheerleading outfits. The cheerleaders were responsible for organizing pep rallies and promoting team spirit. The pep club was expected to sit in the student cheering section and follow the lead of the cheerleaders during the game to encourage the players to do their best. That is, unless they were part of the pep band, in which case they sat together and played fight songs to keep up the team and spectator spirit. And who can't still sing "Hail to the Varsity"?
Hail to the Varsity!
Cheer them along the way.
Onward to victory,
May we win again today!
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Cheers for the Varsity!
Long may they reign supreme.
Shout til the echos ring,
For the glory of our team!
Attending out of town games did NOT involve a bus. In fact, our school did not own a bus until several years after my time. Parents took turns loading their cars with students, boys and girls in different cars, and hauling them to games. Many parents followed the team anyway so they might as well take a load of students. Of course, cars were bigger in those days and it was entirely possible to sit 4 high school girls or 3 boys in the back seat while a couple of others occupied the front seat.
The biggest change in sports came about just a few short years ago when the decision was made to coop sports with our former sports rival, Bassett. So somehow, a marriage between the Keya Paha County Indians and the Rock County Tigers created the North Central Knights! Everyone's red and black team wear was either put on mothballs or worn for everyday because it was now replaced by blue and black sports wear. (Not sure what Bassett did with their purple and gold sports wear, but probably about the same thing.) I remember that feelings ran deep concerning this merger, but the fact is that today's win would not have been possible had it not happened.
Sports is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to changes. Life was so much different 50 years ago. Until the second semester of my senior year, in other words, January 1971, girls were required to wear skirts or dresses to school. At that time the student council voted to allow girls to wear pantsuits. This may have been in response to the fact that the mini skirt was making a big showing about that time and the decision was made to promote modesty. And now jeans are the most common wear amongst girls. Boys also had a dress code. No t-shirts, a belt must be worn, no side burns and hair had to be above the collar. I'm not sure when the dress code relaxed but it certainly bears no resemblance to the days of my generation.
And, even though I kicked this off about sports, we did happen to study also. One class that every girl was required to take at least one year of was Home Economics, which I don't believe is even offered now. It was assumed that most women would marry, have a family and keep house, and the school wanted us to be prepared to step into our future roles. We learned to organize a kitchen, a system I still use to this day, plan a meal, shop for said meal and then be able to prepare and serve it with style. We learned basic sewing skills, and each of us was required to make one garment. I realize many of my classmates may not sew anymore, but I'm pretty sure they can all hem a skirt or pants and sew on a button. (I have a grown daughter who brings items home for me to hem and reattach buttons.) Changes in the way we live our lives these days have rendered much of this class obsolete, sadly!
When I was a sophomore, I took a typing class. This was my first introduction to a keyboard, at the age of 16! Computers were not a reality for the average person...they were big monolithic machines that were used by huge corporations to do 1/100th of what a PC can do today. So we learned to type! We had 4 electric typewriters and the rest were "manuals". We took turns throughout the year using the electric typewriters. In this day of computers, you don't realize how important accuracy was because correcting a mistake was tedious and time consuming, involving an item called correction strips. These days most preschoolers understand the keyboard operations better than we did in high school. The fact that it wasn't a required class has caught a few adults lacking in a necessary skill. Mike didn't take a typing class because he didn't plan to be a secretary...and now he needs to type sometimes. He resisted until his work place required that hours be submitted online, and since he felt it necessary to be paid, he also felt it necessary to learn at a later age. He no longer works at that job but still finds it necessary to type words like "Ebay" and "Amazon". He also has a new understanding of the words "cart" and "check out".
Otherwise, we had a lot of the same classes, math, science, English, social studies, foreign language, business, and industrial arts for the boys which was a match to Home Ec for the girls. We also had chorus and band. Speaking of band, we had an awesome marching band. They always marched in the homecoming parade, many times doing some pretty fancy stuff, and also marched at half time of the Homecoming game. A few years after I graduated our marching band took honors in competitions and had the privilege of marching at other schools' events. Possibly the uniforms are still being stored at the school in some forgotten closet.
One big innovation that has helped to keep our school alive is "distance learning". This was made possible through advancements in technology that weren't available in our days. Students get to take classes being given in another school by using interactive technology. I honestly don't understand how it all works, but I know it's a good thing for our local students. I understand that college credits can be achieved in this same way, but I'll let someone else expound on that since it's beyond me.
I guess I'm a bit out of the loop about the social life of our local school but suspect that it isn't as busy as ours was. After most home games one class or an organization would organize a "sock hop". That probably isn't a word that has much meaning to the younger generation, although maybe they do know about it. We played records and danced in our socks in the gym, always with teacher supervision. Then we had the big dances, the Homecoming Dance, the Sweetheart's Ball and, of course, the banquet and prom. Each of the big dances had a live band and lots of crepe paper decorations. We always had, and still have, our homecoming royalty. We also had a sweetheart king and queen. Each class elected a boy and girl to be candidates, and of course, the seniors always won. This always assured each girl of receiving three new dresses each year, one for each of the big dances. (Mine were usually sewed by my mother!)
Another social event I don't see a lot these days is "dragging main". We used to drive up and down main with our friends in the car while we talked and honked at all the other cars doing the same thing. This probably stopped when the price of gas went sky high in the mid 70's. Looking back this seems to have been a waste of time and gas but we felt it was an important social activity at the time. I actually did this during our Q125 celebration when we had "cruise night". Somehow it didn't hold the same thrill driving around with the grandkids!
In the "olden days" many students boarded in town. This means they didn't drive home at night but paid room and board to stay with another family in town. Cars were not as dependable and the roads were not as nice. I don't think anyone does this anymore. Even when our kids were in school, it seemed wise to have them make the drive home every night so we could have time with them. (They would claim it was so they could do chores!)
I could probably go on for many more paragraphs but you get the idea...things have changed! I am pretty sure one day the kids who are now in school will be able to write a story similar to this in whatever forum they have to communicate at that time. And they will say the same thing: Things sure have changed!
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