Sheridan High School back in 1945 had a ton of problems – girls wearing jeans or overalls, boys’ behavior, trashing the library, and kids loving the sound of their own voices – at least if one peruses the pages of the Kats Meow, the Sheridan High School student paper.
The February 28th Kats Meow, the Sheridan student paper, had a whole discussion about the dress girls were wearing. Some girls were wearing dresses still, while other girls were taking to dressing in jeans or overalls. During the World War II years, the material to make clothes was in short supply, meaning more and more women were taking to wearing pants or overalls as the price of clothing skyrocketed. Many people were dirt poor. “We grew up poor, but that was OK,” said Lola (Hibbs) Haley, who was at the Sheridan Alumni Reunion. But the dress battles led to one situation where one boy, interviewed by the Kats Meow, who said that his sister kept borrowing his clothes until they wore out.
Before political opinion polling became popular, the Kats Meow was already conducting its own polling. Their surveys showed that the boys liked it better when girls wore dresses. Some girls wore slacks to show support for the troops; World War II was still going on. Others did so out of rebellion – they felt like they didn’t have to seek boys approval for what they wore. Others found that pants or overalls were comfortable.
The same issue of the Kats Meow surveyed girls about the behavior of boys. Overwhelmingly, the girls rated the boys behavior as either “average” or “below average.” Naturally, the student paper did a writeup with dating etiquette tips for boys picking girls up on a date.
The January 26th issue of the Kats Meow talked about how the library was constantly being trashed. The library itself was a good one for a tiny high school like Sheridan’s – a good variety of books and magazines. The problem was that kids would constantly put books out of order, tear up magazines, interrupt someone who was ahead of them in line (especially if they were procrastinating and frantically trying to get homework done at the last minute), and not returning property, which necessitated searches of the school grounds. Study halls were another problem area that year, especially kids who allegedly loved the sound of their own voice; they would ask for permission to speak about something, and then take the entire period to speak, never considering the fact that there might be others who might have something to say.
The biggest strength that Sheridan Alumni President Janet Gladstone took from the school was its pride. Many student pep clubs back then would cheer when their teams were winning, but Sheridan’s was loud and boisterous win or lose. The year of 1945 was a perfect example; despite a long year for both the boys and girls teams, the student section would be loud and noisy regardless. One night, the school put on a fundraiser against Polio for its game against Guilford; admission was 15 cents for students and 25 cents for adults. There were two basketball games, one volleyball game, and a band concert; Guilford won handily.
The Bearcats came heartbreakingly close against Barnard, then known as the Bombers – they lost 9-6. That game was scoreless in the final quarter. The girls lost 17-14 after being down 10-4 at the half. Other games were lopsided – Sheridan was always one of the smallest schools that competed. They lost to Skidmore 29-8, to Martinsville 42-12, and to Parnell 35-18. Parnell was also known as the Bombers.
Before Wayne Winstead came along in 1960 and led the Bearcats to a district title, Sheridan had a coaching carousel. But for Larry Dowis, it was a blessing in disguise, as he was able to learn something from each of them and teach his son Rob, along with other kids, the fundamentals of sports, as he recounted at the Alumni Reunion this year.
For all the problems and gripes in the Kats Meow, there were a lot of students whose academic achievements were recognized in the pages of the paper. On the Honor Roll listed in the paper for Sheridan were Donna Caldwell, Jack Ray, Elbert Grimit, Joyce Dowis, Lloyd Grimit, Deloris Lynch, Norna Howes, Kathleen Wells, Charles Pratt, Wanda Maudlin, Elnora Hennegin, and Anna McAlister. People making the Honor Roll had to have no grade below an S-.
Honorable Mention students as listed in the January 28th, 1945 Kats Meow were Dean Auten, Carl Swart, Earl Graham, Orren Lester, Carl Parsons, Eleanor Stoner, Russell Findley, Bud Allee, and Madonna Runyon.
Top students were Deloris Lynch, Anna McAlister, and Charles Pratt.
The war was still going on, but the school and community were preparing for victory day. The Christian Church was having a revival, and the speaker gave a talk to the school, telling the students that Christianity was not for sissies. Recent grads, Private Jimmy Aldrich and Patty Straight came back to give talks to a student assembly. Aldrich talked about life in the military, while Straight talked about life as a freshman in college.
Sophomores were studying “Rising of the Moon” by Lady Augusta Gregory. It was a book about the Irish struggles of the early 1900’s against British rule. She believed in a unified Ireland and used mythology, folklore, and other cultural devices to bring people together. The characters openly wrestled with their duty towards the British state and their desire for a national Ireland. The junior class was engaging in typing contests against each other. Jack Ray won the speed tying contest, with Ruth Stevenson coming second and Bill McGuiness coming third. Doris Stone came in first in the accuracy portion, with only seven errors. McGinness was second and Stevenson was third.
The 2016 elections brought Fake News to the forefront of the political conversation, but in 1945, we are sure there was some fake news floating around the halls of Sheridan High School. The Snooper was an anonymous gossip columnist who dished out the scoop on all the high school students in Sheridan. One such entry in the January 28th, 1945 issue read, “Eldon Hart thinks it’s too bad when Wanda Maudlin doesn’t get on the bus of a morning. And see, wasn’t that bad when we went to the Grant City Tournament Thursday night? You’d better watch Lloyd Grimit, Eldon!” Hart, who didn’t remember the episode at the Alumni Reunion, said, “We always looked forward to the paper coming out.”
Even as the country was on the verge of triumph over the Germans and Japanese, the clouds were hanging over Sheridan High School. Numbers at the elementary levels were so low that the elementary grades went together. Honor rolls were kept for the elementary grades as well as the high school grades. On the 3rd & 4th grade honor rolls were Frances Allee, Sonny Beezley, Martha Deardorff, Kathleen Goff, Jackie Houk, Jackie Fisher, Beulah Allee, Lavona Black, Norma Boyd, and Nadine Houk. On the 5th and 6th grade honor rolls were Eugene Houk, Larry Boyd, Johnny Leedom, Cherrie Churchill, Gary Cook, Marilyn Rinehart, Frankie Hooker, and Barbara Caldwell. In the Primary Grade, consisting of 1st and 2nd graders, Gary Graham, Dickie Stalling, Ruth Minor, Norman Runyon, Mary Etta Boyd, Robert Finch, and Billy Showalter all made the honor roll.
First and second graders were dancing to songs from “Little Black Sambo,” a children’s book that was popular at the time, and was a real hit at the school. It was a story about a young boy in India whose parents give him some fancy clothes – a red coat, blue trousers, a green umbrella, and purple and crimson shoes. He goes for a walk in the jungle and meets tigers who wish to eat him. But the boy is up to the challenge; he gives each of them a piece of his clothing. The tigers get into a fight over who is the grandest and melt into a pool of clarified butter. The boy reclaims his clothes and takes the butter home to his mother, and the butter is enough to make 169 pancakes. It tied in perfectly with a column Ernest Stalling, the Superintendent at Sheridan in 1945, wrote about confidence. “Through confidence has been built the world of business and finance. Upon confidence rests the welfare of government, the fate of armies, and the destiny of mankind. Confidence is the foundation of civilization, for without it, man’s world would fall about his head,” he wrote in the January 28th, 1945 Kats Meow.
There were several elementary schools that fed into the main school that were still open. The Kats Meow would feature one each month. The January 28th issue featured Luteston; on the honor rolls were Vonita Porter, Glenn Dukes, Gayland Howes, Franklin Dowis, Garvin Porter, and Byron Stoner. Each of these schools was a community gathering center, and there would be community dinners and other activities each month. But these schools were swallowed up in a few years, and much was lost. We asked the late Myrtle Risser about life in rural schools, and she said that the biggest thing was “the love we had for each other.” Teachers were able to work with students as individuals, and the kids would help each other to succeed in assignments.
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