1961 – 1964 Green Bay East High School

Things I remember about high school.

My memories of high school are generally good. I was not the member of any particular group other that maybe being one of those kids from Allouez, an affluent suburb. I was not an outcast, nor was I considered one of the “in” group. I had friends from many groups. I was painfully shy around girls and dated very infrequently (see story). My closest friends were the ones I knew from elementary and middle school and a few good friends that lived close to me.

Friday Night Sports

Friday nights were generally going to the various sports events in high school, mainly football and basketball. High school social life, for me, centered around that. I do not remember our teams being particularly good or bad.

Saturdays were occasionally going to various parties at a friend’s house. My mother was open to friends coming over to our house and she did not stress about them making messes, so our family room was a very popular hang out spot.

Kroll’s Hamburgers

To this day, every time I go back to Green Bay, I have to have at least one hamburger at Kroll’s on Main Street on the east side. After every football and basketball game, that was our spot. It was filled with high school kids until late evening.

I have taken friends recently and they are not usually that impressed. I still love them. They were a classic butter burger made with a fresh hard roll and thin charcoal cooked patty.

The day President Kennedy was shot

I was sitting in fourth period German class when the news came over the loudspeaker that president Kennedy had been shot. Like the rest of the nation, we were all in shock.

My father was no fan because he supported socialized medicine, but not one could argue his magnetism and appeal. In today’s world, he would be considered realitively conservative.

Civil Rights Movement

Green Bay was not culturally diverse in the 1960s. The only blacks were Green Bay Packers. Our exposure to the plight of blacks during the Jim Crow period was minimal. We had no diversity at all in our school.

I never experienced the horrible inequities of the deep south and in large urban areas. My first exposure was in college and then later in the Air Force. I made a couple of good black friends there. I remember one in particular was a member of my missile crew, We spent many hours on overnight missile tours playing chess. He had never played chess before and ended up beating me as often as I beat him.

Sneaking Out at Night

A favorite activity my senior year was sneaking out at night and meeting up with friends. I have no idea whether my parents were aware, but I suspect that they probably would not have been that upset had they found out. Sometimes we would just drive around and other times go to someone’s house when their parents were out of town. I remember one night taking a car full out onto an ice skating rink at a local park and doing figure 8’s on the ice, typical idiotic teenage stuff. My first “make out session” was back then.

As a group, we were so much more innocent and naive compared to high school kids today. That period was just before the advent of main stream marijuana smoking in high school, at least in my class. We did have our share of drinking parties. I have no memory of any girl in my class ever getting pregnant, either.