Strong, Proud People

A number of years ago, one of my kids asked, "How did it happen that the high school you graduated from is no longer a high school?"

"Just lucky, I guess," I answered.

I was being facetious, of course.

It's been 55 years and a few months since I left Wilson High School in Cedar Rapids for the last time.

The proud building still sits there on the top of the hill at J Street and Wilson Avenue, but it hasn't been a high school since 1958.

I guess it was a middle school for a while, and even an elementary school. Now it may be both.

But the public high schools in Cedar Rapids are now named Jefferson, Washington and Kennedy.

No Wilson, Roosevelt, McKinley and Franklin.

They said that was progress.

Maybe. Maybe not.

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However, the fact that Wilson is no longer a high school doesn't keep the folks who attended classes and got their diplomas there from throwing a party.

My '53 class had another reunion a few weeks ago, even though Cedar Rapids had suffered through the worst summer in its history.

Flooding like no one had ever seen ravaged my hometown, and the place is still trying to recover.

I couldn't make it to the reunion, but I've heard from Colleen Dolezal Kullmer, who told me a few things about it.

"Sorry you missed the reunion," Colleen wrote. "The flood damage in C.R. was a main topic of conversation."

Colleen said 35 people attended the reunion, which consisted of a dinner at the Longbranch restaurant.

Folks from as far away as Santa Lope, Calif., Sierra Vista, Ariz., Seattle. Wash., and Hauser, Idaho, showed up. Of course, there were others from Cedar Rapids, Marion, Fairfax, Solon and Garner.

No. 21 on the list was Carol Moneypenny Miller. Of her, the information page said, "Her husband, Arlo, was unable to come because of a lawn mower accident."

I hope Arlo is doing better now.

Of Lyle Matthews, the sheet said, "Lyle has been the chairman of the last two reunions, has put in a lot of work, and has done a great job!"

Well, I guess.

Nice going, Lyle.

But I would've expected nothing less from Lyle. He and I not only attended Wilson together; before that, we also went to Lincoln Elementary School at the same time.

Lincoln has changed, too. I guess they teach community education classes to adults there instead of spelling and basic math to kids.

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I'll tell you this about my '53 class at Wilson.

Those people are the proudest and the toughest of any you could ever imagine.

They grew up in neighborhoods filled with families of Czechoslovakian descent, and they were the hardest workers on this planet.

They got jobs in the city's factories, and they gave you 40 hours of work for 40 hours of pay. They went to the union meetings, too.

A lot of them did their shopping on The Avenue -- which everyone in Cedar Rapids knew as 16th Avenue, where you could get a ham, a poppyseed kolache, a haircut, a tooth pulled or a cold one.

Six days a week anyway. Closed on Sundays. That was the day you went to church, not to the meat market.

You know by now, of course, that The Avenue took a tremendous hit from the 2008 flooding in Cedar Rapids. I'm hoping it will spring back to life.

Knowing people on The Avenue, I'm betting it will.

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We were smart kids, too.

God meant for me to go to a high school at the top of a hill.

That way, I could park my 1937 Ford coupe -- the car I bought for $75 in the summer of 1952 -- in a place where I could let it coast downhill to get the motor running if it wouldn't start.

After all, I had to get to my parttime jobs at Martin's and the Gazette in downtown Cedar Rapids so I'd have enough money to get through my first year at the University of Iowa.

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A lot of the old gang is still around.

But some aren't.

"Twenty-five classmates are deceased," said the information sheet that Colleen sent me.

Hard to believe.

A few of us went on to college after our high school years at Wilson. A few of us moved away and never came back, even though we had chances to come back.

I heard through the grapevine that they took pictures at the 55th reunion, and that one of them was published last weekend in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Just one problem. Everyone in the photo was misidentified in the paper.

That happens in the newspaper business, of course. They make occasional mistakes, just like everyone else.

My advice to those from my '53 class who would like the class members identified correctly is to e-mail or call the editor listed at the top of the section and tell him or her what the problem was.

Steve Buttry is the new boss in the newsroom at the Gazette, and he's doing an outstanding job of running the place. I also know he doesn't like it when his paper makes mistakes.

If the department head can't get the photo identification straightened out, I'll bet Buttry will make sure the picture of the '53 class is reprinted with the correct names.

I suppose I could ask Mike Hlas to help out on this, too. But, with another quarterback controversy on the Hawkeye football team, he's got lots of other stuff on his plate these days.

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Meanwhile, not much was said at the 55th reunion about a possible 60th. I guess the flooding was on everyone's mind.

But I hope someone decides to organize a 60th when the time approaches.

I think it'll happen. Like I said, these are strong, proud people.

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Photos of the poppyseed kolache [right] and baked ham [left] courtesy of the Internet.