Great School Memories From Tom Thompson

By John “Butch” Dale

NOTE: In 1988 I wrote a book about the history of Darlington School, and I interviewed several former students. The following was written by Tom Thompson, who graduated from DHS in 1950 and taught and coached for 34 years in the Crawfordsville schools. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 85.)

“Darlington School holds many wonderful memories for me. In grade school, all of my teachers–Mae Hunt, Lola Rankin, Lucille Cox, Alberta Royer, Mid Edwards, and Raymon Brown–were good teachers and disciplinarians. And I’ll tell you, you did not want to go to the cloak room with Brownie! In the first grade, I remember being sent out into the hall, along with Ed Butler, Lyle Lidikay, and John Marshall, for putting pencils in our ears and up our noses. In fourth grade, we finally got Albert Parker to play with us, and then he broke his arm at recess! And watching Barry Booher break teacher Ed Miller’s glasses in a softball game…I never saw a kid hate to go inside after recess as on that day. Ed let him live, by the way. And if you wanted basketball time in the gym, you saw how fast you could get your gym shoes on and get in line.

This era was a proud and happy time because World War II was coming to an end. I remember going to Crawfordsville the night the war was over and seeing the victory celebration. This was quite a sight to see from the eyes of an eighth grader. One of the things I remember well was being able to walk to school with Sam Thompson and Charlie McCafferty…they were four years older than me, and this was my first sex education…just kidding! I also found out there were other people going to school with me besides boys. My first hay ride, my first kiss, my first show date, my first crush on an older woman (still in high school)…what a great time! I got high on just being alive. I wouldn’t have needed drugs even if they had been around.

I didn’t miss many varsity games when I was in junior high. My Dad hauled me and anyone else who wanted to go as far as an “A” gasoline card would take us. I think we cheated and used a little farm gas for this patriotic adventure. I had watched guys like Mutt Warren, Bill Dale, and Bill Stewart when I was in grade school, then I would pick out the players who I wanted to copy…also players like Bob Gooding and Charlie Arvin of Waveland, and Charles McCafferty of Darlington.

There were many funny incidents in our class, but I’ll only mention a couple. Watching Leonard “Couch” Davenport to his thing in class was great…this guy was world class pantomine. The expression on Don Goldsby’s face as he was escorted to the cloak room by Brownie…Bill Tincher trying to order drinks sent up to our room on our Senior trip…Our trip–what a joyful enlightenment!

In trying to think of the worst moments, I’m sure there were some. I imagine that my folks closed their eyes to some of the things I did, but time has graciously faded the memory of anything that I thought was really bad. If I’m labeled a sentimentalist, then I plead guilty.

I’ve always felt that I got a good basic education by going to Darlington. The teacher to student ratio was much better than it is now, and the teacher-parent relationship was close. Today that does not exist. From the first grade to Senior class, we were our own miniature community. This opportunity of closeness has been a part of our heritage which the following generations will miss out on.

Darlington School was a comfortable place which I liked going to. I knew each day it had something to give me, and it was up to me to receive it. I am far richer because of all the lifelong friends I made in the twelve years that I attended DHS.”

– John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 32 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.