School Days in the 1950s

(Note: This was written by Sharon Hankins Lough in 1988 and it was included in the book that I wrote that year about Darlington School.)

“I attended Darlington School all twelve years, starting in the fall of 1942 and graduating in the spring of 1954. They were such happy times! I loved going to school, and I always loved my teachers. I think that at the time when I was in grade school, there were perhaps the best teachers that any student could have: Marian Couger, Lucille Cox, Naomi Peterson, Audrey Cox, Tessie Stwalley, and Raymon Brown. These were truly dedicated individuals with the students’ best interests in mind. All the Christmas plays, spring concerts, a field trip to the library, the Brownie and Girl Scout meetings after school at the toll house, the Valentine parties…We always made such beautiful Victorian Valentine boxes and waited to get all those Valentine cards, including that “special” one.

The lunch program was begun when I was in the 4th grade in 1945. We all donated a place setting of dishes. I can remember walking to the room down in the subway where the food was prepared and then carrying it back upstairs to eat. Alice Wheeler was the head cook, with Glee Beauchamp and Grace Brown helping. Paul Beauchamp was the only janitor I ever knew, and he worked very hard and also painted everything each summer.

Junior high was very exciting, and at first, confusing. Two of the teachers who I admired most were Helen McKinsey and Reggie Surface. Mrs. McKinsey taught me for six years and probably influenced my life more than any other teacher. Mrs. Surface was an outstanding lady and a great role model. She started taking students to the Purdue Hall of Music at a very early age. This was our first exposure to symphonic music, which I have a great appreciation for now.

In high school we had a lot of great experiences, and we could participate in just about anything we wanted to. There were so few of us that they needed all of us to do anything! We thought we got to do those things because we were so smart and popular, so we were building a lot of self-confidence…very important! When we were sophomores, we could hardly wait for the annual class basketball tourney. At the end of the two evenings of play, the sophomores were victorious over the seniors. Every year basketball became more a part of our lives, and in the back of our mind we all knew that we would win the Montgomery County Tourney.

Although the most exciting times were probably related to basketball, other activities were important, too. I was an officer in the Sunshine Society for three years. We had dances, learned about protocol, served at teas, and made cheer baskets every Christmas for the aged and needy. It was really lots of fun, and always on the evening of the last day of school before Christmas, we got to deliver all those baskets. Plays were lots of fun. We needed everyone to produce a play, so everyone got to help. I had the lead part in the junior and senior play, and when I was a junior, the seniors needed one more girl, and they asked me if I could possibly help them out…could I ever!

The entire year that I was a senior was an adventure…there are so many good memories. Walking to the drug store every evening after school…lots of other kids there also…the basketball boys would show up later after practice. In October, we started practicing for the Jabberwalk…what a production that was! There was a fall Sunshine convention at Crawfordsville High School. We started working on the yearbook and went to Demaree Studio to have our senior pictures taken, and sold ads for the yearbook the same day. We had the annual Mother-Daughter Tea, with Mrs. Surface always insisting on perfection and formality.

On January 23, 1954, our boys won the first County Tourney in the school’s history. So many people came to celebrate…a huge bonfire, a day’s vacation from school, and a victory dance. Pete Irwin was our coach, and everybody loved him. Our senior prom was nice, although as juniors we spent a great deal of effort.

I really can’t remember any bad times, although our junior magazine sales were a failure. One time we were instructed by Mrs. McKinsey to write ballads, but some of the boys just couldn’t seem to get it all together…so I “helped” them by writing their ballads. Another teacher heard us talking about it, and Mrs. McKinsey made an example in front of the entire study hall. Also, Madonna McMurry and I wore jeans to school one day. Mr. Bowerman, the principal, felt that it was in very poor taste and a bad example to set for the underclassmen. He very quietly talked to us for the better part of an hour about wearing jeans to school. I asked to go home and change immediately, and I knew that I’d never wear jeans again!

The morning that our chartered bus left Darlington was quite a thrill for all twenty of us who went on the senior trip…ten glorious days in Pittsburg, Washington DC, and New York City for kids who probably hadn’t been out of Montgomery County! All of us girls had a pair of pedal pushers…a real late fad. We were asked not to wear them on the streets of Washington DC, because women never wore anything but skirts in 1954!

Those were exciting times for a girl growing up in the 1950s!…With so much consolidation, I hope that we can still find ways to keep all the children active and happy and help them build their self-esteem.”

Thanks, Sharon, for those wonderful memories!

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.