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#728 – Dick Bernard: A great day around kids.

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Today I visited two school events, one in Minneapolis, one in South St. Paul. One planned, one last minute. The events caused me to go into my memento box and pull out a little memory book from back in the 1950s.
School Daze001
The book seems to be from my Junior year in high school (Antelope Consolidated, rural Mooreton ND). About all it includes are the basketball scores from that year. We won more than we lost. Once we scored 91 points; once an opponent scored 91 against us.
I loved basketball in our tiny schools. It was about the only sport available. Sometimes there was summer baseball; only once were there enough of us to have a six-man football team. There were no other sports, and never, in high school, a band – no teacher with even rudimentary skills.
The good old days.
Todays planned event was over at Washburn High School in south Minneapolis. I had been there some months ago during a troubled time, and wrote about a community meeting then.
Today was much more uplifting. The students of Cristina Benz’s first hour ceramics class and [some other] students have been diligently working on making a peace pole to rededicate Washburn as an International Peace Site.
They had constructed a unique Peace Pole out of ceramic squares, all reflecting the word “peace” in different ways and different languages. There was an hour of discussion and refreshments, and I went away refreshed in more ways than simply a bagel! The actual dedication of the pole will be a bit later. School ends for the year tomorrow.
Of course, Washburn ended up in the news for something negative…the way news often is. I asked how the next few non-newsworthy months have gone. By all accounts: just fine. The school moved on. The news media went to the next negative stories….
Here are a few photos from the class:
(click to enlarge)

Two students explain the still incomplete Peace Pole at Washburn High School

Two students explain the still incomplete Peace Pole at Washburn High School


1939 Washburn High School graduate Lynn Elling talks to this years students at the class.

1939 Washburn High School graduate Lynn Elling talks to this years students at the class.


Some lucky bird may take up residence in this ceramic birdhouse which will grace the top of the completed peace pole.

Some lucky bird may take up residence in this ceramic birdhouse which will grace the top of the completed peace pole.


Teacher Cristina Benz chats with guest Lynn Elling after his presentation.

Teacher Cristina Benz chats with guest Lynn Elling after his presentation.


Then to South St. Paul’s Lincoln Center School for the 5th grade run including granddaughter, Kelly.
It was a beautiful day, and the run was plenty long and hard. Quite a number of teachers participated.
This was a fun run: you go at your own pace. I got to thinking back to those old days when, perhaps, there’d be what I think was called a Play Day. I thought of one particular one in Stanley ND when I was in 8th grade. The tiny schools came together for a time of competitions of the time: sack races, softball toss, that sort of thing.
A feature of today’s So. St. Paul run that you wouldn’t have seen in those days was the inclusion of everybody, regardless of native ability. It was a day of personal bests for all.
That’s one of many neat parts of todays society. It hasn’t always been so.
Happy Summer, kids!
Here’s some photos from Lincoln Center run today:
The 5th grade run begins.

The 5th grade run begins.


Kids from other classes extend support.

Kids from other classes extend support.


Heading towards a personal best.

Heading towards a personal best.


Doing a lap on the track.

Doing a lap on the track.


Almost finished!

Almost finished!


Schools done. 1950s depiction.

Schools done. 1950s depiction.

#656 – Dick Bernard: A School Band Concert, Memories

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Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday evening we took the short drive across the Mississippi River to neighboring South St. Paul.
The occasion was the Middle and High School Fall Bands Concert, in which one of our grandkids, 7th grader Ted, was a participant, and even a soloist!
Truth be told, I almost forgot about the event. We were tired and there was a ‘tug’ to stay home when I remembered. But we went.
It was a very good decision.
I love music, but when I was a kid I loved sports more, and we rarely had the opportunity to actually participate in organized instrumental music. We were people who lived in very tiny towns, and band was a rarity. Only once in a great while came a teacher who actually knew music and might have been in a band somewhere, sometime.
Sister Rose in Sykeston had tried valiantly to help me learn the rudiments of piano about 1950 when I was in 5th grade. She was kind; the metronome wasn’t. Piano and I weren’t ‘fit’. I’ll always know where middle C is, however! And what a sharp, a flat, a quarter note, etc., are. She gave the basics.
In 1954, in another country school, Miss Stone, a conservatory trained pianist, tried to coax some piano out of me as a 9th grader. She was kind too. She was a tiny woman, and I marveled at the reach of her fingers. She must’ve been born with extenders!
She did her very best with me. I didn’t. My parents gave up.
In between, out in tiny Ross ND sometime during the year 1953-54 in the midst of the first oil boom – I was in 8th grade, then – there was a teacher who was willing and able to help a few of us learn the rudiments. I got to use a clarinet that year.
Apparently some of the older kids came together well enough so that the town had a small band in a 1954 parade in Williston ND – I have a photo (click to enlarge).

Ross ND Marching Band on Parade in Williston ND, 1954.


But that was it.
I love music still – a long-time short season subscriber till the lockout of the Minnesota Orchestra this fall – but I’m an observer, not a participant.
Tuesday of this week, we sat in a packed auditorium of the South St. Paul High School watching Andrew Peterson, Director of Bands, expertly lead his approximately 200 grade 7 through 12 charges in a program of 18 short pieces, one of which included a drum solo by our 7th grade grandson, Ted!
What a concert for we parents, grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts, friends…!
Towards the end the stage was full to capacity with young musicians, and Mr. Peterson quipped that they were at the point of needing a larger stage.
It was then I started thinking about the film, The Music Man, and the finale, 76 Trombones. Here’s a clip from that movie, and here’s access to many other renditions of 76 Trombones.
The film version of The Music Man came out in 1962, 50 years ago, and I remember seeing it then, probably in Valley City ND, while on leave from the Army in which I was then serving.
Harold Hill, the band leader in The Music Man, had nothing on Andrew Peterson, Director of Bands on Tuesday night. Nor did the to-be band members in fictional River City have anything on those 200 7-12th grade students in South St. Paul.
When Mr. Peterson conducted the finale, John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever”, I felt like a proud townsperson of River City, and had those kids wanted, they could have led those of us in the audience out into the street like so many pied pipers.
It was a great evening.
Congratulations, all!