(Dad) Lamar's School Memories
Madison Elementary School
I attended Madison Elementary on State Street about 2400 South.
Kindergarten through 6th grade, 1942-1948.
It was an old three-story school.
I remember walking the five or six blocks to and from school each day, cutting across rail road tracks and open fields and alleys, and across Truman Avenue and Burton Avenue. That was before I-80 was built, just north of the school. After I-80 was built, my old school was torn down. I only remember one of my teacher’s names: the dreaded Mrs. Gedge. She wasn’t nearly as bad as the rumors I had heard from my classmates.
(Read some of Jen's memories of the Westra elementary school ... Woodstock)
The school was right on State Street, but the school grounds extended back a long ways, with lots of grass and a playground, and lots of dirt, for marbles. Another boy’s activity in the wintertime would be massive snowball fights, usually between the 5th grade and 6th grade boys, with each team having snow forts about 30-40 yards apart. There was an initiation into the 6th grade that all the lower grades would dread. It involved harassment by the outgoing 6th graders, and eating grasshoppers. (See more
memories from the Madison Elementary years ... featuring friends and dance cards). We would have school dances, with dance cards we would fill out ahead of time. I would try to get my first girlfriend, Lola McLaren to sign the last dance so I could walk her home. I still have some of those dance cards, with all the dance slots filled out by different girls. I remember getting threats by one of the other boys to stay away from Lola, but I ignored the threats.
I attended
Roosevelt Junior High, which is now Rowland Hall, a private school. It was located west and down the hill from East High School. We were bussed to Roosevelt. I remember some of the teachers at Roosevelt: Mr. Kartchner for PE, Justin Tolman for math, Buttermilk Bertha Rappoport for type. I wrestled for Mr. Kartchner. Mr. Tolman would tell us how he taught the young man who invented television, Philo Farnsworth. He said he had long discussions up in schools in Idaho with Philo, who would explain his theories, and fill the blackboard with complex equations. Buttermilk Bertha Rappoport gave me the only D I ever got on a report card. Then the next semester she gave me an A. My mom told me she had Bertha Rappoport for type when she was in Junior High. Buttermilk Bertha got her knick name for sitting outside her classroom on a garbage can and drinking buttermilk.
My memories of South High school include lots of new friends, including Jim Peterson, Dick Van Wagenen, Steve Carr and Don Phippen, and some great teachers: Charlotte (Rocky) Schroeder for math, Armont Willardsen for A Cappella Choir (practices at noon, and performing in musicals: The Vagabond King and Oklahoma, and singing almost every Sunday in LDS Wards around the valley), and William Gerrish for chemistry, who talked me into majoring in chemistry at the U of U. I attended early morning seminary, and our carpool, with Don Phippen at the wheel, was memorable.
After my graduation from high school in 1955, I attended the University of Utah for two years, majoring in Chemistry. I spent much of my free time at the LDS Institute of Religion. A big group of South High graduates met there. We played a lot of ping pong, and took institute classes, and ate our lunch, and joined Delta Chapter, one of the four men’s chapters of Lambda Delta Sigma, the LDS fraternity/sorority at the U of U.
I attended the University of Utah for two years, and then served a mission in the Netherlands: 1957-1960. I returned to the U, where I continued my major: chemistry. I got into summer school when I got back home, to avoid being drafted. I took 20 hours during summer quarter, 4 five hour classes. I graduated in 1962, and spent an additional year of post graduate study, changing my emphasis from Chemistry to Math and Computers. At the U, I was again actively involved in Lambda Delta Sigma. It was there I met Margie Norman. We were married in June of 1962...
