| Fidel Castro takes over the Cuban government. Russia sends a satellite past the moon. Russia's Lunik II makes first moon landing. Indira Gandhi assumes power in India. Alaska becomes our 49th state. Two monkeys survive American ride in space. Hawaii is proclaimed our 50th state. Negroes enter Little Rock High School under armed guard. The Ford Edsel is officially declared "a flop". It's-------------------1959!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (or as Sara Colvin Murphy corrects me '58-'59.) The best picture of the year is "Ben Hur", best actor is Charlton Heston in "Ben Hur", best actress in Simone Signoret in "Room at the Top". In music we hear "Broken Hearted Melody", "Climb Every Mountain", "Everything's Coming up Roses", "Till There Was You" and "Mack the Knife". The Baltimore Colts win the NFL championship game against the New York Giants in the game that experts in later years will claim as the game that finally put the NFL in the big time and created the "TV money" that will bring about a new league, the AFL, started by a man by the name of Lamar Hunt in Dallas. The average income is $5016. You can buy the average house for $12,400., the average car for $2250., a gallon of gas for 25 cents and a loaf of bread for 20 cents. The Dow Jones is 632. We start our second year at Shawnee Mission with a new name "North", bigger halls (less people),having lost some our friends and teachers to the new school, "East". Our friends at KU force Harvey E. White down our throats. (That is a name from "Mad Magazine", right?) You can now get up at 6 AM and watch Harvey on TV and then go see the same thing in Physics. Harvey will make staying awake in class harder than ever. I am lucky enough to have Gorby Martin for my teacher. We will go into the other class room to watch Harvey and then come back to our room for the last fifteen minutes. Gorby will start writing on the board until he totally fills it with what he thinks he saw on the film. About half way through the class begins to realize that he doesn't have a clue. He then steps back, puts one hand on the wall above the board, to lean on and asks "do you understand that". By now the class is about to explode in laughter but fortunately the bell rings to save the day. ( Gorby will soon give up teaching to pursue a carear as a dentist.) Mr Burns will be a new experience. He like a lot of our teachers in the 50's fought in World War II. He saw many men die because they didn't listen and didn't follow orders. Therefore, he will teach us to follow directions. He gives us true and false tests with "+" for false and "-" for true. He will give us tests where you mark the answer with a "x". People mark it with check mark and fail. He will tell you where to put your name on the test. If you put it in any other place, you will lose points. I won't remember anything he taught in later years--just how he taught it. I believe he is the teacher who said "do not fold, spindle. or mutilate your papers as you pass them in". (I'm sure all of you can pause and insert your own teacher with your own favorite story.) Our French and Spanish classes will stroll up and down the halls singing Christmas carols in their language. Margot Biery's mother started teaching Latin at SM last year and is now our only Latin teacher. I will take Latin since I will not have to speak it and will learn more about English than any English teacher ever or will ever teach me. Our football team will go 5-3-1. We will play East at home. We will miss an extra point in the first half and then come back and score with about two minutes left in the game making the score 13-7. East will then drive down the field and on the last play with our defensive line, thinking time has expired, will be jumping up and down in celebration, while East sneaks across for the score. The kick is good and East wins. Our basketball team will have a new coach, Bill Cornwell and will be led by seniors Ed McConwell, Carl Deane and Joe Miller. They will go 14-7. Wyndotte (still a Sunflower conference member will play us twice. The first game is at home. We come into the game 9-1 including a championship win at Lee's Summit. Wyndotte comes in having beaten us twenty-two years in a row or something like that. Carl Deane is on crutches for the game however, we will jump out to a 17-1 lead. Then it happens. Joe Miller goes down in a heap and is carried off the court and Wyndotte beats us for the 75th time in a row or something like that. We will then go to the little cracker barrel at Wyndotte to play the second time. Carl Deane and Joe Miller are healthy but this time Ed Mcconwell is hurt and Gary Harbison, a sophomore, will fill in. Our team will play their hearts out, our fans will scream and cheer but Wyndotte will go away with a hard fought victory. I think that is their 109th straight win against us or something like that. We will all be members of the pep club and we will like it! If we don't, we will get to sit in the library. Our play will be "When Our Hearts Were Young and Gay" (happy). Our musical will be "Pajama Game". As Juniors our class will plan and produce the Prom. We will have as many if not more classmates candid shots in the yearbook as the seniors and you can tell our class is well prepared for our senior year. Don Davis |