Glen Elliott remembers:

I seem to recall that the LHS class of '61 had 298 or 299 members.  It was just few enough that I could claim to be in the upper third of the class.

I remember Mr. Bailey as my favorite teacher.  He was the first one to address students as Mr. and Miss.

I remember moving to Lawrence in '57.  I moved from a town of about 700 people to a town that had that many students in high school.

I remember that in '58 or '59 a group called "The Kingston Trio" appeared at KU.  They were a real sensation.  I'd never heard of them.

I remember I went to a basketball game at Allen Field House and watched Wilt, et al, beat Nebraska about 102 to 48.  My Dad was a KU cop and would get a complementary ticket to KU sports events, which I gladly attended.

I remember watching John Riggins play for KU, then seeing him come to Washington and star for the Redskins.

I remember always being small for my age.  Since I was new at CJHS, people assumed that I was in the 7th grade, rather than the 9th.  When I was a senior, I stood about 5' 3".  I had grown accustomed to being small, so it took significant readjustment when I grew about nine inches in the next couple or three years.  I also gained about 20 lbs at KU, another 20 lbs when I joined the USAF, and another 20 lbs when I got out.

I remember not being an athlete.  Both junior high and senior high PE coaches were disappointed in me.  I wish they could have seen me in '89-'95, when I rode my bike more than 5,000 miles every year, or seen me ride my bike about 20 miles each way to and from my job near the Pentagon, or seen my MD ask me how a 60 year old man had a resting pulse rate of 41 BPM.

I don't remember many social events, but I remember working different jobs to

earn a few bucks.  I remember hustling Cokes at KU football games.  If we didn't sell them quickly the ice would melt, and customers would complain that they weren't full.  I remember selling 15 cent hamburgers.  I remember setting pins at the KU bowling alley until they installed the automatic pinsetters.

I remember thinking that since I made A's in geometry and physics, and passing grades in other subjects, that I considered the proverbial glass at least 75% full.

I remember that my Mother didn't consider my accomplishments worth mentioning, but since I didn't seem interested in earning A's in other subjects, she considered the glass at least 75% empty.  I remember that every week or ten days she would tell me that I was the laziest, most worthless bum who ever lived.

I remember a few years later when I was working my tail off trying to earn enough money to pay for college, I thought that working hard enough in high school to earn a scholarship would probably have been a lot easier than working my tail off later to pay for college. ;-)

I wish all my memories were rosy and sweet, but life's really not like that. To quote Helen Keller, "We could never learn to be brave or patient if there were only joy in the world."