I have good memories of the military balls, proms, Mardi Gras and Graduations in the old City Auditorium that sat on Bryant and Washington Avenue. How proudly we marched or danced in those events. Our parents would sit in the mezzanine or upstairs, looking down with pride at how their child was performing.

In 1939 Mr. Meyers let all who had the dime to attend the showing of “Gone With The Wind” at the Broadway Theater, walk together in column form - as Thomas Jefferson High School -to attend. He led the pack to view such a historical movie. (He was a minister so did not approve of every movie made.)

I remember with pride our choir. We went to nationals and wowed the judges. Our director was a friend of Steven Churchill who arranged music for the Fred Waring choir, in those days called “The Pennsylvanians.” He arranged three pieces for our choir, one being a Bach chorale, and we learned the Dorsey method of holding and ‘sending’ a note even while modulating. A group of us made a commercial record for radio station KOIL in October of 1940, which advertised the King KOIL mattress made in Omaha. To this day, when that record is played (yes, they still use it) nostalgia overcomes me. High school offers young people some of the best times of their lives... if they live them in the right way. There are no shortcuts to learning or living. No matter how old or young we are, we can learn something new each day. It makes each day a gift. My grandfather used to say we should be born old and wise... then get younger as the years pass ‘cuz by then it doesn’t seem to make much difference anyway.