The school year of 1961-62 proved to be a momentous year. It was the year I graduated from the eighth grade. Graduating from the eighth grade in Heber was a big deal. There was a special graduation program and all the town came and the graduates dressed up in suits and nice dresses and presented the program. The role each graduate played was quite important.
To give you a little background, you need to know that everyone of my older brothers had graduated from the eighth grade in the Heber Elementary School and each of them had distinguished himself by being named valedictorian of his class. As the youngest boy in the family I was expected to uphold the family tradition. I had emerged at the top of my class in seventh grade and there was little chance of any one of my friends or classmates spoiling my record. Everyone had sort of settled in knowing their relative position in the class as far as academic standing was concerned. After all, there were only eight of us so it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the class rankings.
This is where the plot thickens for early in the school year a new family by the name of Stockett moved into the quiet town of Heber . Now among the Stockett children was a girl by the name of June who was our age and as it turned out, she was a very bright young lady.
I should probably confess that I did not necessarily spend a lot of my time worrying about being valedictorian. It was just expected because I was still doing good work in school and getting good grades. In fact, I didn’t think much about it until one day when several of us in the class were walking home after school and one of the girls mentioned that June had the highest average in our class. This information seemed to be generating quite a controversy because many of the parents felt that it would be unfair for June to be named valedictorian when she had only been in the school for less than one year. We liked June and she had fit well into our group but to be named valedictorian????? It created quite a stir in a small place like Heber.
I don’t know how much lobbying went on or who all talked to Mr. Capps, but by the end of the school year, a decision had been made that June was not eligible to be valedictorian and I was named to that high position. I can’t remember whether June was named salutatorian or whether she was ineligible for that too. Maybe if I find a program to my graduation I can find out.
Bequeathed upon the valedictorian was the job of giving one of the major talks in the graduation ceremonies. I cannot remember a single thing I said. I think Mr. or Mrs. Capps wrote the talk and I memorized it. The theme of the graduation was something like “Reach for the Stars”. All I can remember is that we hung stars everywhere for decorations. The graduation was held on the stage at the school. I gave my talk and took my place as the last and final Porter kid from our family to be valedictorian of the eighth grade at the Heber Elementary School.
The eighth grade year was a fun year because we were the upper classmen and could get away with about anything. We had a good time as a group and we got to do some special things. At the end of school one of the parents took us all to Holbrook to buy a gift for Mr. and Mrs. Capps. I can’t remember what we bought but we went to the movie in Holbrook as a group and had a good time. We had been together for most of eight years.