I don’t have a lot of memories about my sophomore year of high school. I know I took English, Geometry, World History, Ag (two periods), Seminary, and PE. My English teacher was an interesting guy. Most of the year was literature and he liked the morbid types of literature like Edgar Allen Poe’s poems and stories. I figured that out pretty fast, so when we had to write our own stories I made sure they were as morbid as possible. I remember one was about the “perfect crime” in which the murder was committed by stabbing with an ice-sickle but the blood didn’t wash off—it froze on—and when the murderer threw the icicle in the bay, a layer of ice froze over the blood, preserving it perfectly. I think I got an “A” for that one.
While I was a sophomore, I was elected to membership in the “Key Club.” It was the student service club sponsored by the Kiwanis Club for men. For one of the meetings we got to attend the “real” Kiwanis Club Meeting to see what it was like. I remember the men were always making motions to the “chair” that so and so be fined ten cents for some silly thing they had done or said (like swallowing too loudly or eating their beans before their potato etc.) and the motion always carried and the fine was levied. I don’t know how many dimes the club members went through in an evening but it was quite a few. It seemed to be a contest to see who could come up with the most outlandish charge. We watched and kept our mouths shut so we wouldn’t get fined.
One of the things the school clubs did every year was to sponsor a booth in the school carnival. Each club had developed a specialty and the club members would man the booth on a rotating basis throughout the evening. There were small prizes for the winners. I am not sure now what the money we raised was used for but it was a good activity. I can remember that the FFA booth was a “goofy golf course” using holes we had made out of sheet metal. It was pretty difficult to win. I can’t remember what the Key Club’s booth was, but there were booths with a baseball throw, a football throw, popping balloons with darts, a ring toss and lots of others. We had a lot of fun putting it on and I think the students had a lot of fun, too.
I worked at the store after school so I did not participate in very many of the after school activities. At that time the schools would arrange and pay for interesting “people” or “acts” to visit the schools during school time to put on an “assembly.” All the students in the school would get out of class for about an hour or so to go to the auditorium to watch the assembly. Some were educational and some were just entertaining. I can remember one about “Liquid Nitrogen,” one with gyroscopes, several with acrobats, jugglers or magicians. There were some with clowns and some with trained animals. They were all usually very good and everyone enjoyed them. I think the performers went from school to school across the state putting on the shows. Different shows were selected each year.