Those 70ish Girls

I will be publishing some  stories submitted by Murdo High School and Jones County High School alumni in anticipation of the All School Reunion to be held July 17-19.

Gregg Brunskill ’59

One of the traditions in the Murdo High School is that the juniors would decorate the school gymnasium for the senior prom dance in the spring. My class decided to decorate the gym in a jungle theme. I borrowed my father’s cattle truck and two of my classmates came with me down to the floodplains of the White River where we cut down two dozen 10-12 m high cotton wood trees, maybe 20-30 cm in base diameter. We were hauling them to town but we were intercepted by the town sheriff, Ben Arndt in his Sheriff car with sirens and flashing lights on top. Apparently we didn’t have the correct red reflectors or flags on the trees sticking out the back of the truck box. We told Ben why we were doing this. He nodded and grinned and got a big red flag out of his car trunk, tied it on the longest tree and then led us back to the school gymnasium with his sheriff car flashing lights.

Linda Anderson Nill ’68

In 1968 our senior class had a practice/student teacher for English class- Mr. Sprigler. We were winding down our final year in high school so when he asked a question, no one answered. He got very angry, upset and finally used the d**n word. His eyes got huge and he left the room. I wonder if he ever became a teacher.

Doug Tedrow ’64

In the fall of 1961 the class of 1964 as sophomores, and perhaps other classes as well, were mercilessly ill behaved towards the English teacher, whose name I have forgotten and who was nearing retirement age. The teacher resigned mid-year and was replaced by Miss Herzog for the second half of the year. In the fall of 1962 Miss Walbrecht arrived and the teacher grapevine had done its work by that time. During the first class of the fall, Miss Walbrecht delivered a 50-minute disciplinary lecture and laid down the law. Calvin Blom walked out of the room with me and said, “I came out of there feeling a little weak.” Other than that, we thought she was pretty cool as she arrived driving a two-tone yellow and white 1957 Chevrolet four door sedan. Miss Walbrecht later to become Mrs. Peter’s after marrying Howard Peters who operated the Sinclair station, finished the rest of her career at MHS/JCHS. Many years later while visiting my parents I met her in the Super Value and told her she was the best English teacher I ever had.