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... a dream -- or nightmare of LWHS

Like everyone else, I dream at night, but most of the time, I cannot remember the details in the morning.

However, a short time ago I dreamed about something that happened almost a half century ago.

To my compatriots in the class of '66, here are some of those recollections about the dream. You may add some of your own.

The saga of the evergreen trees -- and Idlewild

The school wanted to plant evergreens around the entrance roads to the school, and at the end of the school year, they approached us as seniors to see if we would help with the project.

We agreed. Mr. Paul Tickerhoof was our biology teacher, and he was always working on environmental projects. This may have been his idea -- not sure about that.

He and Art Martynuska asked us to do the work with this, and since they were popular -- and because we liked the idea -- we said yes. In fact, we agreed to buy the trees, too. We had some extra money (more on that later).

So, when our class was done with our final exams, we still had some days left, and we took one of them to plant the trees.

Money

We had extra money left at the end of the school year for a reason that I talk about below. We had the option of passing it to the next class, which we wanted to do. The reason we did not was that it was going to all of Penn Cambria, not just to those juniors from Lilly-Washington. We did not like that at the time, so we decided to spend some on the trees.

In addition, we went to Idlewild on one of our last days. That turned out to be a nice trip even if that park was a little more youngster-oriented than perhaps Kennywood would have been.

However, in order to do that, we had to move up the time of our final practice for commencement. We were really working hard on digging holes for these trees, and that was work because 1) we had no backhoe to use; and 2) there was so much rock in the ground in that area.

The nefarious principal

As president of the class, I went into the office to request that our practice time for graduation be moved up from 10 to 9 to give us a little more time at Idlewild. I made the request to the principal, who seemed okay with it until the secretary said, "I refuse. I will have to call (IU8) for that, and I have already called them and set it up. No way."

The principal said, "No. Sorry."

To place this in perspective, I and my classmates were filthy and sweaty and tired because we were doing something for our school, but we could not move our time up an hour because of a phone call? (I have a back story here that is below).

At that point I flipped out and left, muttering some words under my breath that I will not now. In short, we went on strike, threw down our shovels in anger. Then Mr. Tickerhoof, ever the diplomat, came out and told us that they changed the time and all was well.

We finished that job, and I loved it for years (not sure if they are still there after 49 years. Some are gone, I know).

The trip to Idlewild was good and we had fun, and I managed to avoid the principal for the rest of my high school years.

That brings us to the reason that we had extra money.

Harlem Satellites

One of the remembrances that came into the dream was that of the Harlem Satellites. Who were they?

Basically, they were a low-budget squad that imitated the unbiquitous Harlem Globetrotters. Instead of playing in front of 2,000 fans at the War Memorial in Johnstown, the Satellites played in front of maybe 300 or 400 people in gyms like that in Lilly. They obviously made less money than the Globetrotters, but their script was similar to that of the other globe trotting team. They were funny, but also talented -- and big.

My dream was about the game, and the fans in Lilly loved them. The Satellites were different -- and funny.

They arrived at Lilly-Washington in the fall and asked if our class wanted to do a fundraiser in the spring. We thought that we had enough money, but this seemed like a good deal. I cannot remember how much money we made on it, but it was a few hundred dollars. The most important thing is that everyone had fun.

They played against the alumni in the area along with the senior members of our team. It was just a lot of fun for the players and the fans.

I think that the Satellites were all former college basketball stars. They were all African-American, and some were former Globetrotters. Their bus was not as nice as the one that the Trotters used, but it was decent.

My recollection of the details of after the game are vague, but they went downtown to lift a few brews and to eat some locally-made food. Not sure if that was at Tookies or the Sokols or VFW. We were not quite old enough to enter the bars.

I had a program at one time, but do not now. However, I did find one on eBay that was like ours. It was from Ephrata High School in Pa.

Backstory

The reason that I had a problem with the secretary was because she made a mistake that led to me taking a physical to be drafted when I was a senior.

I went home on a Friday night in basketball season and opened a letter that said, "Greetings." Short story is that I was almost 19, but the schools have to send your name and birth dates when you reach 18 and are still in school. So, at the age of 18, they had to apply for a 2-S deferment until the student graduates from or leaves high school.

When I told the principal and secretary about the draft board not having my deferment request, she said that she was "so busy." So, I am not going to be allowed to graduate with my class since I will be inducted and she was too busy.

Short story was that I passed the physical despite my knee operation, but later was deferred by that same knee.

Regardless, I had no positive feelings toward the secretary (who was married to the principal).

So, that is what I remember from the dream. I actually added more from this from my general recollections.