My pre-MacArthur edification and early formative years were similar to Shirley's and Jenice's, though I grew up in a different part of the city. My parents, two brothers and I lived in a small 2 bedroom house on the near west side.  Walking north just a few blocks from the house, one could look west on Cincinnati St. and see the spires of St.Mary's University where my father received his law degree and later, my second oldest brother did the same.  Go the other direction and it was a mile or so to Woodlawn Lake and a bit further, Jefferson High School where I was destined to follow in the footsteps of my brothers, or so I thought.

Life back then was trusting and simple with front doors that remained open at night and only a screen door to keep out the bugs and assist with air circulation, postmen who delivered mail door to door, and milk deliveries made right to the front door step.  We had no central a/c, just a swamp cooler in my parent’s bedroom.  A window a/c unit was later added to the second bedroom and what a big deal that was.  A large indoor porch with jalousie panes all the way across was also added later for quite a bit more room.  I still remember the smell of my mother's prized gardenia bushes and the perfume from the big white flowers that filled the night air and the little bedroom from having the windows open.

As a result of all of this fresh air exposure, a fan was a must to help cool the air to make it comfortable enough to sleep during the summer.  I blame my parents now for the current addiction I have to white noise and air circulation from a portable fan.  I gotta have it or I have a hard time falling asleep to this day, even in the winter.  I remember going to an out-of-town football game in college and staying with a friend at his grandmother's place.  There was no fan but my friend was just crazy enough to hum for about 20 minutes until I fell asleep.  Really!  That was true friendship.   My brother Chris is the same way about fans and both our wives just hate it.  Back to the school story.

Pre-school days were spent riding bikes, hunting for toads in the alley water meters, playing hide and seek on warm summer nights, trekking over to University Heights Pharmacy for a soda from the fountain, stealing honeysuckle blossoms from bee covered vines and enjoying the sweet nectar, catching fireflys and using them to write our names on our shirts in glowing letters, jumping out of trees and off roofs pretending to be superman, and collecting pop bottles and returning them for the deposit which was used to buy candy and sodas, of course, from the local 5 and 10 cent store called Winn's.  Life was good and I have wonderful memories of my childhood there.

My brothers and I went to James Madison Elementary which was a 30 minute walk from the house.  I enjoyed the walk during good weather, but winning a balloon-tired bike from the local grocery store (Model Market; a new competitor then for Handy Andy and Piggly Wiggly) was better than any wish I could have made.  Having my own wheels (no longer having to borrow my brother's bike) opened up all sorts of new exploration possibilities such as covering a wider area to collect more pop bottles.  I was going to be rich!

My 6th birthday seemed to creep up suddenly with the advent of public school looming large in my future.  The first day of school was a real experience, for my mother anyway.  I climbed a large Chinese Tallow tree in our front yard and doggedly refused to come down.  Not until threats of corporal punishment did I acquiesce and descend crying all the way to school.  How traumatic for a 6 year old used to wearing shorts, going barefooted and playing all day long!  It was tantamount to a jail sentence!  However, once there it wasn't long until I was immersed in putting together a wooden puzzle of a car and did not even notice when my mother finally snuck away. 

The school building was an arrangement of long hallways and connecting breezeways with a cafeteria / auditorium on one end.  This was rather a typical layout for schools from that era similar to the old MacArthur layout in general.  Creaky ceiling fans, no a/c, push-out windows, cloak rooms for storage of coats, lunches, and misbehaving students, and space heaters for winter; a real hot box when summer approached.  

During early fall and late spring months, everyone looked forward to recess to escape the heat inside.  Once outside tether ball and baseball reigned supreme.  There were the usual slides, merry-go-rounds, bars and the like as well.  Playgrounds were outfitted with long narrow concrete water fountains with two parallel pipes of 12 feet in length positioned over a catch basin with drains.  These pipes were drilled every foot and a half or so to produce water streams for drinking.  I actually saw one that had been salvaged on Craigslist the other day and was sorely tempted to buy it.  I can just hear what my wife would have said to that purchase!!  I also remember that these fountains were always on during school hours - water was free back then - but turned off on the weekends  One summer I happened upon a key at the local hardware store that looked like it would fit those fountains and it did.  I became very popular that summer with those wanting to play baseball or other team sports on the school grounds.

Back inside from recess we were required to have a cool down period.  That's when everyone put their head down on their desk over folded arms.  15 minutes later as class began again, one had to lift up the arms slowly to free them from the sweat soaked varnish that had become a sticky quagmire or risk losing some flesh. Peggy Wolf also went to Madison for a very short time and probably remembers some of the details of the shcool that are mentioned in my story.  As serendipidity would have it, we both had Mrs. Penrod for second grade before she moved.

The cafeteria food there was actually pretty good.  All the cooks were hispanic and the nicest ladies you would want to meet calling all the kids honey and "meho" (spanish contraction for "mi hijo" or my child).  2 cent cinnamon toast served on that translucent paper with a 5 cent 1/2 pint carton of milk was perfect for breakfast.  But, everyone looked forward to Wednesdays which, as eveyone knows that went to public school in south Texas, was Mexican food day.  Enchiladas, rice, beans and corn bread . . . it was all good.  SAISD was one of the poorer districts though and it was not uncommon to see someone at school wearing a flour or potato sack that had been made into a shirt.  This was well before the days of Banana Republic and people paying a good price for the same thing. 

School field trips on the yellow banana were not uncommon then and I can remember going to the Municipal auditorium for concerts, roller skating at a now defunct roller rink on St. Mary's street and the one on Recoletta, and to ButterKrust Bakery which I missed on a rare sick day.  The best part of the school year though was at the end (the school year ended the first part of May back then) when "May-Day Play-Day" was held.  It was an all day affair outside with popcorn, sodas and all types of races with ribbons for the winners.  Back then I could not be beat for any of the foot races.  I usually took first place for my grade and could beat many upper classmen.  I loved to run especially when I got new shoes particularly if they were Cross Countries, a thin soled running shoe that was very popular back then along with PF Flyers for basketball.

Getting to be a patrol crossing guard was also a big deal at Madison with vest, shiny new whistle on a lanyard and big red stop sign on a pole.  In fifth grade, however, they decided to turn over the duties of raising and lowering the flag just outside the administration building to the students. My teacher that year recommended me for the duty and I got it along with another classmate.  I will never forget the year, 1963, being called over the PA system to report to the principal's office and receiving instructions to lower the flag to half staff for Kennedy's assassination.

James Madison funneled into Longfellow Jr. High where both my brothers had gone before me.  That was both good and bad.  The teachers just loved my brothers and the first day of class I was usually greeted with "Ah!  I see we have another one of the Clark boys . . . I just adored your brothers Chris and Chuck!"  Talk about pressure and great expectations!  I played most sports for the school with the exception of football which Coach Schweeney vowed I was going to do the following year.  Then, at age 13, we moved.  Feeling a little yanked up by the roots, leaving all my friends and favorite haunts behind, I found that I would be attending Garner Middle School then MacArthur. We had moved to Hollywood Park during a time when they were still re-drawing school district lines.  Though Churchill was some 5 miles away and MacArthur at least twice that, we were bused over to Garner and Mac.

I began to make new friends at Garner that I would see again at Mac.  The most indelible memory from that time though was of a major injury I sustained to my right knee in sports during a broad jump attempt.  I had signed up for football and other sports at Mac for the coming freshman year and all that had to be cancelled. It was a real set back for me and I struggled to overcome the mental and physical effects for some time.  Fortunately I was able to rehabilitate to the point where I would never be able to participate in contact sports or risk never walking again on that knee, but strong enough to find an outlet for athletics in gymnastics which would prove to be fortuitous in the coming years.  So those of you that might have noticed a limp when I walked now know I was not practicing for a part as Festus on Gunsmoke.  The knee plagues me more as of late such that one of these days I will quit fighting the pain and get a full knee replacement.

The rest of the year at Garner went by with a flash.  Other than the aforementioned incident, the remainder of the year was a bit of a blur.  Next up  . . . ready for a bite out of Big Mac.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.