William Jamison's school day memories...

Denis Huston's school day memories...

School Days Memories found in 1957 & 1998 Yearbooks

While scanning through two BHS Yearbooks which Shirley (Strassner) Wilkins dropped off for my perusal, I  came across two Classmates school day memories that I wanted to share with all.  Double Click on the photos to enlarge and see what they had to say. And...I am hopeful this might motivate some more among us to email me their school day memories.

Eureka! Miss Barker's picture has been found !

Thanks to the persistence of Jean (Wee) Webb, a picture of Miss Barker has been found and is en route for further development. We plan on making a poster from this picture as our reunion is dedicated to this wonderful teacher. It would be an interesting statistic to have a count of the many thousands of us she started on our road to education during her 30 plus years in the Kinloch and Berkeley School systems. As soon as possible, I will post this picture for all to see, reflect upon and enjoy.

When you are looking down upon us, Miss Barker... remember as long as we live you will always be the Greatest and We Love You!

A sample Ballot for the City of Berkeley - 1950

The sample ballot shown tells of the local political pursuits of Berkeley City in 1950. They were all well known around town at that time. It is a memorable time for me as the Korean War began and a two years later I found myself embroiled in this war for 16 months of my life. Upon my return after two years in the Army, I found Berkeley City in a transition stage as the expansion of  McDonnell Aircraft Corporation changed the face of Airport Road dramatically. All the many fields we use to hunt rabbits on were now either built upon or paved over with black top parking lots. When I travel through the area today, I sometimes reflect on the kaleidoscopic memories of my boyhood days growing up in Berkeley City, MO. It really was a great town to grow up in!
                                                                             (Ballot furnished by Shirley (Strassner) Wilkins)

Surely many of the Alumnus have some interesting reflections or stories to share with us.

There must be many untold and interesting stories of life around BHS or Berkeley City when we were growing up. Personally, I could write a book about the wonderful years of my youth while Berkeley City progressed from a fledgling city struggling through development during the "Hard Time" 30's. It was a great place to grow up and those of us that did live in Berkeley City at that time always seem to feel lucky to have had the chance to experience life in this Era. It was a simple but fulfilling time as things weren't so "hectic" and was a bit laid back in comparison. 

Thinking back about the WW II days, I remember:
Food Rationing (Coffee, Sugar & Meat to name a few)
Gas rationing
Shoe rationing
Scrap Drives
Grease Drives (It was used to make explosives for the war)
Toothpaste Tube recycling
Tin Foil recycling
Saving our money for $25 War Bonds we bought at school

There are some I have forgotten about and hopefully the above list will jog some memories and you will send me some of your experiences or stories. I will elaborate on some of the War Year rationing in a future post but hopefully I will get some emails of your reflections. Come on, lets hear from "Yawl"! It's simple to do, just send me an email (joesow@gmail.com) with your story and I will publish it. I'm looking forward to some fresh input.