"Recollections of the lost senior year" - from afar:

by Morris Harper

In spite of or because of its history, Central has always meant a lot to me.  My mother graduated from Little Rock Senior High School in 1930, my brother in 1955, and along with about 700 classmates, I entered in the fall of 1956 expecting to graduate in 1959.  But a funny thing happened on the way to our graduation.

In 1957, the name of our school was changed to Little Rock Central High School to recognize that Little Rock had grown to need another high school.   Hall High School opened way out west on H Street, splitting our class only a year after we had come together from East Side, Forrest Heights, Pulaski Heights and West Side junior high schools.  History descended upon us when the school was desegregated and the 101st Airborne Division occupied the campus.  In the fall of 1958, our class was torn asunder when Governor Faubus shut down the Little Rock high schools.  Rather than the graduating class of 1959, we became part of "The Lost Year".  For me, Central is the only school I attended in Little Rock that's still serving the purpose for which it was built, educating children.  Mitchell, Rightsell, and East Side are still standing, but serving a different purpose or no purpose at all.

I'm one of many Tigers dislodged from Little Rock by family, job, or other causes.  My separation began in the summer of 1957.  As you were preparing for and experiencing the events above, I was trying to learn German from 33-RPM records checked out of the public library and putting everything I would need for the next school year into two suitcases to spend my junior year as an exchange student in then "West" Germany.  As you were encountering integration, I was trying to explain it, the Civil War, and why some thought it was still going on in Little Rock a century later.  When the Russians launched Sputnik, I was asked how the United States could be behind in the space race, especially when I was told the best V-2 Rocket scientists had immigrated to the USA after WWII.  Rock ‘N' Roll arrived in Germany a few years after it started in the US.  German kids asked me to explain the music and teach them the latest dance steps.  I couldn't do either.  Although I became an ardent Germanophile, I learned to love my country more while living afar.  Seeing the contrast of East and West Berlin drove that point home very clearly.  My exchange year was a life changing experience, but I sailed home yearning for the senior class year experience at Central that had meant so much to my mother and my brother.

When our high schools were closed and the diaspora of the Lost Class began, some of us moved in with relatives or friends in places near and far.  Some started college classes early.  One followed me to Germany.  Others got jobs when those options weren't available.  While North Little Rock Senior High School did not welcome Central students, I got in when my Grandfather living in NLR adopted me.  An ambush of about ten Tigers graduated from NLRHS.  My experience was positive and I attend those reunions as I do our own.  Currently, I'm serving on a committee with several Central classmates to organize a reunion of the 1953 graduating class of Rightsell Elementary in June 2008.  What a hoot!  Reunions are great fun.

I had only my sophomore year at Central to get to know the guys and date the girls from the other junior high schools.  Yet in that one year, we formed bonds that remain intact today.  It was a singular year.  Since "graduation", I've been able to attend almost all of the reunions.  I'm also fortunate to have business interests that necessitate periodic returns to my hometown.  That has permitted me to visit on occasion or even do business with a number of classmates.  During these visits, our conversations always encompass "things Central".

A common item discussed at these gatherings is the impact of the Lost Year on our lives.  I'm not sure there are three equally sized groups, but the most common positions taken seem to be: no impact; a negative impact; or a positive impact.  Some vacillate in between.  As we gather for our Golden Reunion in April 2009, let us resolve to share our recollections of the times we had together with those who come, remember those with whom we've lost contact, and honor those who have passed away.  Come to the Reunion.  It's about recollecting.  What happened in Little Rock will be retold and shared in Little Rock.  To paraphrase Proverbs 17:17:

"An LRCHS classmate is a friend forever."

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Ahem......Greetings Ex-Classmates, 

I was one of the members of your class during the 1956-1957 school term at Central High but the ‘winds of change' and my parents relegated me to Hall High for the 1957-1958 school year. It would seem my academic tolerance there would be pushed to the limit when this happened. Translated.....let's just say that means I wasn't on the 1958 list of ‘Honor Roll Society' inductees at Hall High School. 

Then my family moved to North Little Rock the following summer where I was to begin my senior year in the fall of 1958. But due to the poor grades suffered at Hall High and my out-of-control parents, they insisted that I repeat the eleventh grade. And to make matters worse, apparently some know-it-all teacher or administrator thought that was just a grand idea, thus causing my removal from the rolls of "The Class of 59" and therefore relegating me to be a member of "The Class of 60"! 

As I think back over those years, I feel it may have actually been my science fair project at Hall High that caused my demise. I am not so sure what was so disdainful about my efforts to impress the scientific community. I had spent a whole two hours at the very last minute putting it together and who, I ask you, would not be on the edge of their seat to review the results of a scientific project that investigated the effects of liquid shoe polish on tadpoles. A few jars of colored water.....a few dead tadpoles? What's the issue there? And what about that science teacher and his nerve, informing me of how totally embarrassed he was over my project. What was that all about? He did, however, call me aside at the end of the grading period and told me that the only reason I got an ‘F' was because there wasn't anything lower. That's something I suppose! 

Anyway, having had to say that so as to simply convey the reason to my beloved classmates of ten years as to why I was a "no-show" on one of those scattered graduation stages in May of 1959. 

Six years at Rightsell, three years at East Side, one year at Central.....then that liquid shoe polish and those friggin' dead tadpoles! 

My love and my best to you all and to a very successful reunion, 

Alan Ginocchio

North Little Rock

 

If you would like to submit a short story or article about how the "Lost Year" affected you and how it shaped your life after high school send it to us at contact@lrchs1959.org. All stories should be informative and appropriate for publication.