(Chelsea Update would like to thank Doug Collyer for this story, and William Sorensen for sharing it.)
Some people have “class and style” and some just don’t.
That was the thought that Jerome Forner, Bob Brown and I had after finishing writing the Class Prophesy for the 1958 High School Year Book.
Such things weighed heavily on the minds of such individuals as we had a propensity to contemplate matters of little worldly importance.
Thus, the fact that the Class of 1956 had painted “56” on one side of the large rock in the schoolyard and further that the Class of 1957 had painted “57” on the other side, didn’t really impress us.
What bothered us was their sloppy work. Thus, they had “no class, no style”.
We, the representatives of the Class of 1958, could remedy the intolerable situation by demonstrating to the world, how things should be done properly.
We would paint the rock properly by covering it completely in our school colors of blue and gold with a large “58” stroked from the hands of an artist.
Somehow Jerome “conned” his mother, an artist in her own right, into mixing us some paint in their basement. Then with paint and paint brushes in hand, we were off to complete our mission.
We had called some classmates for assistance and we all met at said rock about midnight. Working like a well-oiled machine, we completed our work-of-art. So, yeah, we trampled Russ Alsteader’s (the school maintenance man) posies at the base of the rock. This was of little consequence, when creative endeavors are undertaken.
With the mission completed and no cops or school authorities catching us, we faded into the night and went home. Just as I walked into the house, about 2 a.m., my parents were waiting for me. They said Charlie Cameron, our school superintendent, was waiting for me at his office and I had to go there immediately.
My parents asked for, and I gave a reasonable explanation, for my recent activities. They seemed relieved upon learning that I was not wanted for murder or some such transgression.
Back to school I went and walked into Charlie Cameron’s office. There, sat all of my cohorts from the evening’s endeavors.
Once assembled, Charlie started to grill us about our evening’s work. We explained our motives and assured him that all we wanted to do was to bring “dignity and class” to our school by properly painting the school rock.
Charlie seemed to be taking it in stride and didn’t appear to be too upset with our activities. His real concern was about an incident a few nights before where some vandals had pushed over some “green” brick walls of the new school. We assured him we had nothing to do with that and would tell him if we knew who was responsible. We were all pretty good kids and had never gotten into anything serious before.
Thus, he believed us and was about to “let us off the hook” when, old Russ Alsteader started whining about his posies that we had stomped all over. Well, we agreed to buy some new flowers for Russ, and I think we even planted them around the rock.
That little act of ours started a new school tradition.
We were the last class to graduate from the old school and when it was torn down, the rock was moved to the city park.
There the future classes could, without fear of reprisal, paint their year on the rock.
However, the future classes never had the “class and style” in rock painting that we did.
I remember the “58” and the “superintendent’s meeting.” I agree, the painting by the Class of 58 was CLASSIC. I actually remember it when the Class of 61 paints the rock for a reunion.
Thanks for the memories.
Ed Brown Class of 61
nice article but you mispelled Russ (the janitors) last name, should be Alstaetter. From a 1953 classmate, don’t think that we painted the rock.
OMG–Albion College has a rock–and when the college decided that “it was time to lose the rock” the students got together and bricked it in place–it is still there. Someone tarred and feathered it once too–and who knows what else is under all that paint!!
Thanks Eleanor for the correct spelling of Russ Alstaetter’s name. Russ was really a great guy and did about everything for the school and especially for us kids. He drove buses to special school events and his regular bus route was the bus that went out Cavanaugh Lake Rd to Crooked Lake then around Cavanaugh Lake and then back into town. Russ knew all the kids on his route and if he realized that some of us were late in getting out to the bus stop, he would blow the bus horn and wait and wait till the last minute so we could get on the bus and make it to school. Russ cared about kids — it wasn’t just about a job. He was “good people.”