Sweet 16, or was it 6?

    This photo (with the background retouched) made the Salina Journal.  No date for this event is in the scrapbook but it was in the Teen Talk column written by Sherry Mitler and Rosie Austin when we were juniors.  Here's the photo's caption:

    "Having reached the ripe old age of 16, Donna Antrim, 828 E. Beloit, left, and Janie Cooke, 230 N. Penn, right, decided it was better being 6 years old.  The gals dressed up like first-graders to celebrate their birthdays Saturday at Kenwood Park.  Sandy Fleming, 515 Upper Mill Heights, center, helped out."

The Teen Talk article said this, without correcting any misspelled names:

    "If you take 27 girls and deduct 10 years from their ages, what do you ?  Six!  You have 27 girls who are six years old?  Well -- at least they thought they were six.

    "I'm talking about the 'sweet six' party that Donna Antrim and Jane Cook (sic) had to celebrate their 16th birthdays.  These 6-year-olds:  Brenda Barringer, Betty Butcher, Barbara Boyer, Mary Gay Dillingham, Donna Dyck, Dee Dee Fencl, Sharon Fox, Sandi (sic) Fleming, Barbara Gish, Mary Kay Hawks (sic), Sandra Hoffman, Ginny Horn, Carol Ina McKim, Carol Olson, Marlene Pinkham, Sande Shilling, Sandi Simmons, Kay Smith, Patty Stauffer, Darlene Sutton, Bette Smith, Mary Rita Warren, Coni Zook, Marilyn Girsh (double sic), and Ardyn Allison donned their little sisters' clothing, and took off for the park on a picnic.  There they played games appropriate for 6-year-olds, watched a very grown up sport, football, and took off for town.

    "They made the innocent shoppers think the heat had affected their eyes, and wonder if they were feeding their own children the right brand of cereal.

    "In between antics they found time to present Donna and Jane with sweaters, bracelets, and money.

    "Well, at least some people know enough to admit it when they're childish."

I made up "double sic" to cover the case where both names for Marlyn Giersch were misspelled.

Class of '56 Prepares for the Future

     Here's another newspaper photo found in Brenda's scrapbook for our Junior year.  No caption is in the book.  I don't recognize anyone in this typing class but I can't resist showing it because it illustrates how things have changed in our lifetimes.  The typewriter was a vital part of life in the 50s but now are hard to find outside museums.

     I'm glad to see a boy in this class because I've always wondered if I was the only boy ever to take typing (Soph year).  The neat results from typing were much better than my handwriting and I enjoyed the friendly races with Carol McKim across the aisle just to my right (we always tied).  The teacher, Mrs. Houchin, stressed that accuracy is more important than speed -- as she pulled out her stopwatch for yet another test to see how many words per minute we could pound out, with penalties for misspellings.  In the 1960s this class became much more important than I could ever imagine in 1955 because ten-finger* touch typing began to save me countless hours as the computer age drew me to a succession of keyboards.  I just wish I'd worked harder at accuracy.

* Actually, I never use my left thumb so it's only nine-finger typing.  Anyone out there use both thumbs?

    Mary Kay Hawkes, Poster Girl

The caption to this photo from the Salina Journal around 1955 says this:

    "HELPS FIGHT AGAINST CANCER -- Mary Kay Hawkes, 515 Charles, tacks up another Cancer Crusade poster.  She's [a] member of Presbyterian Church's Westminister Club which distributed posters Monday and Tuesday."

The fight goes on.

Incidentally, this photo shows that she didn't always have her hair in pigtails, despite what some remember.