A great life in Belmont

(The pictures are customized cars, very popular for my years in Belmont)

While I was dating Margaret I went to Spruce Street almost every day. To see Margaret and play ball on the empty lots with the Mill Hill boys. One of the guys playing was Harold Woods, Margaret's brother.  Harold was a very good Ball player. Eventually he went pro and played for awhile. But He learned that Baseball on the road was tough on a marriage. He considered his marriage more important and resigned the team.

It is ironic Spruce street was where Sherry was born. In Belmont High School, academics were not the primary interest, it was sports. The school did put out several Pro players. One from Sherry’s class, Jimmy Hall. Sherry also had a nephew who went pro Baseball. As my good fortune would have it Sherry had not taken a foreign language course with her class, so she was in French I and in my class. I picked the seat directly behind her. We were friends thru my 10th grade.

I blame her for the only ‘C’ I ever received in school, she would not let me copy her paper. . I  never planned to finish HS. My plans were to quit when I got 16.

Belmont my first school that had a program or ‘demerits’ or something like that. Students got hours in detention for infractions of the rules, i.e.

…walking the wrong way in the hall,

…chewing gum in the hall or talking in the hall.

…skipping steps on the stairs.

… then there was skipping school! you got 2 hrs in detention for 1 hr skipped.

The schools I had attended before allowed basically undisciplined hall ways, laughing and talking, etc. But class rooms were quiet and respectful. Belmont was a ‘little’ different.

My initiation at Belmont HS was a good whipping by Ronnie Eldridge.  I was walking home with Neil Williamson from the Climax. The group of boys held him aside to keep him from giving any aid. It was down by the RR tracks . He was backed by several of the boys from the football team. After the whipping I was told to not be a smart ass, mind your own business, leave their girls alone and keep my mouth shut. Something like that.  Just your standard ‘new kid’ warning.

I don’t think that sort of thing happened to new girls, I never remember Shirl talking about it, but it seemed standard for the new boys in town.

In the 11th grade I finally  did get my license. I enjoyed driving. Back then the church pastor picked up a lot of folks who did not have cars, and were too far to walk, to get  them to church. That became my job and I really did enjoy it.  Margaret suggested we should not date anymore, we were still friends.  She had her eye on Buddy one of my good friends.  They did eventually go-steady.

At the suggestion of friends I did the unthinkable (for me), I asked Sherry for a date and she said, YES! I was one dude on cloud 9.

SHE KISSED ME ON THE FIRST DATE! Okay she allowed me to kiss her on the first date. For me I think it was love at first bite.

Now back to school. Sherry did not have a full load in her senior year, so she went to work before the school day ended. I felt obligated to walk her to work, therefore skipping school. I was racking up a lot of detention hours, but that 15-25 minute walk with Sherry was worth every minute of it.  Before I quit school I had a record # of hours.  I had never planned to spend them in detention. Sherry was falling in love with a delinquent.

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Tomorrow, the shoe story and going steady!

My son Jack, and some of you here in the blogosphere suggested I put this into a book and that is exactly what I am doing.

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This was a 50-51 Merc, one of the most customized cars of the 50’s.