Photo by MARCIA HASHIMOTO
Some of the remaining 200 members of the Watsonville High School Class of 1953 who attended the 68th Reunion at the Best Western Seacliff Inn on Aug. 19. Mas Hashimoto (front row, left) not only went to WHS but taught there for 36 years.
Watsonville High’s 1953 Reunion - Memories
By MAS HASHIMOTO adapted from his speech at the reunion
Watsonville High School. What was it like then and what about now? The movie “The Best Years of Our Lives” was shown recently on TCM. It starred Dana Andrews, Frederic March, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Hoagy Carmichael. The movie was about making adjustments after WW II.
We’ve all had to make many adjustments—to high school, college, career, marriage, buying a home, raising children, loving grandchildren, retirement, and most recently, the coronavirus. It has affected our class reunion. Do we have anyone in our class who graduated from Aromas? The 7th graders had picks and shovels up under which the 8th grade graduates marched. Why? They were the 49ers, the Class of 1949, 8th graders.
Back then at WHS, if a student fell below 80 points, that student couldn’t play sports, go to dances, or participate in activities. As a teacher, I had honor points Post-It pads in my left pocket. The honor points one earned for good service was given to the Advisor who kept track. In my right pocket, I had the demerit pad for tardiness, poor citizenship, etc.
As freshman, we all had to take a one semester course entitled, “Orientation.” We learned the traditions and customs of the high school, which was founded in 1892. We recited the verses of “Black and Gold” – “Praise to thee old Black and Gold” -- not only in class but at graduation. The music, “High above Cayuga Waters,” comes from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, We were also subjected to hazing which I hated and was delighted when it was outlawed by the State. We purchased Black and Gold “beanies” to wear to football games. They were reversible. We wore white shirts in the rooting section with the beanies making a “W” in gold, and in the second half reversed the color to black.
As freshmen, we also couldn’t walk on any lawn in front of the Main Building. The lawn had a Senior bench where only Seniors could sit. The Junior lawn had the flag pole, and any non-Junior who walked on it would have his pants taken and flown under the California flag. Sophomores had the lawn in front of Martinelli’s factory across the street.
Today, that senior bench, which is in the quad, could serve as the “friendship” bench. Anyone sitting on it would be showing that they were asking for help from being bullied, beaten or suicidal. The students and teachers could rally around the one who is asking for help.
We, as sophomores, were in Norm Haney’s classes. He was so cute with Bing Crosby ears. He taught us Life Science and later Driver’s Education. He had new students every 9 weeks. I had 7,000 students. Norm had 27,000!
Norm served in the US Navy in Shanghai, China after WW II. There he had a boating accident where the tip of his left finger was slightly crushed. He received a $35 a month disability check from the Veterans' Department for years. One year, the VA called him back to see if it had grown back; they wanted to cut off his allowance. After the examination, he was given a few more dollars each month.
When Marcia, my wife, and I were in Shanghai the first time, we were on a boat tour of the Yangtze River. I reported back that I couldn’t find Haney’s finger. He’s the only guy I know that gave the Communist Chinese the “finger.”
Norm coached lightweight basketball and always wore a red tie. I don’t know why. At the first game when he coached the girls’ basketball team, he wore his red tie, which the girls promptly cut off and have him a pink tie to wear, which he did proudly. Of all the teachers at Watsonville High, no one was more beloved. He was invited to four class reunions each year.
When we took US History from Bud Rowland, the Korean War, which started in June of 1950, wasn’t in the textbooks. WW II, which had just ended, however was in the books. He began his lectures on the contributions of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. He spoke of the rise and fall of each culture. I remembered how he pointed out that the young American civilization, if it fell, would fall from within and that no foreign power could ever defeat us. I wonder what Mr. Rowland would say today.
In Watsonville schools, did you ever have Miss Kelly, Miss Zmudowski, Miss Herbert, Miss Allison, Miss Uren, Miss Murphy, Miss Straich, Miss Flores, Miss Lord, Miss Tamisea, Miss Blanchard, Miss Blizzard, Miss Johnson, Miss Worde, Miss Billard, Miss Pokel, Miss Matthews, Miss Harris, Miss Benham, Miss Fuller, Miss Pogue? Jean Pogue will be 104 in November.
Ever wonder why? Before unions, one bargained for a contract individually with School Superintendent TS. MacQuiddy. If a single woman teacher got married, her contract was terminated and her position could be offered to a male teacher. A new male teacher, a coach, could make more than a 30-year female veteran.
In May of 1948, led by Jean Pogue, Sig Lien and Paul Pfeiffer, the teachers demanded a salary contract based upon degrees and years of experience. They were fired. The high school students conducted a half-day strike, and that night at the school board meeting, the teachers were rehired and the superintendent TS MacQuiddy resigned.
There were a few teachers who hated “Japs,” and we couldn’t do anything about it. We would get a grade no higher than a “C.” We might make the upper 10%, but not the California Scholarship Federation. Later, as a teacher, I learned of others who hated minorities—especially, Mexicans.
Nevertheless, our school was rated among the top three by UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Santa Clara University. We didn’t have a 4.0 until 1962. Today, with Advanced Placement grades of plus 5, the students can have grade point averages well above 4.0. I lied to my students that I was a 4.0 student. I got one point for my freshman year, another point in my sophomore year, etcetera, and ended up with 4.0.
Each freshman class chose class colors. One color had to be white. Ours was green and white. The yearbook, The Manzanita, had covers that were often with the class colors. Our caps and gowns on graduation day were often the class colors. Mary Idemoto designed our 1953 Manzanita cover, black and gold with the outline of the cafeteria and band room which were added in 1953.
We thought the student enrollment would reach 2,000 in 1970. We reached that goal in 1960. We didn’t have enough classrooms in 1960. We had to build a new high school in Aptos. That’s another long story.
When Bud Rowland retired and I became Social Studies Department head, he gave me one bit of advice. Hire only those who have a social studies major or minor. The administration kept sending me unqualified candidates. One was a PE teacher who couldn’t spell physical. No “y.” Finally, the administration took away my hiring duties and sent two coaches. The joke in Texas is that all history teachers have the same first name, “Coach.” They couldn’t teach science, math, foreign languages, English, music but, ah, social studies.
Advisory disappeared. Newly hired teachers hated to take roll again. Stanford stated that Advisory must be eliminated for the students needed professional counselors. Students complained that they could see their counselor for 30 seconds a year! They received little or no help. Advisory was unique and had set us apart from other schools.
Today, it is sad to see music and band eliminated. PE for juniors and seniors is no longer required. At the end of the freshman Orientation class, we knew what we were going to take in our senior year. We had to have a major and minor in order to graduate.
In our time, there were four high schools—Santa Cruz, Salinas, Monterey and Watsonville. Salinas will have five high schools and Watsonville now has three with Aptos and Pajaro Valley High Schools.
The students from the Freedom area would be attending the new high school. At the school board meeting, I asked that the new high school be named “Whisky Hill High” with the little brown jug as their symbol. Before it was named Freedom, the area was known as Whisky Hill. The board said “No.” OK, Pajaro Valley High is a good name. Pajaro in Spanish means bird. So, their mascot is a Grizzly and not a Screaming Eagle or a swallow?
I had a bowling club called the “Alley Catz” and wanted a bowling league together with other high schools. When the school administrators learned that girls would be on the team, they said, “Absolutely not!” Two of my best bowlers were girls. “The bowling pins,” I said, “don’t know whether a girl or boy knocked them down.”
Janet Coles was finally allowed to be on the golf team. She won 4 LPGA tournaments and others world-wide.
When Title IX came into being, the principal, boys’ athletic director and the girls’ PE teachers were dead set against girls’ sports! The girls’ PE teachers warned that competition would be harmful to the psychic of the girls. The guys didn’t want to spend the money on the girls. The girls had to wear the very same uniforms for softball, basketball and track.
Jean Pogue started the Sno Catz to prove that girls can ski just as well as the guys. Jean Pogue is 103 years of age and lives in Roseville. Stan Harlan is the only other living teacher from the 1950s. He is age 97 and lives in Pacific Grove.
Last year, the new football coach wanted a more commercial image of the school’s Wildcat, not our cute Willie. We explained to him that with Willie, we had won seven straight years of varsity and lightweight football team championships. Of the girls’ sports, I asked them to adopt “Wildkittens,” and they said “Absolute not! We’re Wildcatz!” Carmel High is thinking of changing the name of their team from the Padres. What would the girls’ team be called? Madres? Right now, they are the Lady Padres.
The local newspapers kept writing Wildcatz with an “s.” I complained. They prided themselves on proper spelling. So, I took the WHS ASB Constitution to the Pajaronian and Sentinel and showed them the correct spelling is with a “z.”
I also remember our senior play, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” with Lloyd Davis and Jean Mann and a dozen male teachers who took a bow at the end of the show. We were there with the Sadie Hawkins dance. Girls were to ask the guys if they wanted to go to the Prom. Our rally in the auditorium included a shot gun wedding. Can’t bring guns onto the campus anymore.
When I returned to the campus in 1960, the senior play was gone. The Prom was open to freshmen and sophomores. The tradition of having only juniors and seniors attend was gone. The little freshman boys in tuxes looked like ring bearers of a wedding.
The Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 did not destroy the Main Building. The aftershocks of Easter 1990 did. On the committee, I wanted to update it instead of a new building. A senior student, Pat Work, who later went on to West Point, asked which would be safer. End of discussion.
In 1992, the school celebrated its Centennial. Each graduating student was given a commemorative medallion. Centennial was misspelled.
Our class gift is our legacy, and it is cared for by the staff.
Each generation – your grandchildren and great grandchildren -- must adjust to the surrounding elements in order to succeed and maybe survive. With global warming, toxic air, genocide by germ warfare, political intrigue, religious interference, economic instability, educational challenges, racial hatred, artificial intelligence – you can add others – how much more difficult will it be for them? How can we best help them?
Our lifetime was perhaps a most enjoyable period in US History — yes, we were blessed with “The Best Years of Our Lives.”
