Our friend Mike Spradley has (at last!) provided us with this long-promised story ... and I assure you it is worth the wait ....
This narrative is based on a true story..... including the bits I have grossly exaggerated.
Back in September 2007, my wife Ada and I traveled to Childress to visit her sister Fern. While there I asked Ada if she would like to go visit the Eternal Flame. She expressed surprise that Childress even had an Eternal Flame……but “Absolutely,” she says…….she sure did not want to come this far and miss seeing the Eternal Flame. So.…. off we go…..to the site that is forever embedded into my brain with billions and billions and billions of convolutions.
I drove right to it. If one is standing in the street looking at the exact center of old Childress High School…..and look to the right…..to the end of the building…..you can see “the Spot.” In front of the last window to the south is the sidewalk where it makes a 90 degree turn… four feet away from both legs of the sidewalk………is where I naturally assumed the Mayor of Childress would have placed the Eternal Flame.
But Jeeez……noting its absence…….I wondered where it was……had those pukes from Quanah stolen it?........had the gas company not received payment for the natural gas that fueled it?.....Had Hurricane Katrina extinguished it?......
Ada told me she was pretty sure there had never been an Eternal Flame there.
But how could that be?!!!!!……..that this place of our darkest hour would not be commemorated with some kinda monument that could be seen from outer space!!!............I mean……this was rat-down nary on the gol’ durned, dad-blamed SPOT where Don Seal talked two normal, levi-wear’n, boot-strapp’n, snuff dipp’n, snake-catch’n, frog-gig’n boys into trying out for Cheerleaders for Pete’s sake !!!!!!!......
This is like a Nam’ flashback…..just count backwards from 100…99…98….97…..calm….calm…..calm….chill….chill
…hmmmmm…hmmmm..hmmm…..chant …chant…
Jimmy Czewski and I had been great buds since the 1st grade. Don Seal had become the 3rd attachment in the 7th grade. Now……It was early September..1959….we were freshmen at CHS…….before the morning bell went off.
Czewski and I were standing at the SPOT…..watching all the freshmen girl babes drive by……..sitting right next to their Aliens-from-Mars Senior boyfriends…in their 1951 hot rod Fords………right after our Moms had dropped us off for school…….Alas…none of the Freshmen Babes returned our eager little geeky waves.
About that time Don Seal comes bounding up to us…….just a’ quiver’n with enthusiasm and excitement!!!...........little did I know……this moment was H hour and counting…..the day that will live in infamy…..yada yada yada….. He had just read on the bulletin board that there were to be tryouts for freshmen cheerleaders. Czewski and I looked at this nut….our buddy…our pal……shrugged our shoulders…..and asked him, “So?....whad tha heck does that have to do with us?”.......
So…..he tells us that his brothers, Darrell and David, had been CHS cheerleaders. And they had had more gals chasing them than Jerry Lee Lewis. And!!!.....he continued…….he thought that the 3 of us ought to go try out for cheerleaders..... Folks…..I am telling you…….that even today…..48 years later……as I am writing this narrative…….it still causes chills to flow up and down my spine…..just remembering that incredibly loony suggestion.
Our response was exactly what you would expect. Don had about as much chance of convincing Czewski and I of doing this as convincing us to slide down a 50 foot razor blade into a vat of alcohol. But Don was relentless. He begged and pleaded and argued and cajoled and threatened and promised and gestured and waved and waggled until he wore us down. So….we said……of course we would have several days to think about it, huh?…….hoping that Don would come to his senses over time…ya know?.......act in haste….repent at leisure kind of thing.
But……he says…….tis not the case……the dad-gumed tryouts are today. It’s now or never!!! ....pressure…pressure…pressure!!!!....gotta move….gotta act….
Aha!!!!....we responded……but we’ve got no routine…..we don’t even know a cheer….or a chant…….I mean…I don’t even know a poem clean enough to recite. Do you think that posed an obstacle to Don’s incessant argument?......Nope. He tells us not to worry. Czewski and I don’t have to do a thing. All we have to do is walk out onto the stage with him and do some whooping and hollering…..and he would do a cheer that his brother David had taught him.
Weeeeeeeeellllllllllllllll………I am starting to feel a little bit better now. I mean…..I know that Imogene Pannell is a serious minded person. She “jist hain’t” the kinda woman thaz gonna let 3 bozos come out and make a mockery of her tryouts by-golly by-jeez!! Imogene was all woman and she could whoop all three of us with one hand tied behind her back.
I am having trouble typing the words…..b b b b b’but….we…uh….kinda agreed to do it….just because we were the 3 musketeers…..and we couldn’t let our buddy down……and more importantly….Czewski and I knew there was not a snowball’s chance that we would be selected. So…….sometime in the afternoon…..off we go to the auditorium. I can’t remember how many…. but there was a ton of girls there and they all had great choreographed routines. Miss Pannell was sitting in the front row with the upper class cheerleaders. After each group of girls tried out….they sat down around Miss Pannell to watch the next group.
It was…gulp….our turn…
I want you to know…..in 1966….off Hainan Island….the Chinese shot a SAM missile at my patrol plane. It blew up just off our left wing. Of 12 people on board, I was by far, the calmest, coolest person on that airplane………How is that you ask?....how could that possibly be?
Because in 1959….at 14 years old……I walked out onto a stage with two other guys without a single thought of what I was a’gonna do in front of all those females…..girls who had spent their entire summer practicing their routines for this very event…..It would have taken a lot more than missiles to generate the same pressure that I faced that day……on that stage……………
Fear?.....After that tryout…..I spit in the face of fear !!
Don, Czewski and I proceeded to jump up and down and do some hollerin’……..then Don commenced his cheer. Paraphrased…as I remember it……..it went something like……
..”Bobcats…..Yea Bobcats!!!!”.......”we beseech you to transport the leather-covered air-pressurized oblong device across the line of demarcation that signifies the rendering of 6 points and grant us victory over the opposing forces!!!”…..”Yea Bobcats!”……..”Yea Bobcats!!!”
Now by golly…..that was funny!!!!....I blew out my lunch thru my nose!! Then the three of us whooped and hollered some more……..…an’ from the audience?…….there was no sound…….no movement……no sight of teeth enclosed within all those closed, down-turned lips…..
I have no memory of how we escaped. That had to be on Friday because we spent an exhilarating evening driving up and down the highway. Later I dropped off Don and Czewski and drove home. My parents were having a dinner party at our house that very night…..and one of the cars parked in front of my house was this great 1958 Ford Crown Victoria with a 351 cubic inch, 300 horsepower, police interceptor engine with a Holley four-barrel carburetor and dual pipes………I knew that car………I loved that car………..b-b-b-b but….Gasp!!... That’s Imogene Pannell’s car!!!…..at my house!!……She must be inside, explaining to my parents all the logical reasons why I should be sent to reform school.
When I walked into the house all the adults were just a laugh’n and a”gaggle’n. I tried to sneak back to my room but sho enuf”…….Miss Pannell stopped me. She told me our routine today was pretty silly………but…….she thought it would really be great to have 3 boys and 3 girls as cheerleaders……..and, she goes on…..she was selecting us because we were good on that trampoline…..and,…the three of us had better not let her down….she threatened…….
But I had only heard the 1st and 2nd sentence. I had been struck deaf, blind and speechless after the word “cheerleaders.” I was walking around in a daze…..bumping into the furniture…the walls….trying to conceive how many methods I could devise to strangle Don Seal….I did not want anything too quick.
All our Mothers were soooooooooooo happy. My brothers disowned me. Our Mothers actually drove to Wichita Falls to buy these white pants, white shoes and white turtleneck sweaters. The turtle necks were so thick they could close off your breathing passages till you became lightheaded. The 3 of us were so scrawny we looked like bulimic Pillsbury Doughboys whenever we were cocooned into them.
I really don't remember Czewski's reaction, but Don was happy as a lark. His primary motivation had been to get to ride around West Texas in Miss Pannell's hot rod Ford with some of the best looking gals in Childress...like that was gonna help us.
Besides the three of us guys…as I remember it…there was Pat Harmon, Pat Davenport and June Prince. The alternates were Raenell Wynn and Linda Kay Bridges. And I must say…..the girls were great. They seemed to accept us like normal people. We had great times practicing in front of Pat Harmon’s house. And the road trips were great fun.
But a long term future for me as a cheerleader was not in the cards. After a few games I just quit going and so did the other two. Without a word said……we guys were fired/retired/runoff and our places given to the alternates who really deserved to be cheerleaders. That was fine with me.
As a postscript, I will mention that my own daughter, Chalyse, became a cheerleader at Cy-Fair High School during the late '80s. Many times they practiced in our front yard in Cypress, Texas. One day I came home after having a client meeting. I was in a three piece suit and I was at least 25 pounds overweight. As I got out of my car…….all the Cy-Fair cheerleading squad was practicing in our front yard…..and they had a mini-trampoline in the middle of our yard.
For some reason, that mini-tramp triggered a dormant sense of mischief in me. I placed my briefcase onto the ground…..I ran across the yard in street shoes…..hit that trampoline perfectly….and did a forward flip!!!!!.......That cheerleading squad….including my daughter…..was stunned!!.......and impressed……WOW!!! They couldn’t believe their eyes!!!
High fives were forthcoming all around.
Then….without limping, I picked up my briefcase, walked into the house and secretly iced down my right knee that I had sprained during that ridiculous front flip.
Back in September 2007, my wife Ada and I traveled to Childress to visit her sister Fern. While there I asked Ada if she would like to go visit the Eternal Flame. She expressed surprise that Childress even had an Eternal Flame……but “Absolutely,” she says…….she sure did not want to come this far and miss seeing the Eternal Flame. So.…. off we go…..to the site that is forever embedded into my brain with billions and billions and billions of convolutions.
I drove right to it. If one is standing in the street looking at the exact center of old Childress High School…..and look to the right…..to the end of the building…..you can see “the Spot.” In front of the last window to the south is the sidewalk where it makes a 90 degree turn… four feet away from both legs of the sidewalk………is where I naturally assumed the Mayor of Childress would have placed the Eternal Flame.
But Jeeez……noting its absence…….I wondered where it was……had those pukes from Quanah stolen it?........had the gas company not received payment for the natural gas that fueled it?.....Had Hurricane Katrina extinguished it?......
Ada told me she was pretty sure there had never been an Eternal Flame there.
But how could that be?!!!!!……..that this place of our darkest hour would not be commemorated with some kinda monument that could be seen from outer space!!!............I mean……this was rat-down nary on the gol’ durned, dad-blamed SPOT where Don Seal talked two normal, levi-wear’n, boot-strapp’n, snuff dipp’n, snake-catch’n, frog-gig’n boys into trying out for Cheerleaders for Pete’s sake !!!!!!!......
This is like a Nam’ flashback…..just count backwards from 100…99…98….97…..calm….calm…..calm….chill….chill
…hmmmmm…hmmmm..hmmm…..chant …chant…
Jimmy Czewski and I had been great buds since the 1st grade. Don Seal had become the 3rd attachment in the 7th grade. Now……It was early September..1959….we were freshmen at CHS…….before the morning bell went off.
Czewski and I were standing at the SPOT…..watching all the freshmen girl babes drive by……..sitting right next to their Aliens-from-Mars Senior boyfriends…in their 1951 hot rod Fords………right after our Moms had dropped us off for school…….Alas…none of the Freshmen Babes returned our eager little geeky waves.
About that time Don Seal comes bounding up to us…….just a’ quiver’n with enthusiasm and excitement!!!...........little did I know……this moment was H hour and counting…..the day that will live in infamy…..yada yada yada….. He had just read on the bulletin board that there were to be tryouts for freshmen cheerleaders. Czewski and I looked at this nut….our buddy…our pal……shrugged our shoulders…..and asked him, “So?....whad tha heck does that have to do with us?”.......
So…..he tells us that his brothers, Darrell and David, had been CHS cheerleaders. And they had had more gals chasing them than Jerry Lee Lewis. And!!!.....he continued…….he thought that the 3 of us ought to go try out for cheerleaders..... Folks…..I am telling you…….that even today…..48 years later……as I am writing this narrative…….it still causes chills to flow up and down my spine…..just remembering that incredibly loony suggestion.
Our response was exactly what you would expect. Don had about as much chance of convincing Czewski and I of doing this as convincing us to slide down a 50 foot razor blade into a vat of alcohol. But Don was relentless. He begged and pleaded and argued and cajoled and threatened and promised and gestured and waved and waggled until he wore us down. So….we said……of course we would have several days to think about it, huh?…….hoping that Don would come to his senses over time…ya know?.......act in haste….repent at leisure kind of thing.
But……he says…….tis not the case……the dad-gumed tryouts are today. It’s now or never!!! ....pressure…pressure…pressure!!!!....gotta move….gotta act….
Aha!!!!....we responded……but we’ve got no routine…..we don’t even know a cheer….or a chant…….I mean…I don’t even know a poem clean enough to recite. Do you think that posed an obstacle to Don’s incessant argument?......Nope. He tells us not to worry. Czewski and I don’t have to do a thing. All we have to do is walk out onto the stage with him and do some whooping and hollering…..and he would do a cheer that his brother David had taught him.
Weeeeeeeeellllllllllllllll………I am starting to feel a little bit better now. I mean…..I know that Imogene Pannell is a serious minded person. She “jist hain’t” the kinda woman thaz gonna let 3 bozos come out and make a mockery of her tryouts by-golly by-jeez!! Imogene was all woman and she could whoop all three of us with one hand tied behind her back.
I am having trouble typing the words…..b b b b b’but….we…uh….kinda agreed to do it….just because we were the 3 musketeers…..and we couldn’t let our buddy down……and more importantly….Czewski and I knew there was not a snowball’s chance that we would be selected. So…….sometime in the afternoon…..off we go to the auditorium. I can’t remember how many…. but there was a ton of girls there and they all had great choreographed routines. Miss Pannell was sitting in the front row with the upper class cheerleaders. After each group of girls tried out….they sat down around Miss Pannell to watch the next group.
It was…gulp….our turn…
I want you to know…..in 1966….off Hainan Island….the Chinese shot a SAM missile at my patrol plane. It blew up just off our left wing. Of 12 people on board, I was by far, the calmest, coolest person on that airplane………How is that you ask?....how could that possibly be?
Because in 1959….at 14 years old……I walked out onto a stage with two other guys without a single thought of what I was a’gonna do in front of all those females…..girls who had spent their entire summer practicing their routines for this very event…..It would have taken a lot more than missiles to generate the same pressure that I faced that day……on that stage……………
Fear?.....After that tryout…..I spit in the face of fear !!
Don, Czewski and I proceeded to jump up and down and do some hollerin’……..then Don commenced his cheer. Paraphrased…as I remember it……..it went something like……
..”Bobcats…..Yea Bobcats!!!!”.......”we beseech you to transport the leather-covered air-pressurized oblong device across the line of demarcation that signifies the rendering of 6 points and grant us victory over the opposing forces!!!”…..”Yea Bobcats!”……..”Yea Bobcats!!!”
Now by golly…..that was funny!!!!....I blew out my lunch thru my nose!! Then the three of us whooped and hollered some more……..…an’ from the audience?…….there was no sound…….no movement……no sight of teeth enclosed within all those closed, down-turned lips…..
I have no memory of how we escaped. That had to be on Friday because we spent an exhilarating evening driving up and down the highway. Later I dropped off Don and Czewski and drove home. My parents were having a dinner party at our house that very night…..and one of the cars parked in front of my house was this great 1958 Ford Crown Victoria with a 351 cubic inch, 300 horsepower, police interceptor engine with a Holley four-barrel carburetor and dual pipes………I knew that car………I loved that car………..b-b-b-b but….Gasp!!... That’s Imogene Pannell’s car!!!…..at my house!!……She must be inside, explaining to my parents all the logical reasons why I should be sent to reform school.
When I walked into the house all the adults were just a laugh’n and a”gaggle’n. I tried to sneak back to my room but sho enuf”…….Miss Pannell stopped me. She told me our routine today was pretty silly………but…….she thought it would really be great to have 3 boys and 3 girls as cheerleaders……..and, she goes on…..she was selecting us because we were good on that trampoline…..and,…the three of us had better not let her down….she threatened…….
But I had only heard the 1st and 2nd sentence. I had been struck deaf, blind and speechless after the word “cheerleaders.” I was walking around in a daze…..bumping into the furniture…the walls….trying to conceive how many methods I could devise to strangle Don Seal….I did not want anything too quick.
All our Mothers were soooooooooooo happy. My brothers disowned me. Our Mothers actually drove to Wichita Falls to buy these white pants, white shoes and white turtleneck sweaters. The turtle necks were so thick they could close off your breathing passages till you became lightheaded. The 3 of us were so scrawny we looked like bulimic Pillsbury Doughboys whenever we were cocooned into them.
I really don't remember Czewski's reaction, but Don was happy as a lark. His primary motivation had been to get to ride around West Texas in Miss Pannell's hot rod Ford with some of the best looking gals in Childress...like that was gonna help us.
Besides the three of us guys…as I remember it…there was Pat Harmon, Pat Davenport and June Prince. The alternates were Raenell Wynn and Linda Kay Bridges. And I must say…..the girls were great. They seemed to accept us like normal people. We had great times practicing in front of Pat Harmon’s house. And the road trips were great fun.
But a long term future for me as a cheerleader was not in the cards. After a few games I just quit going and so did the other two. Without a word said……we guys were fired/retired/runoff and our places given to the alternates who really deserved to be cheerleaders. That was fine with me.
As a postscript, I will mention that my own daughter, Chalyse, became a cheerleader at Cy-Fair High School during the late '80s. Many times they practiced in our front yard in Cypress, Texas. One day I came home after having a client meeting. I was in a three piece suit and I was at least 25 pounds overweight. As I got out of my car…….all the Cy-Fair cheerleading squad was practicing in our front yard…..and they had a mini-trampoline in the middle of our yard.
For some reason, that mini-tramp triggered a dormant sense of mischief in me. I placed my briefcase onto the ground…..I ran across the yard in street shoes…..hit that trampoline perfectly….and did a forward flip!!!!!.......That cheerleading squad….including my daughter…..was stunned!!.......and impressed……WOW!!! They couldn’t believe their eyes!!!
High fives were forthcoming all around.
Then….without limping, I picked up my briefcase, walked into the house and secretly iced down my right knee that I had sprained during that ridiculous front flip.
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Jim Spradley, Sr. and wife Lornadee, Mike's parents
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11 comments:
Mike,
Your cheerleader story really is funny! I am so sorry I didn't get to Childress until we were sophomores and missed this momentous occasion! Despite the fact that your life as a Bobcat Cheerleader was shortlived, it has given you the story for a lifetime!
Actually, I would bet that the event most of us would love to have seen was the forward flip off the mini-tramp in your front yard while wearing a suit.
I am including my personal commandment number 3 for your future reference.
3. I will remember that I am not 30 or 40 anymore
so I won't hurt myself trying to act as if I were.
Thank you for sharing and for giving us our chuckle for the day.
Mike, as always, your story has left us laughing ... and waiting for more ... and I know you have more to tell. Lately we've been discussing someone well-known to a lot of us in the CHS Class of 1963, Floyd Dakil of Dallas (related to the Dakils of the erstwhile Dakil's clothing store in Childress), who spent quite a bit of time visiting in Childress when we were all young.
BUT ... the big news, particularly in light of your wonderful post ... is that today, I FOUND Jim(my) Czewski ... Dr. Jim Czewski, now of Ft. Worth. I talked this afternoon with his son, and later with his wife BJ (for about an hour). Jim is working in the ER until about midnight when, as BJ told me, he will come home and fall asleep almost immediately. I have his address, phone (duh!) and e-mail address. I have sent the blog links to him and BJ, and actually anticipate talking with him in the next day or so. BJ said they would be very interested in receiving the info about the Las Vegas reunion, and Nicki and I have added him to our list. I'll not relate all the things she told me just yet, in hopes that one or both of them will join us here on the blog soon, and update us personally.
I also made contact with Ron(nie) Lawrence's wife Deborah in Centennial, Colorado. Ron was also working this evening, but she took my name, phone number and e-mail address, and suggested that if Ron and I don't manage to connect during the week, it will be easier to reach him on the weekend. So ....
If anyone wants the contact information I have on Jim and Ron, let me know. And again, if anyone reading the blog has information as to the whereabouts of "missing" classmates, please pass it along.
Mike, thanks for sharing your story of dealing with humiliation and walking the higher road. I always thought you three were just totally cool for taking on the responsibility of being cheerleaders and balancing out the act. Of course I was a girl watching boys show their stuff!
Great story! My favorite part is the mini tramp flip for your daughter & friends. What a major coup for you, impressing a teenage daughter!! That's not easy.
Jenn, you asked for a photo of Lornadee, and I found a black and white picture of us both, apparently leaving the house on Avenue I, for a dance or some other festivity, circa 1957 or 58, I think. In the meantime, and as promised, this is the saga of Lornadee`s Presidency of the Wilson Elementary School PTA.
We moved to Childress Nov. 1, 1951, from Sherman, Tx., when I was 27, Lornadee was 26, Jimmy was 8, Mike was 6, and Rick was 4. We rented a duplex on Ave. G, and during the ensuing 9 years, before moving to Lubbock, we rented and lived in 5 other houses. It seemed when we rented a house and fixed it up to suit Lornadee, the owner would sell it, requiring us to locate another rent house and move. As you would say, I digress, but when we moved to Ave G, Jimmy and Mike were of school age, 8 and 6, but Rick was not, as he was only 4. When Lornadee enrolled them in school, the term was already in progress, so apparently nothing was said about when it had started. I guess the both of us just assumed the Fall term began in Sept., on Tuesday, following Labor Day, which was the custom in North Texas, and possibly in all of Texas, for that matter.
Between the initial enrollment and the 1952 Fall school start, Lornadee learned all schools in the Childress Independent School District. started, NOT on the Tuesday following Labor Day, BUT ON LABOR DAY ITSELF. This did not please her one iota and I think it festered in her mind for quite some time, attempting to think of a way the "school start day" could be changed. I do not remember how long she thought about it, but the idea finally emerged she had to be on the inside, if there was any chance the start day could be changed. SOOOO, she decided to become a candidate for the Wilson Elementary School PTA Presidency and was elected.
She was unsuccessful during her first term, in her efforts to get the start date changed, so she ran for re-election and won again. I guess she had learned a lot in the political ins and outs during her first term, because when she left office after her 2nd term, the Childress Schools Fall start date had been changed to the first Tuesday following Labor Day. I can only presume the start day has not been changed since. I only know it was changed during the early 1950s thru her relentless efforts.
Jim, thank you so much for the picture, and the story. Your Lornadee was indeed beautiful ... and, as I suspected, once I saw the photo, the mists parted and I was able to picture her completely, as she looked when you all lived on Avenue I. I know Jimmy, and Mike and Ricky were a handful for you both, but Lornadee seemed to handle it all with a particular grace. Thanks again for the photo, and the comment.
Jim, thanks for sharing the picture of you and Lornadee. She is beautiful and you haven't changed a bit! When I first met you, I thought you and Mike were twins, but now I think he takes after his mom. Don't you?
Darryl, you are right. Life happens and you just go on and do the best you can. Who would we be without our "mistakes"?
Ok...the moon has set, it is almost time for the sun to rise again. The bullfrogs have quit singing and the owls are out cavorting. I am going to bed! nite all!
Sorry Sheila, but it is the consensus in the Spradley Family that Mike resembles me and Jimmy and Rick take after Lornadee. However, I realize it`s just a matter of opinion, but Mike and I both think he is just a younger version of me. Lornadee and I always thought we were fortunate to be the parents of 3 such handsome boys. Could I be biased?
Jim Sr.
Jim, Please do not forget that I know your boys. You are not at all biased. They are most definitely handsome, charming, charasmatic, brave beyond word in my vocabulary, and many other things...don't you agree? Good genes run in your family. Look at that beautiful great grand daughter! And Life goes on! Good work young man!
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