From the Halls of Highland School

I am woman, hear me roar...

The closing song at mass last Sunday was, "Glory, Glory, Halleluia" and that made me remember the version we sang as kids on the school bus.  As I leaned over and quietly sang the "right" lyrics in Nathan's ear, he looked at me as if I had two (maybe even three) heads.  I was chagrined to hear my kids swear they had never heard these words before; I know I taught them, but I obviously did not drill them daily, as I should have.

I climbed those bus steps every morning and afternoon, and it seems to me that the music was an afternoon bus ride kind of thing.  I don't remember singing in the morning.  The bus driver would have a radio up front by her, and it would be playing what was probably WVJS.  I was in the first grade in 1972, and the kids on my bus sang all the time.  We not only sang the classic school bus songs, we sang the radio  hits of the day.  I vividly recall the bus ride home, windows down, hair blowing in my face, hands clutching the back of the seat in front of me, bouncing up and down and singing at the top of my lungs. Two songs that I remember singing are "I Am Woman," by Helen Reddy and "The Night Chicago Died," by Paper Lace.  I suppose there were some high schoolers on the bus, given the song selection. I can only imagine what "I Am Woman" sounded like sung by a group of elementary school kids.  On a bus, no less. I'll bet the bus driver went home and told her husband about it. I wish I could have witnessed it.

The "normal" bus songs we sang were "Glory, Glory, Halleluia," "On Top of Spaghetti," and "Halls of Highland School."  "Glory, Glory, Halleluia" went like this:

My eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school,
We have tortured every teacher, we have broken every rule.

We massacred the office, and we hung the principal.

Our truth is marching on!

Glory, glory, halleluia!

Teacher hit me with a ruler.

I popped her in the butt with a rotten coconut,

and she ain't my teacher no more!

Oh, we loved that one.  And then there was "On Top of Spaghetti":

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.

It rolled in the garden,
And under a bush,
And then my poor meatball,
Was nothing but mush.

The mush was as tasty
As tasty could be,
And then the next summer,
It grew into a tree.

The tree was all covered,
All covered with moss,
And on it grew meatballs,
And tomato sauce.

So if you eat spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
Hold on to your meatball,
Whenever you sneeze.

And who could ever forget "100 Bottles of Beer" and "This Old Man"?  My personal favorite, though, was "From the Halls of Highland School," which was sung to the tune of "Marine's Hymn":

From the halls of Highland School,

to the shores of Bubble Gum Bay.

We will fight our teacher's battles,

with spit balls, pencils and clay.

We will fight for longer recess,

and to keep our desks a mess.

We are proud to claim the title

of "Teacher's number one pest."

That's us!

I don't know what kids do on the bus these days, probably text each other and listen to iPods.  In any case, I think we had more fun.

The Moving Wall

 

The Moving Wall has been in Owensboro since Thursday.  The Wall is a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, DC.  The Wall is 253 feet long, which is slightly longer than half the length of the Memorial in Washington, DC.  The Moving Wall is comprised of two walls, each 126.5 feet in length, and is made of aluminum panels, their surfaces painted with a gloss black polyurethane.  The names are silk-screened onto the walls, and feel as if they are etched. The Wall has been traveling around the country since 1984, from April to November each year.

As of January 1, 2009, there are 58,261 names listed on the memorial.  Approximately 1,300 of these are still unaccounted for POWs and MIAs.  When the Memorial in Washington was constructed, it was believed that the first American casualties occurred in 1959. After the dedication of the Memorial in 1982 it was learned that another death occurred in 1957, and that name was added to the Wall.  In 2000, Richard Fitzgibbon, Jr. had his name inscribed on the Wall (he was killed in 1956).  The last deaths occurred on May 18, 1975.  Names continue to be added to the Wall, as needed.  Interestingly, only 8 of the names are of women, all of them nurses.

The sun was incredibly bright while we were viewing the Wall, and we had to shield our eyes while looking at it. You can see yourself reflected in the Wall so clearly it is almost like a mirror.  I want to visit the Memorial in Washington and touch the polished black granite. There were quite a few people at the Moving Wall today, and the area was manned by volunteers who looked as if they were Vietnam Vets.  Many of them had black leather on; several were with various motorcycle groups.  These guys are starting to look old to me.  The height of the war was in 1968, so if you were 18 then, you would be 59 now.  That is still young, but so many of these Vets look older than their years.

As with the Memorial in Washington, people leave mementos at the Wall,  and, they, too, are kept.  I saw a few things there today that made me wonder if they were really left, or if they were just there while the Wall is in town.  The National Parks Service maintains the collection, and some 1,500 items are on display indefinitely at the Smithsonian.  There was an Owensboro High School yearbook at the Wall today; it was left in memory of John Bruce Weill, class of 1967.

 

As I stood before the Wall I reflected on how lucky my family is, because we were basically untouched by the war. My father served his 4 years in the Army and was released right before he would have been shipped to Vietnam, and none of my uncles were there. Considering how long it went on, and how many lives were lost, that is remarkable.

19 YEARS

58,253 of our sons, brothers, uncles, boyfriends, fathers and friends 

8 women dedicated to the care of others

16 military chaplains

It is our duty to remember, to stand watch and to remain vigilant, to ensure that it never happens again.