We’ve just about finished loading the stage coach for our annual trip back to Cape Girardeau, MO, to get in some cool bike riding, recharge our spiritual batteries and to celebrate my mother’s Birthday Season.
I’m also going to be shooting After Pictures of scenes around Cape to go with historical photos for a web site I’m launching. I just started scanning prints and negatives going back to my high school freshman year. Since I worked for the school yearbook and newspaper all four years of high school, and for the tw0 of the local papers through high school and until I left for Ohio University in 1967, I have a pretty good snapshot of the era.
Debate road trip
Here’s a sample. Here’s the A Team of the Debate Squad getting ready for a road trip. (I’m the serious-looking guy second from right. My debate partner, John Muller, far right, and I were undefeated my freshman year.)
The 1960s Class Reunion is going to be held next summer, so I have to get working to make it in time. Wow, I remember laying out newspaper pages with class reunion pictures and saying, “Look at all those old farts.” Be careful of what you say when you’re young.
None of these majorettes dated me
Hey, what did you expect? I was on the debate team and a school photographer. I was a nerd before nerds had a name. (Confession: I actually had and used a pocket protector.)
I DID go to kindergarten with the gal top left, if that scores me any points.
Gonna be a slow few days
I’m sure I’ll have fresh content once we get settled in back home, but things may be a little slow while we’re on the road.
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You were on the debate team.
I can believe it. So was I.
It was like Lawyer 101.
Points were given based on a question that might or might not have been a good question and you scored if you made a better case.
You got all your stuff from “US News and World Report” and “Time”. They didn’t teach research beyond that, only presentation, thus guaranteeing that the best looking, most popular kids lead the team and scored better.
I don’t fault them for it. At that time in history, those magazines were the best we could do. Must be quite different in debate society now that we can Google.
I’d like to see a story on that.
We dug a lot deeper than that. My partner and I would come up with non-conventional arguments, including telephone polls we conducted ourselves.
I sent letters to every organization that had a mailing address. I’m sure J. Edgar Hoover was trying to figure out who this kid was who was getting stuff from the Communist Party one day and the Minutemen and the John Birch Party the next. Some day I’ll have to file a Freedom of Information request to see what they DID collect on me.
One thing that debate taught me is that there are no simple answers. When you have to be able to take either side of an issue and argue it convincingly, you become more skeptical when you hear folks who boil everything down to black and white.
I mentioned that my partner and I were undefeated. Must have been that good-looking thing.
Cape is such a great place, both my parents went to college there and we still have a lot of family around town. It is great to see the old photos, thanks for sharing.