I remember....
I will always have some unique memories from "good ole' Coshocton High"!
I'm sure these memories are probably pretty familiar if you grew up in Coshocton in the 60's. I imagine many others share some of these same fond memories with me. I'm betting most could add a lot more to this list, and I'm hoping some other CHS alum will jog my memory and add a few of your Coshocton HS memories too.
Some of my fondest Coshocton HS memories...
I remember... Of course, the one and only "Freeze" ... "the" hangout with the best chicken sandwiches ever, and I remember standing outside at The Freeze in all kinds of weather, kids eatin' "superburgs" (a truly Coshoctonian expression, if I ever heard one!).
I remember... Thursday nights at the Youth Center on Main Street (and later on 3rd St across from the courthouse), slow dancing to Hey Hey Paula for the umpteenth time. Wondering if that special guy would ask to take you home as you "close danced" to the familiar traditional last songs "See The Pyramids Along The Nile" or "Goodnight My Love".
I remember... In the summers, the weekly dances at the pavilion at Lake Park. Also the outside dances in the 60's with the live bands like The Shadows, accompanied by the live mosquitos, that were supposedly exterminated by Coshocton's innovative bug fogger truck (which I always believed choked more people than bugs).
In the winters, ice skating on the frozen tennis courts at Bancroft and at Roscoe Basin.
I remember... Coshocton's school cafeteria's pièce de résistance ... pizza burgers. (never had any quite as good... I would pay good money for that recipe!).
So many memories...
Decorating for the proms in the girl's gym...
Or putting signs on the lockers before the games.
The booming pep rallies of the early 60's that rocked the gym.... and the really lousy ones we "skipped" out of in the late 60's.
I remember ... before the game pep rallies blocking off the streets of the town, stopping traffic, holding hands snaking down Main Street before the big games and I remember... the after game dances back at the girls' gym, and the well known lovers' lanes where kids used to "park" with their "steadies" afterwards.
I remember... all the legendary pranks practiced in the famous "study hall 28".
I remember... having the longest school day in the state of Ohio...10 periods!
I remember... moving to Coshocton from Dayton and our family being the "new kids" in town and wondering if I would ever fit in, only to be told on my first day that I looked too old for my grade, and asked how many times I had failed. ouch.
I remember... being amazed to find out we got out of school for the Fair (wow!)... and being pleasantly surprised that students were allowed to dance at lunchtime in the girls' gym. Coshocton sure was unique!
I remember taking one of those folded paper quizzes that all the girls gave each other in 7th grade which predicted I was supposed to marry a guy in our class I didn't even know ...and that we would have 4 children.. 2 girls and 2 boys... and his name was Mike Senter! (amazingly, a few years later that's exactly what happened).
I remember... loving every minute of cheerleading. Being so proud of the 65' Cardinal Conf, Sectional, and District championship basketball team beating the much larger schools back when there were only 2 size divisions. And I also remember being one of the few girls who went to all the baseball games! (why was that?)
I remember my friend and neighbor, Sharon White (67') and I just "happening" to pass by Bancroft's several times a day where the studs played basketball, knowing we frosh would never get noticed but still secretly hoping. (Sharon was a beautiful person both inside and out, and I was so sorry to learn of her passing).
I remember .. walking to the Spot, where the best milkshakes I've ever tasted were whipped up in a large metal container, which was also placed on your table because one glass wasn't big enough to hold the entire shake.
I remember ... when there here were no school buses for us townies, and most of us walked together with our friends (not drove) to school every day ('cause only our parents had the cars back then, and we kids just borrowed them on weekends.. if we were lucky).
I remember ... the proms where kids spruced up their parents' cars instead of renting limos, had a "special dinner" out at Spitler's, and decorated the gym ourselves with crêpe paper.
I remember... the all night senior party was such a big deal, with a dance at the HS, then a specially reserved movie at the Pastime Theatre, and afterwards walking to a breakfast served down at the VFW on Main Street at dawn.
I remember... getting to wear your special guy's letter jacket, or his class ring complete with mounds of angora (which of course HAD to match the bow in your hair). Girls polishing our white tennis shoes with shoe polish, and donning a pair of nylons to wear with those hardened white tennies (who thought of that fashion statement!).
I remember... if a guy was really cute, he was "tough".
I remember... kissin' at The Elm Lane Drive-In on 2nd Street, and those A&W 5 cent "baby" mugs of Root Beer and footlong coneys on a hot summer day after coming back from an occasional tough day of flirting/swimming at Forest Hills Lake.
These are a few of my memories growing up in Coshocton back in the 60's ... do you think our kids and grandkids will ever know what they missed!
(I for one am glad I didn't miss those good ole' days in Coshocton!)
How 'bout it... does anyone else have a few CHS memories?
Lin Spangler
