What Award? 1962     by Daniel Schafer

I’d been slowly going through a box from Mom's house that I put in storage after she died which was filled with sentimental things concerning my older brother Mike (Class of ’60) and me.  There were the usual horrible crayon drawings that only a mother could love, 8mm home movies, photos and a lot of newspaper clippings from the Claremont Courier and Pomona Progress Bulletin.  Most of the clippings about me were ‘important’ events like “Danny Schafer came in Second Place in the somersault contest at Sycamore Park!”  But then I came across the 1962 Progress Bulletin article (see below) about four students from Claremont High School who were given distinction awards by the Rotary Club:  two seniors received the ‘Americanism in Action’ award and two juniors…Elaine Froeberg and Daniel Schafer…received the ‘Research in American Heritage’ award!  I remembered the day very well, probably because it was fairly traumatic for me!  I thought you might find my story of that day amusing…  

The ‘tardy’ bell had rung about 5 minutes earlier  and I was sitting in Mr. Bentley’s English class (probably day-dreaming of South Pacific beaches, as I often did) when a student messenger came in and handed him a note.  After a moment reading it, Mr. Bentley tilted his head down and looking over the tops of his glasses in my direction, said with his soft lispy voice, “Daniel Schafer…you are to report to the Principal’s Office immediately…AND, you are to take all your things…you won’t be coming back”.   That certainly got my attention, and of course, my first thought was, “what did I do?” and then secondly, what does “won’t be coming back” mean…expulsion, jail, execution??  

I was nervous and somewhat embarrassed as I stood and gathered my books, the class was silent and all eyes were on me as I walked out.  The girls seemed surprised and they gave me puzzled sympathetic looks...I’m sure the common thread of thought was, “why in the world would Danny be called into the principal’s office?”  The boys on the other hand, especially my ‘friends’ had an almost gleeful look with at least one silently mouthing, “You’re Dead!” while running his finger across his throat!   Yes, I had great friends!

As I walked the quiet corridor (it seemed like the ‘long mile’ of the condemned man) to the Principal’s Office, I kept going over and over in my mind what I had done wrong, but just couldn’t come up with anything…it didn’t make me feel better, as I must have done something!  When I reached the office I was sweating, for this was the first time I’d ever been summoned to see the principal (I was summoned once for discipline in my senior year with fellow water polo players, but that was a year later and another story).  Entering the outer office, an uncharacteristically stern  Mrs. Lober looked at me and said, “You’re late…and you aren’t dressed!  You’d better get in there!”  As I took a few steps and reached for the door knob I thought, “Late for what?  Not dressed? ”  More confused than ever, I entered the office where I noticed that Principal Martin was in a pleasant conversation with 2 seniors (Roger Cranmer and Carol Norton) and Elaine Froeberg who were sitting in chairs in front of his desk.  I also noticed that Roger was in a suit and the girls were dressed as if going to a party.  When Mr. Martin looked up at me his smile disappeared and he seemed shocked, “…you aren’t dressed!” he almost shouted.  Now, having been told a second time, I hesitantly looked down to make sure that my shirt, pants and shoes hadn’t disappeared between English class and his office.  I thought instantly that maybe one of those “naked at school dreams” had come to fruition!  (Remember those?  Or was I the only one having them?)

Relieved that my clothes were still there, I looked back up and stammered, “Excuse me, sir?” 

“For the awards ceremony,” an agitated Mr. Martin said as he jumped up from his chair.

“What awards ceremony…?” I said, totally baffled.

“Good God!” he said, stretching his arms toward the heavens, “didn’t anyone tell you?  That’s just great!  It’s going to start shortly and you aren’t even dressed for it!  Now I’m going to have to take you to your house so you can dress!  We’ve got to hurry!”

Apparently Roger and Carol were palmed off on someone and Elaine and I hurried behind Mr. Martin to his car.  Without a word spoken, we left the parking lot in a cloud of dust and after a few directions quickly arrived at my house, which was fortunately just a few blocks away.   As I rushed inside I still didn’t know what was going on as Mr. Martin was fuming and his attitude just didn’t invite questions.  All I knew at this point was that there was an awards ceremony I was going to and I had to get inside my house, put on my “suit” and hurry back to the car!  Once inside, I found that Mom, who was usually home, was gone somewhere and Dad was naturally at work.  So I ran into my bedroom, kicked-off my tennies, ripped-off my Levis and madras shirt and jumped into “the hated wool suit” (it always itched, especially in warm weather or when I sweated like I was then).  On the way out of the bedroom I grabbed a tie (which I’ve spent most of my life trying to avoid) and hurried back to the car as I was still tying it.  I’m sure Principle Martin broke the speed limit as we drove to the Rotary Club meeting at the Claremont Inn on 2^nd Street and College Ave. across from Pomona College.  Still fumbling with my tie in the back seat of the bouncing car next to Elaine, I looked over at her but saw that same ‘odd’ look that had appeared on her face when I walked into the principal’s office and agitated Mr. Martin.    She had sat quietly though the drama (except for running to the car at CHS) and I couldn’t quite tell if she was going to burst out laughing or crying at any moment!   I was hoping for the former! 

Finally Principal Martin told me what was happening.  Not only didn’t I know about being a co-winner with Elaine  or about the award ceremony, I wasn’t even aware that my history teacher, Mr. Mazzoni, had submitted a paper I had written for class to the Rotary Club competition “Research in American Heritage.”  Apparently Mr. Mazzoni was supposed to have told me a week ago about winning and the ceremony, but he hadn’t.  I have the feeling he too was called into the Principal’s Office later that afternoon! 

Next thing I knew, I was seated next to Elaine at the dais (along with Roger and Carol) overlooking a roomful of middle-aged men including a few fathers of fellow classmates.  But before I could open my mouth to say anything to her a ‘Chicken ala King’ lunch was set before us and I happily plowed into it as I am one of the few people I know who actually like Chicken ala King (or “creamed rubber chicken” as it’s often called)!  I had known Elaine since the 2^nd Grade and had always liked her.  She was pretty, smart and always nice to me (and my social retard friends) even through my chubby, butch haircut days of elementary school!  No one was more surprised than I was to have won an academic award and be seated next to one of the ‘stars’ of Claremont High School (as you all probably know she won numerous academic awards besides being a song-leader and Homecoming Queen in 1963).  Now, eating our lunch we finally had the chance to talk without Mr. Martin overhearing and we laughed about the ‘situation.’  That helped as we both began to relax and catch our breaths from the last hectic hour. 

I even thought, “Hey, this isn’t so bad…”, I get an award for a school paper, a half-day off from school, a free lunch and get to chat with Elaine.  But then the floor dropped out as it always seems to do.  When Roger and Carol were given their awards they gave nice little ‘prepared’ speeches.  What!  We had to give acceptance speeches??  “Oh man,” I thought, “won’t this nightmare ever end?”  An hour ago I didn’t even know I’d won an award and I still wasn’t really sure what it was all about…and now I have to give a speech about it!  I felt the Chicken ala King rising as my stomach tightened…it tasted a lot better going down!  Naturally when Elaine accepted her award, she was cool and collected and with her great smile had all the men eating out of her hand…she returned to her seat to thunderous applause.  I was half expecting shouts of, “Elaine Froeberg for President!”  Then it was my turn.  As I stood on wobbling legs, I was nervous, sweating profusely and my wool suit was itching terribly.  I’m sure I must have reached up and stuck my fingers inside my shirt collar to pull on it as it seemed very tight!  Well, I received my plaque (without dropping it) and did manage to stammer out something short and hopefully appropriate…not surprisingly, the applause wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as Elaine got.  When I sat back down she smiled at me like I’d done a good job, but was probably thinking, “Boy, what a dope.”  To say the least, I was very happy when that day ended. 

I was proud of my award until our senior year when my pal Phil Lacy won the exact same award, Chicken ala King lunch, plaque and all!  At that point I decided that they must reach into a barrel of essays and pull out a couple of “winners!”  That certainly explains why Phil and I got it, I guess the Rotary got lucky with Elaine. 

I found the article interesting.  I don’t know where they came up with football and golf for me!  I had played ‘B’ football as a sophomore but never golf…I was a swimmer and water polo player. Although Elaine did go on to be a teacher, as to me becoming an architect, I was taking a drafting class I liked…they must have extrapolated from that.  Actually, I spent a good portion of my life trying to figure out what I wanted to do.  In grade school I wanted to be a cowboy, fireman, soldier or pilot, but by high school I was thinking more along the lines of surfer dude or beach-bum.  Obviously the movie “Gidget” with Sandra Dee, James Darren and Cliff Robertson had a big impact on me! As did surfer and future Hollywood director Bruce Brown (“Endless Summer”) who narrated his surfing documentaries for us at special assemblies, remember those?  If I’d had the money I would have taken-off for Hawaii then!