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05/26/09 03:48 PM #36     Sandy King The Crowder extension classes were the worst--no one learned anything, I'm sure! It was just two class hours of complete screaming chaos. I hated it. And I loved American Government/Civics (still do), which was totally lost to us that semester because it was one of the extension classes. I heard later that one extension teacher, Max Ruhl (who never figured out how to control the chaos in his classroom), became Vice-Principal in charge of discipline. He must have figured out how to dispense discipline after--probably because of--dealing with us in his extension classes!

05/27/09 02:10 PM #37     Stuart Jones I can't defend the Crowder extension experience at all from an educational standpoint but, personally, I loved it. Hopping on that bus every day was like getting sprung from the institution for a short while, kind of like a mini day release program. I don't have many memories from that experience but I do remember sitting on the bus, endlessly arguing with Russ Burr and Kirk Alumbaugh over who had the better football team, the Cardinals or the Rams. (How times have changed - back then the Cardinals where in St. Louis and the Rams in Los Angeles) I also remember Russ missing a step on the way out of the Crowder building, falling, and breaking his coccyx bone. And then there's a vauge memory from Mr. Ruhl's class involving a trial. It seems that just before class began one day there was an incident (wasn't there always?), the details of which escape me, that Mr. Ruhl saw as a teaching opportunity on the American court system. I think the accused was Kirk but I can't recall what he was accused of. Mr. Ruhl turned the class into a court room, attorneys and a jury were selected and away we went, in the great tradition of Perry Mason. I was a defense witness. It seems to me that Kirk was acquitted. The whole experience was a lot of fun. Patricia, would you have been the prosecuting attorney?

05/27/09 11:07 PM #38     Terry Ragland (Miele) Hey Kids, I have to put in my two cents worth about a few of our teachers: Mr. Black's breath-- what was up with that? Mrs. Youngberg (sp?) making us walk necked across the room to that horrible group shower, and holding out the towels for us when we came out. I smell a lawsuit... Patricia?? Help me out here. LOL Mr. Tilley was so funny but so intimidating. Years later I found out we were related! The song Mrs. Dolence wrote for us to sing about Intermediate! Yes I remember it well: (set to the tune of "Step to the Rear" - see the youtube video below) WOULD EVERYONE HERE KINDLY LEND US AN EAR THERE'S SOMETHING WE JUST HAVE TO SAY WE'VE COME FROM SOUTH AND CENTRAL BENTON AND FIELD SO IT'S PLAINLY REVEALED THAT WE'VE GOT THE BEST SCHOOL GOING NO NEED FOR FARE JUST TWO BLOCKS FROM THE SQUARE YOU'LL FIND US MEETING EVERY DAY OUR PRINCIPAL'S GREAT AND OUR TEACHERS TOP RATE AND WE'RE ALL UP TO DATE THROUGH THE YEAR CAUSE THIS IS THE PLACE THAT KEEPS UP WITH THE PACE IT'S INTERMEDIATE THAT WE CHEER INTERMEDIATE!!!!! Mrs. Hardy politely pulling me aside to explain that I was an unlikeable human being because I argued too much and always thought I was right. And finally, I remember crying uncontrollably and making a complete ass out of myself when our beloved Coach Spencer told us he was leaving. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzK920B9Kmo&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1

05/28/09 08:17 AM #39     Stuart Jones Oh, Terry, that Intermediate song is just scary! It's hard to imagine somebody being so passionate about Intermediate that they were moved to write a song.

05/28/09 09:03 AM #40     Sandy King Terry, I can't tell you how much I laughed at your story about Mrs. Hardie! Do you remember when she told the class I was a Communist? Right out there, in front of everyone, yes ma'am, she declared I was a card-carrying Commie. We had an assignment to write an essay about our "ideal world" and I wrote about a world where everyone found their niche and was able to make the very best of their talents in order to make a living. In my 11- or 12-year-old brain, it played more like a peace-and-love flower child sentiment, everyone finds their bliss, so to speak. But she apparently saw it more like I was sitting next to Stalin himself, handing out work assignments in the USSR. It's probably on my permanent record somewhere, in big red letters...

05/28/09 01:04 PM #41     Patricia Brock (Loveland) Sandy and Terry, I think there are lots of intentional infliction of emotional distress lawsuits in those hilarious memories, not to mention SLANDER! Too bad the statute of limitations has run out. Stuart, I do remember the trial...Max did try to make the best of the "STUDENT'S GONE WILD" atmosphere. That would make a great reality series now. And Terry, thank yoooooou soooooooo much for the refreshing memory of Mr. Black's breath. Remember when he came around class to help people and someone would say, "Oh, Mr. Black, (fill in the blank) has a question" so he would go over there and breathe on them! Do you guys remember when we (the mean girls) would grab little Johnny Cook (he was so small our freshman year) and put him under the freshman bench? Then we would all sit down and block his excape with our calves!! Oooops, talk about a lawsuit...more like a criminal investigation!

05/28/09 02:34 PM #42     Kathy Crowder (Thornberry) Speaking of terrifying teachers, does anyone remember Mr. Merrill? I had him for a bus driver as well as a science teacher.

05/28/09 09:27 PM #43     Terry Ragland (Miele) Sandy, seriously? A communist?? That's so ridiculous. Everyone knew you were a fascist. ;-) Stuart, I'll concede that Mrs. Dolence may have been a little tightly wound, but I'm the one who remembers those lyrics 35+ years later.... so, who's kookier? And Cheryl, dontcha know Mike Heath was MY boyfriend? I began to wonder if he had ever really existed, but you've confirmed it. He was at Central less than a year before mysteriously vanishing. Patricia, don't get me started again on "Sexy Rex" Black! Any time someone had a question, he'd get within one inch of their face to respond. His breath was positively lethal, and I think he liked to torture us with it! Yes, Kathy, I remember Mr. Merrill. He was so scary that he was actually cool (maybe cuz he gave me an “A” on my bug collection). Here's a thought to ponder: what about some of the classmates you remember who are not on the official list? For example, those who moved away or dropped out, or just up and disappeared never to be heard from again. I thought of a few: Lori Roy, memba her? Moved to Carl Junction in 4th grade (I think). Greg Mullison, and some sidekick of his whose name eludes me, but the two of them showed up at my house with tiny bottles of strawberry wine one night when Denise Glover was sleeping over after the carnival-- ah, the carnival… but I digress. And there was Mark Hartman? And, oh so many more I’ll bet you can name.

05/28/09 11:03 PM #44     Cheryl England (Mitchell) Terry - I think I've been permanently SCARRED by Mrs. Youngberg making us strip naked and shower. I've never gotten over that! LOL! And also, I didn't know that Mike Heath was YOUR boyfriend, too! Maybe he left because he couldn't handle us Neosho girls! I am amazed that you remembered that song, too. What a memory you have! Wish you were coming to the reunion so you could sing it with that fabulous voice you have! (I listened to some of your music on MySpace) Does anybody remember that weird teacher we had that used to imitate Richard Nixon? He was overweight and used to blow his cheeks out and do the peace signs. That was one class that we were all out of control and I remember him chasing me around the room one day when he was mad at me. Not surprisingly, he only taught one year...it might have been junior high or freshman year but I can't remember his name. I'm sure if anyone else had him as a teacher they had similar experiences!

05/29/09 08:26 AM #45     Terry Ragland (Miele) I REMEMBERED! The other strawberry wine guy was Rod Gilliland. And Cheryl, I think the worst part of the gym class ordeal was that Mrs. Youngberg also gave a running commentary as we strolled by, such as "Oh, [insert name of humiliated naked student], you're losing weight!" EWWW!!!!

05/29/09 12:50 PM #46     Mitzi Johnson (Glaser) Hi Everyone!! Cheryl, are you thinking about Mr. Rumford? His class was always out of control and we learned very little history. He taught 7th or 8th grade--I can't remember. Martha and I used to draw unflattering cartoons of Mr. Rumford to pass the time. He had this crazy big curly hair. One day, Kenny Davis leaned over my desk to look at our drawings and fell on the floor, desk and all. There was a huge crash and Mr. Rumford didn't even look up! I also had the very loud Mr. Merrill. I cried and moaned for weeks hoping to be moved to sweet Mrs. Bland's class. It never happened. Mr. Merrill softened and he ended up being one of my favorite teachers!! Terry, I can't believe you remember the Intermediate song!! Please tell me you had that written down somewhere and it's not permanently embedded in your brain-

05/29/09 01:17 PM #47     Terry Ragland (Miele) Come on now, Mitzi! Do you really think I would have a copy of the Intermediate song just lying around? Maybe you think I framed it and hung it on the wall??? No! It just popped into my head like magic. Very bad magic.

05/29/09 01:37 PM #48     Tom Payne I looked the work "asinine" up in the dictionary at Intermediate because Mr. Merrill used it in describing us when we brought squirt guns into the school. We were to have a squirt gun fight after school in Big Spring Park. Mr. Merrill ended that when he confiscated our guns and stomped them to pieces on the sidewalk.

05/29/09 06:14 PM #49     Sandy King I was in Mr. Merrill's science class for TWO years--5th and 6th grade. He left no doubt that he thought it was a waste of time to teach science to girls. I didn't know the word "misogynist" back then...probably a good thing or I would have used it, and ~really~ gotten into trouble. Every memory I have of his class involves him combing his pompadour and leaning back in his chair with his cowboy boots up on the desk. His basement classroom was dark and cluttered--always reminded me of a messy garage. I remember hearing about how much fun Mr. Pumpkin was, and watching all the students going into his class, and wishing I was going with them. :)

05/29/09 08:41 PM #50     Clarence Ely Hey Ya'll, Thought I would chime in......Just got logged on a couple of weeks ago. I got some stuff you'll remember Im sure..Here we go: ..Hobo Springs across the railroad tracks ..Fish Hatchery..riding bikes w/Chris Holley wasn't paying attention..ran into the back of his tire and fell in LOL ..The monkey bars, i would break my neck if I did that now ..Popanockers: could be the reason I got arthritis LOL ..How 'bout Lee George calling for snow flurries on the first day of spring...hmmmm 3 days later 3 feet of snow ..Did anyone else get spanked by Ms. Freund? If not i probably deserved it LOL Signing off now..(Clarence the cross eyed lion) The Maxer

05/29/09 09:20 PM #51     Susan Wohlt (West) Hey Terry, You can find Lori Roy working at Ron Johnson's store in Springfield occasionally. I don't think she does much anymore, but she has off and on for years. And about Mr. Merrill, he has a towing company in Neosho and I would walk before I would call him!

05/29/09 10:54 PM #52     Ron Sybert Patricia and I had Mr. Rumford from what we can remember when we were sophmores, and I slam dunked a piece of paper on the light fixture and it caught fire! It took awhile before he woke up and smelled the "roses". I do remember Mrs. Hardie from Intermediate and she was just so full of herself! I think most of us agree from our profiles and forum's that Mr. Ambrose definately made a BIG impression on most of us!

05/29/09 11:19 PM #53     Dan Judy Popanockers......................... I have went in every Antique store their is and I have not found any yet. My sister stil has them from school. But she is not ready to give them to me yet. So the search goes on. Does anyone remember riding the bus out to the pool at crowder. I loved that pool. Clerance do you remember when we would play kick ball at the old Benton School. Me, Chris Holley,Matt Dwyer, Suart Jones, Clay Franks I believe we use to play on that play ground.

05/29/09 11:20 PM #54     Stuart Jones Clarence, Count me in on the Mrs. Freund discipline club. I got a spanking from her in 3rd grade for - and this is really bad - talking during the Pledge of Allegiance. I also remember the year of the famous snowfall. Man, that was great. Seems like we had a week off from school. Dan, I was just thinking about the Crowder pool today. We'd take the bus from Benton just after lunch and spend the afternoon there. One day, early in the season, I spent several hours at the pool with no sun screen on. I got fried so bad on my shoulders and back that when I left the pool people that walked by me were making pitying sighs and saying things like, "That poor boy!" I was in agony for days and went through about a case of Solarcaine.

05/29/09 11:41 PM #55     Dan Judy Stuart did you ever ride your bike with us to the pool..I can remember stopping on the way out their and picking apples on the north side of the road and eating them on the way.

05/30/09 12:09 PM #56     Tracey Grigsby (Welch) I rode the bus to Crowder almost every day. Back then we'd use baby oil with iodine and lay on foil blankets to help catch those rays!! Does anyone else remember driver's ed with Gerster Lentz? I was working at the pool that summer and had to drive just before I went to work. Talk about a dirty old man!!!! Dan, my popaknockers were purple. I had bruises all over my arms! I remember one of them cracked.

05/30/09 01:33 PM #57     Terry Ragland (Miele) I had Calvin Lane for driver's ed, and Chrissey and I got so carried away talking one afternoon, we lost track of time and didn't show up to our driving lesson. My mom was frantic, calling all over town to find us-- and there we were sitting in the gym bleachers yuk-yuking it up (as Coach Hudson used to say), totally oblivious.

05/30/09 06:19 PM #58     Cheryl England (Mitchell) Mitzi - Yes, it was Mr. Rumford! OMG....that was probably the most out of control class of my life. Scary to think he was even a teacher!! I rode the bus to Crowder every day, too! Why don't I remember you all riding it??? I would walk every day from our house on BEnton Avenue to Benton School and ride it. Wow, my mom had lots of free time everyday with my sister and I gone! I remember we used to oil up and have camel fights...and I also used the baby oil and iodine. I remember going into the shower room and washing my hair with Johnson's Baby Shampoo every day before I left. Sometimes girlfriends and I would swap swimsuits, too. Susan, did we do that? I can't remember who I did that with? We were crazy... Oh, another thing about the pool. Does anybody remember the time that Robert Burr was driving the bus (from Crowder pool) and he stopped somewhere out in the Crowder Complex and made a kid get off and walk!?!? OMG...Lawsuit in this day and time, but I remember being scared to death of him. Now he's a teacher in Joplin, or he may have retired last year. I'm still kind of scared of him when I see him. He was an ISS teacher when my oldest son was in Middle School, and Spencer was scared to death of him (even though he never had ISS). I told Spencer I knew how he felt! LOL!

05/30/09 06:59 PM #59     Patricia Brock (Loveland) Cheryl - We gave Robert Burr such a hard time on that bus. He had to be mean just to defend himself. I remember telling him he was a looser if that was the only summer job he could get. I think our trip to climb the Crowder water tower was after we had been kicked off and had to walk home. Tom - OMG! The water fights at Big Spring Park were the best! I remember the last one, before the lifetime ban was imposed, was like a RIOT. Kids were more than out of control. I remember Ben Smith and his friends throwing many of us underclassmen in the Trout pond. Did Gerster Lentz fall asleep every time he took students out to drive? When we did our highway drive, he fell asleep and Linda Smith had that fabulous Buick up to 90 mph on I-44. By the time Gerster woke up we were way past Miami, Oklahoma.

05/30/09 08:21 PM #60     Susan Wohlt (West) Yes Cheryl that would of been me. I remember we always had to use our flavored shampoo at the the pool everyday before we got on the bus to come home. And that bus to Crowder on a daily basis stunk. I remember that one day I thought maybe I was getting the mumps and on the bus to Crowder Linda decided she wanted my already chewed gum. I gave it to her and she actually did not get the mumps, but Cheryl did from sitting with me! She was always up for someone else's used gum.

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