Clarence+Wolf+written+interview

Clarence Wolf interview May 25, 2010

(D= Danielle, C= Clarence)

D: What year did you graduate from West? C: 1943 D: Okay, um did you attend west all four years of high school? C: yes D: and did you graduate early or anything? C: I graduated somewhat early from the four years; I’d say three and a half D: what sports, if any, did you do at West? C: uh the only sports we had was in the classes, I didn’t go to those extra sports, after school D: yea… C: we weren’t supposed to stay after school; we were supposed to come right home D: so the only sports you did were PE? C: PE, we had PE yea… D: so there wasn’t any outside of school sports? C: no, they had tennis and football and baseball, they had all those but those were all extra D: curricular… C: curricular activities that were past school hours you might say D: yeah mhm, did you do any clubs? Were you involved in any? C: no, I didn’t get into any clubs, they had some clubs but I didn’t get involved in those… D: okay, um do you remember any major events, outside of school, that occurred during your time at West? C: Well the big event I guess was World War two… D: oh yeah… did a lot of people leave from high school? C: yeah, most of the senior boys and the ones that were graduating, and I guess from 42 on to 43 and 44… D: oh…did you do that too? Did you go to war? C: yes, I enlisted when I was eighteen D: oh so you went to war after you graduated? C: uh after I graduated…I graduated, so I did get my diploma. D: oh okay…so were there any major events, within West, that happened while you were there? D: …any construction or anything? C: I don’t know when, I can’t remember when the new gym, the boys gym was built, the girls gym was built with the original gym, but the boys gym was built later. I can’t remember what year though. D: oh really… wasn’t East and West together then? C: East and West were together, in just one school D: how many people were in your class? C: oh the entire class? D: yeah… C: oh well it could’ve been about 50, 60 in the entire senior class D: oh that’s all? C: well I don’t really remember…I have a yearbook though if you want to look at that D: oh yeah we’ll have to look at that. Do you have a favorite memory from your time at West? C: well we had the….on every Wednesday we went into the auditorium and had some type of program… and we had sports, we had football and tennis and baseball D: oh so you guys had assembly’s? C: right, I think once a week we had assembly’s D: really? C: mhm D: what was your favorite part about West? Like classes you liked… C: well I liked woodworking, architectural, and metal working classes…those were interesting D: oh yeah? Did you take those all four years? C: well I took them as electives; I think the first year we had to take cumplosetory classes D: what is that? C: English, literature, basic courses you had to take D: were there honors classes or was everyone just together? C: there were some students that higher grades, they were honor students, but they just didn’t have separate classes D: was there foreign languages and stuff? C: well yeah…there were foreign language classes D: I see, what was the most popular sport on campus while you attended West? C: well probably football was first, baseball was second, and tennis was pretty important D: did you go to those games at all? C: no, I didn’t go to many really D: do you remember the most popular club, which was thought to be, during your time there? C: well I remember clubs like photography, uh…there were several different clubs in there, but I’m not sure exactly…there was a high school newspaper…I’m not sure what that would be under though… D: Hy News? C: Hy News, we had Hy News yeah D: so was that one of the most popular? C: probably, yeah, one of the more important ones D: did you guys have student council and stuff? C: yeah, we had student council D: do you remember West’s main rivals in sports C: mainly East St. Louis football, it would get kind of rough… D: aha why? C: they got kind of mean, on Hobo Day and Thanksgiving they would go down to East St. Louis and come down here, and one lady was telling me what was going on and it sounded pretty bad, it got to a stage where it got down to doing things that shouldn’t be done… D: there was a lot of competition? C: yea, it was competitive that’s for sure… D: who usually won? C: East St. Louis usually one, they had the better players…their players were out of high school age I think D: ahha yeah, did you guys compete against Altoff at all? C: no, I don’t think they were into it much I think it was just East St. Louis D: so what did you guys do during Hobo week? Or did you guys just have a Hobo day? C: we had Hobo day, and you dressed up like a Hobo on the day, and most of the kids dressed up, some of them didn’t, but there were quite a few of different costumes D: did you have a parade? C: yeah we had a parade from the high school through town…up to the square D: oh yeah and didn’t each class make floats? C: well I know they made floats but I’m not sure if it was each class… D: oh did you take part in the festivities? C: no, I didn’t get to do any of that. Those were activities outside of school hours so… D: were you not allowed to do anything outside of school? C: well…that was a different era when we didn’t get to do too many things outside of our regular activities, regular schoolwork… D: was that because of your family or because of the school? C: well there were different times then when people didn’t have the right…uh, the economy was just kind of rough at times, so it just depended where your parents worked, or what happened. In some cases I’m sure they had better ways to spend time other then with the family, but I think it was more family orientated. If there was anyone sick at home you’d just stay at home and help. D: did you meet anyone at West and do you still keep in contact with any of them? C: well I met a lot of people though people from my sister’s grade, two years ahead of me. My younger sister was too young though, she was 6 years behind me, but my older sister was only two years ahead of me which gave me the privilege of meeting other children, students, besides our class D: do you still keep in contact with any of them? C: well at this age there’s just not too many left really…you know there’s a few, but their dwindling down quite a bit D: so, you don’t really know anyone who went to West anymore? C: well I know some that were in my class, but its trimmed down quite a bit…and the class before us, we were sort of together, the class before us and the class we were in because of the midterm graduation, they had midterm graduation, but then I think in my year we went in June instead of December…it was kind of mixed up because of the kids going into service and such… D: so was that like an option, or did everyone graduate in December? C: well I guess we graduated, but the actually ceremony was in June because there wasn’t a full fledged graduation… D: so everyone graduated in December or only if you wanted to? C: well actually you graduated in December but it wasn’t a full fledged graduation like in June… D: did a lot of people go off to war after graduation? C: yeah, a lot did and some of them didn’t finish high school, so they enlisted before they even graduated in the four years… D: oh wow…did you have a favorite class at West? C: id have to say id be mechanical drawing… D: oh what was that? C: well one project we had to draw a house plan and list all the materials needed, and all exact rooms and stuff D: oh so like architecture? C: yeah… D: oh was that something you wanted to go into after high school back then? C: well, we had…it was, there were other things in there too. There were drawings of other mechanical things…gears, wheels… I’m not sure what else we had in there. We had to draw a tooth of a gear and draw the dimensions of it D: oh that sounds neat C: yeah, we had to draw plates, and each one was a different thing… D: do you remember any teachers at West and why they were your favorite? C: there was a teacher…Mr. Bohannon was in the machine shop and we had several different ones that were in drawing classes… D: was he fun or was he jus a good teacher? C: yeah he was kind of fun but most of the teachers were more businesslike, more or less kept to what you were studying… D: so did you take end of the year finals? C: yeah, we had finals from the beginning of the semester till the end…the whole time D: yeah we still have those. Did you take part in any school spirit activities, or did you remember any that went on? Like for sports or Hobo week or to decorate the halls or anything… C: yeah they decorated the halls and things but I can’t remember off hand getting into that…it was probably after school, what we called after school… I can remember running the track in PE, but we always had callestinics in PE D: oh what was that? C: jumping jacks and what not…we always wanted to play some sort of a game, but maybe ten minutes was on a game and the rest was exercises… D: yeah that’s how it is for us too… C: oh yeah… D: um…do you remember any school dances, or do you remember how many there were a year? Did you go to any? C: no, I didn’t go to any of the dances. Well, probably was a football…I would think…a dance. D: there was a football dance? Oh like a homecoming dance? C: yeah like a homecoming dance I would think…and then a Christmas one I would think…they had several different ones… D: and prom? C: yeah they had prom… D: you didn’t go to prom? C: no, uh, I didn’t go to those…see I worked the last year I went to school…I went to school four hours in a row…and then I went to work. I was working a full eight hour shift at the machine place… I’m trying to think…the place out on East Main in Belleville…we were making tanks for the aircraft… D: for the war? C: yeah they were working on war things. So uh, Dressel and Bets has a machine shop and I worked from 4 to 12. D: wait, 4pm to 12 at night? On a school night? C: yeah… on a school night aha D: no wonder you didn’t have any time! C: yeah there wasn’t much time for activities D: so you just went to school and then straight to work? C: ahah yeah… D: well did you make any money? C: well yeah, a dollar an hour I think… D: was that good back then? C: yeah! Aha D: aha, what type of things were in fashion during your high school years? C: fashion…uhh…. D: did girls wear dresses and stuff? C: yeah, they didn’t wear jeans then. They wore skirts and stuff…saddle locks… D: saddle locks? C: yeah, they were brown and white shoes that were popular…they still wear them now I think D: oh yeah…what’d the guys wear? Dress clothes every day? C: eh, mainly jeans…an assortment of different clothes I guess, no uniforms or anything like that. They weren’t really dressed up… some of them had patches and holes in their pants…but I guess that’s popular now…in those days they tried to patch the holes! Aha D: do you remember the cool things to do on the weekend? C: uh, well riding bicycles was pretty popular… D: was like the drive- in open or anything? C: drive-ins were popular year…and movie theaters…matinees were popular. D: oh yeah? What’d you mostly do? C: well, let’s see, we had a garden and we worked in the garden and other projects we had at home. My dad always had some kind of project that he had, so I was in on that. I didn’t learn cooking because my three sisters did the cooking with my mom… D: so it doesn’t sound like you got to do anything fun? C: hah no, not too much no. that’s a different era completely. D: yeah, that’s understandable. D: did you enjoy attending West? C: yes, did. I didn’t enjoy junior high. That was after the tornado of 1938. I liked Union school, that was a good school. Then we went to junior high but I didn’t like that too much because it was a big change from a country school up to that school. But when I got up to high school…I don’t know why, but I got up to like that. It was fine. D: oh what junior high did you go to? C: Central Junior High D: you didn’t like it though? You liked high school more? C: yeah, I liked township a lot better D: yeah…if you could would you go back and re-live your high school years? C: re-live? D: yeah would you go back to high school again if you could? C: well I guess it would be better if you had more activities, or a different era then in the war here, when most the boys had a different attitude…they just knew they were going into a different deal there, and that uh, they thought that maybe I’ll live and maybe I won’t live. So, it’s kind of a different feeling I guess. Trying to think you’re going to college and going to be this or going to be that, if you’re headed for the frontlines, it kind of changes your perspective… D: so a lot of the school was focused on war and everything? C: yeah D: If you could change anything about your years at West, what would you change? C: well, we had a pretty good school, and the principal, Mr. Schmitt, was pretty much an Iron hand, he didn’t let us walk across the sunken garden… D: what was the sunken garden? C: that was the front part around where the driveway goes around, the front part they called the sunken garden, but we weren’t allowed in there. If he caught you smoking it was a bad deal. We had one kid who liked to swallow live goldfish… D: ahah what! C: he was kind of a different fella… there were a few students were kind of strange… D: oh so you would want to get a rid of the strange students if you could… C: aha yeah, it wasn’t really too tough, except some of the subjects I guess weren’t too interesting…probably that same way now… D: yeah… C: but it wasn’t too bad. We had a good cafeteria. They would cook the meals there, they weren’t sent in from somewhere else. D: yeah now they’re just frozen… C: yeah now you have a frozen food which isn’t the same by far, so that was good. Other than that, I think we had ten minutes between classes to go from building to building, which the buildings weren’t that far apart so you didn’t have too far to walk D: oh so you’re principal was like strict? C: yeah the principal was pretty strict; he didn’t let anyone get off too easy, so we had to tow the line pretty easy. D: so why weren’t you allowed in the sunken garden? C: well, I guess because if the shoes got in there and it was muddy and whatever…it was supposed to be a pretty place in front of the school, and they always wanted to keep it so it wasn’t full of trash and things so, he was pretty much on the trying to keep it looking good, so, it paid off I guess that way.