Interview+Transcript

Kevin: This is Robert Tyler. My first question is, what year did you graduate from West? Robbie: 1991. Kevin: While you were at West, did you join any clubs? Robbie: Yes, I joined a lot of club. I joined the National Merit Society. I joined marching band, which was a lot of fun. The Math team and we had kind of a Science club. It was Jets, but that might have pre-dated my time at West. It was a Junior Engineer Technical Society. I was in that club in high school, but it might have been earlier than that. Kevin: Are those all the clubs that you were in? Robbie: I probably had some other ones, but those are the ones that I remember the most. Kevin: Alright, can you tell me a little bit about marching band? Robbie: Marching band was a lot of fun. I love music. I was not very good at it, but I really loved it. It was a good place to have a bunch of people work on something together. Kevin: What instrument did you play? Robbie: I started with the trombone, just because that is what I came from grade school with. Then I realized that I was not that good at trombone, so I decided to be a really bad baritone player, because they needed a few guys to do that. Kevin: Haha. Robbie: There was one more club that I was in, I should mention. I was in the drama program. I was not really good at acting, but I did pull ropes and I was a part of the stage committee. Kevin: So you were in Little Theater then? Robbie: Yah, that is what they called it. Kevin: That is what I do now. Did you ever make the thespian society? Robbie: I do not think so. I cannot remember, but I might have. It was a long time ago. Kevin: Do you know approximately how many shows you were in or involved with? Robbie: Yah, I would say maybe ten. Kevin: Was the Junior Jam still around when you were there? Robbie: Junior gym, yes it was. It was a really neat building. It was different from the varsity gym. There was a lot of volleyball played over there. So yah, it was there. Kevin: I have heard a lot about this, and that we do not have it now. The junior jam has been dating back for quite a long time. It is not at West anymore, so could you tell me a little about that? Robbie: We had the varsity gym where most of the major spectacles happened. I am thinking, trying to remember and go through all of the buildings. We had the A-building, B-building, and the cafeteria, which was the band building. I am trying to think that the junior gym was where the J.V. games were played, but that has been a long time. Kevin: That’s pretty cool. The Junior Jam has always sounded pretty interesting to me. You said something about the Jets? About it being a science club, or an engineering team. What it a competitive team? Robbie: Yeah, we did lots of different projects. It was not specifically mathematics, it was not specifically chemistry, it was not specifically physics. It was a club that was really just about being an engineer. WE did compete competitively. I cannot remember what different awards we won along the years, but it was really just a place where there were some mentors that I really miss. They helped folks like me out to get on my path of life. Kevin: Were there special events in the divisions between that people that were on the Jets team? Robbie: As far as special events, no. They did not really distinguish between the chemistry types, the math types, and the physics types because when you’re that age in high school, it is too soon to know. The events were really just hanging out after school and working on problems. We all had our preferences as to what problems we would work on, and we had some really good mentors that would help me work on the problems that I wanted to work on. They helped other people work on the other problems. At the end of the day, it was a pretty universal test based about engineering. Kevin: You said that people had their preference, what was your preference? Robbie: I could not make one. That was the problem. I loved physics. I had a great high school teacher. I also had a lot of good other mentors in the mathematics area and in the chemistry area. It was too tough for me to decide. Kevin: I see. Jets sound a lot like our Science Olympiads Team that we have now. You said something about a National Merit Society? Robbie: Yah, it is one of those organizations that I could not understand what the entrance criteria was, but they let me be president. I really went after being treasurer for the entire student body, but I did not win that election. So I ended up as president of the National Merit Society. Kevin: We have the National Honors Society now. We have requirements such as doing certain amounts of community service. Did you also have to do that, or was it different? Robbie: Yah, we had to do community service. For me, it was more the academic focus. At the time we had a program called the Distinguished Scholar Program. It was pretty much guaranteed that the president of the National Honors Society would come out of there. Do you still have the Distinguished Scholar program? I am sorry this is your interview, not mine. Kevin: We do not have that anymore. I feel like the merit, the need for meritocracy has gone down dramatically. Robbie: Times change and the criteria change. This is why I am trying to be very open to the way things are now, and just tell you the story about when I was there. Kevin: That actually leads me to my next question; times have changed quite a bit since the 90s to the way there are now. Have you seen a difference in how students act, because you know me and Kate, so is there a major difference in how students act now? Robbie: You and Kate actually act better than we did back in the old days. You have more focus I think. You have seen good times and bad times. When I was going through, I guess this would be 1987 to about 1991, it was just good times. I think the younger students have seen more. This is good from a scientific view. There is more data for people to collect for their experiments. That would be the major difference. When I was going to school, our major enemy was just the Cold War against the Russians. You kids have grown up in a really different scenario in that there are more players involved. I think that that is going to help make you a little bit smarter, more grounded, and just in general wiser. Kevin: How was going to school with the Cold War? With that whole Red Scare, how was that? Robbie: Well we were at the very tail end of it. It was since I graduated from high school, and it was nothing compared to the generation before us, which would be your grandfather’s generations and before that. It was not really a treat to us. Meaning when we went to school, we did not have to do a drill for a nuclear holocaust, where we had to hide under our desks. At the same time, it was the topical enemy. It was as far as drama, the media at that time was our major adversary. The difference between then and now is that there seemed to be more boogey-men out there. Kevin: That is definitely true. While you were in high school, from what you said 1987 to 1991, were there any major interesting things that happened throughout the world? Robbie: Oh yes, there definitely was. It was more, and I know this interview is for American. History, but the time that we spend the most time talking about topical events was in Advanced Placement Political Science. That is where I met your dad. The current events at the time were always really important to talk about in that class, where as in History we would talk about what had already happened. That is a long way of saying that the things we were working during the time of our dates in our classes were leftovers of that Cold War. That is what I remember most in the context of high school. As far as current events outside of high school, well that is a whole different interview. We spent a lot of time in political science discuss the end of the Cold War, which ended shortly after my generation came out of high school. Kevin: We have been studying that, and we did not really have a defined date of when that ended. I was just seeing how it affected the actual people that went to school during it. Now taking a step in another direction, one of the major things that West is known for, that when you tell people about, people are always shocked, is Donkey Basketball. Did you ever play Donkey Basketball? Robbie: Yes, and I lost it for my team. That is kind of a funny story, but yes. Kevin: Who all was on your team? Robbie: Well you know, Thor Sisson was on my team. Richard Gregory was on my team. Phil Holdner was on my team. Jason Carroll was on my team, and Mike Beckley was on my team. Kevin: I know something that we do now, is that all the teams had a different name. Did your team have a name? Robbie: Yah, I kind of got talked into a name that we ended up using, and we actually got called into the Assistant Principal’s office for it. We were called the “Easy Ass Riders”. There was a movie that pre-dated even us, but history moves forward. There was a movie call “Easy Rider”, and it had Denis Copper in it and it was kind of like the 60s versions of rebellion of young people. We took that and combined it with Ass, which is an actual metaphor, not metaphor but a simile for donkey or whatever that is. My English teacher at West is going to be upset with me now. So we put those two together, and ended up with our team name which was “Easy Ass Riders”. Kevin: So the girls won that game then? Robbie: Yah, the girls won it and it was mostly because of me. I missed the shot, and to be honest I never have been really good at sports. I might have lost it for my class. I did do my best making up for it at the tug-of-war. We still lost that one though. Kevin: You made up for it, and that is all that really matters. Another really big thing that is a pin point in West is the Hobo day week, rally, parade, and all of that. Could you tell me a little bit about that? Robbie: I do not remember so much other than there was a lot of work involved. You had to build your float, and you had to drive It down the street. You spend a lot of time not doing school work; you would build your float. I did not see any point in it, other than just hanging out with other people that were in your class. It was a good part of an old tradition in that you got to come up with something that focused on the perception of the world from people going through high school with those types of people. In high school, you have got freshmen, juniors, seniors, and sophomores, which is what I still am. It was a time to get you back thinking about school. Kevin: I know that, because I interviewed Chuck, and he said that when they did his floats, that one his class won every year and that the topic for his float was basically bashing the East Side Flyers. Did you guys have a bashing of another school, like East or another one? Robbie: I think we probably did some of that. I could never get behind any of that, at least in sincerity. It might have been a cross town rivalry, but as far as my memory, you have to remember I am getting old, but I never really held any animosity towards East. That was just fun stuff that would help kids get excited about school. You know if you have a school rivalry, you might be more excited about school, but to be honest I never really knew anyone that went to East. It is just making something to do about nothing. Kevin: Yah, it is kind of like the Cardinals and Cubs. It is just a rivalry that is there. Alright, another thing, it is kind of a bigger picture question, but would you think that Belleville West prepared you for life now? Robbie: I think it did in a lot of ways, but I do not think it did in other ways. The world has changed quite a bit, and I think that West did prepare me for those changes, but they did not predict those changes. That is a good nonsensical quote for a history lesson, but yah, I am very glad that I went to Belleville West. They did a good job providing me an enormous amount of resources, very special mentors, and some good friends that I gained along the way. They are still my friends, I do not really have any other friends other than the friends I had as West. It was a good school. Kevin: What do you do now? What did you do after high school? Robbie: I kind of was set up for that whole Cold War stuff, not to revisit a topic that does not really matter anymore. I went out to the University of Illinois and studied engineering there. After I graduated with my engineering degree, I moved back to the area and worked for McDonald Douglas. I went to Law School. I will have to send you my resume over a text so you can figure out the rest, but I had a background to do all of those things. I do think that Belleville West was a big part of that, but Millstadt grade school was also a big part of it too. I have been able to do pretty much whatever I have wanted in life, academically anyways. Kevin: Speaking of academics, what was your favorite class during West? Robbie: It was Political Science, just because it was lively. Advanced Placement Political Science, it was lively, it was important. It might have been some Cold War stuff. It was soap opera-ish because now we know that looking at history that the Soviets were never really a threat to us. At the same time, it was lively and fun and a good debate. Kevin: Yah, at West now there is a big thing that our Political Science class, which is also our A.P. class, it is said to be one of the hardest classes at West. Would you say the same of when you were there? Robbie: For me, it was hard, but there were other people who did well in it and did not even have to try. Political science is very different from the hard sciences, and it just reminds me that when you were asking about clubs, I was in the Model United Nations club, and I was a representative for Russia. I was trying to solicit and gather a big consensus and I got voted against unanimously by the entire Security Committee. That can kind of tell you how I feel about the course. I was not very good at, so I can understand why people think that it is hard. Kevin: Yes, it is defiantly one of those classes that would be a challenge. You said model UN, and model UN is still a pretty big thing at West now. We many tours where we go to different colleges, meet other schools, and have big congressional debates. Is that how it was for you, or was yours more just in Belleville West? Robbie: I went to one interschool debate, but like I said I lost. I was arguing as the Russian ambassador, member of the National Security Council, so I thought I had some weight. I was trying to argue for property rights up on an island south of Camp Checka. I lost, I lost badly. I really did. That was really my only endeavor out into a debating community outside of school, or that is at least all I can remember. Kevin: Yah, I can imagine that Russia was a little more difficult to defend in that argument at that time. You told me about your most favorite class, but who would be your favorite or most influential teacher? Robbie: Probably Mr. Kange, because he taught me math. I loved Capinshepeck with physics. I loved Mr. Schieffenhaufer with chemistry. Mrs. Guessford was wonderful with biology, but Mr. Kange was trying to teach me mathematics. You talk about what was the hardest class is, and mathematics was not hard for me, except at the level he was challenging me at. Which was through some of the, you know Kate had a calculus problem that I was asked to help solve, and when I came over one night to see all of you, and the vocabulary that mathematicians use is difficult to necessarily incorporate into your own. Mr. Kange spent a lot of time, and he helped me with that. So he was my favorite teacher that was there. Kevin: He influenced you mainly because math was one of your favorite things then? Robbie: No it was important. I knew it was important. Kevin: So one thing that Belleville West has always had is football, and that has always been a big benchmark for West or one of the more popular things. How was football when you were there? Robbie: Alright, you know we did not win very much, but the band was there every time. It was a good time. Football was O.K. It was a social gathering for most. For me it was a neat place that we could put our fancy uniforms on and our cowboy hats and I could play the baritone really bad and no one cared which was really neat. They just really cared about football, and not a baritone player. Kevin: I think it was just everyone was having a good time. Dances at West have always been big, even dating back to 1932 was when I was doing research about our year, and I found out that dances were pretty big back then. Now they have certainly grown down from where they were, but would you say that they were still pretty big? Winter ball, prom, and stuff like that. Robbie: Yah, you’re asking if they changed much, I really wouldn’t know. I went to a couple of dances, I did not have really good social skills, but I did have a girlfriend. We went to the dances, but I do not know if they have changed since then. Kevin: Dances now I know a lot of people get really prepared for them. Would you say that when you were in school, that a lot of people looked forward to it? Robbie: Oh, I did, and I put a lot of work into it. My family was kind of poor, but my great-grandfather had a nice car, so every time there was a dance, I would go down and ask him and my great-grandmother if I could borrow the car. Part of the deal was that I would have to get it all cleaned up. I looked forward to it because it was a social event, it was recognition that we were young people, but I also appreciated the fact that there was social context and work that were building up to it. Yes, I looked forward to them, but on a couple of different levels. Kevin: Before you were saying that you were in Little Theater, you said you did ropes? Would you say that you were mainly a technician or an actor? Robbie: I was a technician, I was a horrible actor. I do not memorize lines, and you’re seeing that in the interview today that I do not have that good of a memory. I have a very good memory on certain things, but not on other things. I was more of a technician. Kevin: I am the same way, I have done 15 shows now and it has all been the dark side for me. One of my biggest questions is what would you say your favorite memory at West was? Robbie: Ah, see now you are trying to make me do math. This is the part about math that I’ve got this vocabulary not going to come across the same way as it would for me as it would for anyone else. So I am not going to be able to really teach you the truth here, but I think it would be my friends. It was not any one particular point in time, but I picked them up along the way. It is not definitive; it would be a linear equation, but that would be my best one. Kevin: Would you say that, school now is everyone knows everyone, and everyone is usually pretty friendly with everyone. Would you say that you had a lot of friends everywhere? Robbie: No, I really only had a few friends. I had a few close friends that I still have, but I think I got along with everyone else, and I considered everyone else my friend. There were some silly rivalries that kids do, much like chicken farming. You guys have chickens out there so you know about the pecking order and all the nonsense about that, but I had a lot of good friends. I had just the six that were super important. Kevin: I think that is all with the interview, and I would like to say thank you very much for having this interview with me. Robbie: Okay. I appreciate it Kevin, and good luck.