Mardi+Samples+Interview+Transcript

Interview with Mrs. Mardi Samples Steven Stehnach=S Nick Barts= N Mrs. Mardi Samples= M S: Who are you and when did you graduate? M: My name is Mardi Samples and I graduated from West in 1976. S: Okay. And uh, what was your best memory of West? M: My best memory, wow. N: It can be more than one. M: One of my favorite things or best things that happened, is uh, we got interscholastic volleyball my junior year, and I got to play that in 1975 and 1976. That was really exciting for us because we hadn’t had any girls’ sports until then. S: Did they have any girls’ sports before that? M: Just intramural. We didn’t have any inter-scholastic, we didn’t play any other schools. We got volleyball and then basketball the next year. S: What kind of music did you listen to back then? M: Um, rock and roll. Probably everything you guys were listening to now it seems like. S: Any favorite bands? M: Um, I like Journey, Bachman Turner Overdrive, the Beatles, gosh there were so many. Yes, um, Jackson Brown, Crosby, Neil Young, you know, so many. S: Okay. M: Supertram. S: What was the fashion back then? M: Oh, well kind of what it is now really. You know, bell bottom jeans, big wide legged pants, jackets, halter tops, long hair. The girls all had straight, long hair parted in the middle. When Charlie’s Angels started they all got winged bangs. S: Was that the fashion for school or was there more of a dress code? M: They had really relaxed the dress code. Um, we had open campus where we could leave campus for lunch. We had free time. But the fashion wasn’t really a dress code because we had short skirts and long skirts and halter tops on campus. S: Pretty much the opposite of now? M: Yes! Pretty much. S: Do you remember the oil crisis and did it affect you at all? M: I remember waiting for gas. When was that, the late 70’s? N: Yeah, I think so. M: I don’t remember it affecting me to get to my job or anything like that. S: Were you driving at that time? M: Oh yeah, we took driver’s education sophomore year back then, and everyone took it at school. I started driving when I was a sophomore. S: How much did it cost to take driver’s ed. Back then? M: Oh shoot, I don’t know Steven. S: That was one of the comparisons someone did, the cost over time for that. M: Well, now, yeah. I don’t know what it cost. I honestly don’t know. It would be negligible. I mean, everybody did it. And you did it at school, you didn’t have to go to driving school or anything like a lot of people have to do now. S: Alright, next question. What were the politics like? M: Oh like I paid attention to that back then. Not a whole. I’m trying to think if there was a presidential I’m sure there was. Maybe Nixon was. S: Let’s see, ’76 so I think it was probably Nixon. M: I think Nixon might have been a little bit before that. N: It might have been Carter. M: Maybe Carter. S: It might have been Nixon and Ford. M: I don’t think Gerald Ford was president when I was in high school. S: You didn’t really pay attention to it? M: No, and we didn’t really, I’m trying to think.. S: What about your social studies classes? M: Yeah, I’m trying to think if we ever did anything. We had a civics class back then. I don’t know if you guys have that. N: Yeah. M: We had civics and American government, and you always took civics your freshman year. I don’t recall any big political, I mean mock campaigns or anything like that. N: That’s fine. Not a big deal. M: Now! (Laughs). S: Okay. What did you and your friends do for fun? M: Um, oh go to all the sports games: football, baseball, basketball, and wrestling. Um, go to the plays. Weekends we’d go to a party if anyone was having a party, shopping, the movies. We went to the movies a lot. Cruising Main Street. S: Okay, kind of a side question, I noticed when you were a sophomore in the yearbook it said you were a wrestling manager then. M: Yes! Uh, two girlfriends and me, we were the first female managers at Belleville West. And we had friends that were wrestlers. There was a head wrestling coach at the time and I knew him. He knew my dad. He was okay with girls being managers. We didn’t have to go to the lockers or anything, but we kept stats and ran the scoreboard. It was pretty cool. S: Okay. How did West change while you were there, like any new additions. M: I think we were the first class to get open campus, or maybe the second. But we had it all four years. Changes, the girls’ sports addition, that’s pretty big. We didn’t add on. There were temporary classrooms in the back. They were these pre-fad buildings that were out behind the cafeteria. We never had any buildings go up that I could remember. No policy changes. And I think they quit open campus either a year or two after we graduated. S: Oh, that was pretty short just two years? M: Yeah, those classes behind us ruined it probably. S: Yeah. What was your favorite part about the old campus? M: Open campus. Um, being able to be outside on your free time, sitting by the fountain. That was pretty nice. S: Okay, just another side question, what do you think about the football field at the old West? M: Oh the football field is awesome! It has the crown. N: I like it way better than the new one. S: it’s a lot more open, but now they hold you to certain areas. M: Yeah, now it’s not even like you’re down near the field. I mean you could get so much closer. S: I heard the old one had a lot of drainage problems, but as far as stadium field. M: It’s still good. They could have done a lot better job at the new one. N: I think so too. S: What were the sports teams like? M: Back then, they were really good. My class and the class of 75 went to state and almost won it. Baseball teams were awesome then. A lot of those guys went on and won American Legion Championship either that year or the following. I can’t remember, the basketball team in 1976 went to the championship, I can’t believe I can remember that. Um, but I don’t remember about playoffs. We had some good athletes. S: I had looked up the football record, and I was looking up your dad and his record. M: Yeah. He left the year before I started. I think he left in ’69. Yeah. S: Yeah, he has his name out there on the football field. M: They used to, that’s a change, the hobo day thing. Hobo day used to be a big deal, we’d all get out for the parade and make floats. You guys still do that? N: No.. S: I don’t know how to describe it. N: What do you call that? S: I don’t know. M: Spirit day? No, spirit day was East. S: We do have spirit week the whole week, but we design these boards that go outside the school. N: Yeah, but I can’t remember what they’re called. M: Oh, well every class would design floats, and you would have the parade that day. And the big football game was usually always that weekend, against East Saint Louis. That was the Turkey Day Game. And who ever won it got the traveling bell, it was a trophy. S: Oh is that the bell with the two wheels? We saw a picture of it. M: Yeah. Dad won it. S: Okay, do you have any major achievements while you were at West? M: Me?! S: Yes. M: Well, I was the classic under achiever. I don’t think I made NHS, I lettered in volleyball in two years. N: I mean you got to be one of the first female managers, I think that could be a big achievement. M: Yeah. I was a B student. But back then there wasn’t the pressure there was back then to take honors classes and get have of your freshman college credits before you graduate. S: Was there just not as much competition? M: In the 70’s, women were still not in the work force. S: You were just breaking the barrier. M: Yeah. There wasn’t too much attention to my vocation. There were only a few women in my class that went on to med school, or a couple who became attorneys. Not like today. Pretty slim back then. S: What activities were you in? M: Senior year or? N: In general. M: Well, I sang in one of the chorus’ either freshman year. N: I think that is a question to, I was going to ask if you liked music. M: Yeah, I think that would be one thing I do differently. I stopped being in the band and I didn’t try out for band or orchestra, and I would do that again. I would have stuck with the singing part. And then I did intramurals, and interscholastic volleyball and basketball. I was on Student Council a few years. S: What was student council like back then? M: It was pretty neat. I mean, we had elections. S: What did you have to do to campaign for those? M: You just had to talk to people and ask them to vote for you. N: And now you have to get signatures on a piece of paper. S: Yeah, it’s a lot different now. M: I may have had to do that. There was voting. S: There isn’t campaigning. There’s voting, but you just get your face on a camera. M: Yeah, I think I had to make signs and put them up in the doorways. N: They don’t let them do that anymore. S: Signs aren’t allowed anymore. It’s basically put down to a complete popularity contest because there’s no campaigning. M: I mean, it still was. We had to put at least a little effort though. S: Do you want to read the next questions? I’m not sure about 13. N: Yeah. You already answered that one though about the music. And then 14, what was your favorite class while you were at west? M: English Lit. with George Shay. N: And who was your favorite teacher? M: He was a really good teacher. Coach Waymeyer (sp) was good too. I had him for geometry. Those two classes were probably a couple of my favorites. But English Lit, I really enjoyed that. But I liked English and reading. N: What were intramurals sports? M: We did basketball and softball. Um, we had what was called, “Powder Puff Football.” We had field hockey. We had a power puff football game, but I don’t think they do that anymore. The girls got together and went out to the stadium and played a football game. S: No, we don’t. N: Was it just students from Belleville West? M: For that? N: Yeah. M: Yeah, that was just us. N: We definitely don’t do that anymore. M: At least you still do donkey basketball! N: What was that like back then, was it the same? M: Oh, just crazy. It was a lot of fun. N: What was Hobo Day like? M: Like I said, we all wore hobo clothes. Back then, overalls were kind of a fashion thing. Everyone would wear overalls and flannel shirts. And we were in the parade and you were lucky if you got to ride in a car. Uh, or walk. S: Was it one day or like, a week? M: It was one day. Hobo Day. I’m thinking you had to go to class for a little bit, and then you had the parade and you were done. And then the big football game that weekend. All the football players would ride in the cars with their jerseys on. It was cool. N: I know our history teacher had mentioned that the clubs decorated the hallways, what did they do? M: They put up the names of the football players, um, streamers, stuff like that. It’s kind of hard to remember. N: Do you still keep in contact with people from Belleville West? M: Yeah, we have our reunions every five years. I still see a lot of people I went to school with. And Facebook has been really good for reconnecting with not only high school, but grade school friends. Because you know sometimes you get to high school and you get into a different group of friends then the ones you hung around with. But I have found that those people that you really want to reconnect with. N: Do you have any connections with West now? Do you know any of the teachers or have family that goes there? M: Uh, I know Amy Wallis, and I knew Doug Dahm, but he retired. Um, my nephew just graduated. I can’t think of anybody, Pat Watkins? He might be at East. N: We don’t really have anymore questions. S: I’ve thought of a few more. N and M: Go for it. S: Did you have any good or bad teachers? M: Mr. Shay was good, but my algebra teacher was horrible. And, uh, we had one teacher our freshman year and she would fall asleep in class. I had Doug Dahm in sophomore English, and he was really good. Now his sister is one of my best friends. S: Were there any teachers you had that were young? Just wondering if they were still teaching. M: Well Doug was young at the time. Coach Shay was young but now he’s gone. No, I had a lot of older teachers still then. None that I can remember. My civics teachers had been there a long time. I don’t remember. S: Do you think Mrs. Matysik was there? N: She’s been there for a long time. M: Matysik? That name is familiar to me. What does she teach? S and N: English. S: I don’t remember how long she’s been teaching. M: A big change, we had no computer courses back then of course. We had office machines, typing, but no computers. S: How was the business department at that point because we had talked about it in class? There were business classes for the guys and girls took secretary classes. M: Yeah, we had clubs. Mostly girls took those courses, secretarial business type courses. Guys took shop or drafting. Oh I did like biology and physchem. S: Would that be a combination? M: Yeah, a combination of physics and chemistry. I think you had to take two years of it I think. Spanish was cool. Got to go to Mexico my sophomore summer. S: They still do those. N: Yeah, they’re going to Spain this year. M: This is it? You’re learning about my life. N: I don’t know what to ask. M: Saturday Night Live started in 1975 or 1976. N: Were there any big fads that came around? M: Stupid things like mood rings and pet rocks. S: Were Chia Pets around that time? M: Who? S: Chia Pets. M: No, not yet. S: What kind of impact did your dad have on you at school? M: I don’t know, I wasn’t there when he was. As far as I know everyone liked him. S: No one ever asked you about it? M: A lot of the guys knew who he was. I had a lot of friends that played sports, so they knew him. And the teachers knew him. He taught driver’s education and health. S: Was he still doing that by the time that you were…? M: No, he had to take another job. He had to make more money for his three daughters. Daughters were expensive. Couldn’t make it on coaching or teaching back then, and I don’t know if there was even a teacher’s union back then. S: Teachers get a lot now. N: Yeah, West is one of the best paying schools around. S: Coaching is pretty big too. It’s like a full time job. M: It is. A lot of guys only play one sport now. Now there’s tennis and golf. Well. I guess tennis has always been pretty big. S: Did they have a golf team back then. M: Yeah, just for guys. Probably a girl could have played if she wanted to play. No, we had girls tennis and boys tennis, track and field, and volleyball and basketball later on. N: Was there a lot of girls interested in playing sports after they were allowed to? M: Not very many at first, especially volleyball. That’s because the feeder schools didn’t play a lot of volleyball. But the parochial schools, the girls had been playing organized volleyball there for a long time, so a lot of the team was made up of them. But I think the grade schools started organizing too. S: It surprised me that basketball and volleyball had just begun while you were in school. M: Maybe up North, but before that, I don’t think so. S: Well they did have a girls’ athletic club at west. M: I don’t remember. Another change, when I first started. There was a Dean of Girls and a Dean of Boys. And it was like someone who was to oversee the girls at school and make sure everyone was doing okay. And if you were suspected of doing something you would get a little call to the Dean of Girls office. S: Was it like a combination of the AP’s and the counselors? M:Yeah, but I’m thinking they got rid of that position by the time I was a junior. We only had two counselors. N: Was West as big as it was now? M: My class was over 700. But that was a big class. N:Right, because the class this year was 514. M: It was more than the average class. I don’t know. I really don’t know, it seemed smaller back then. S: In the 70’s, how was it racially integrated? M: We had a few African American students, but not very many. S: Not very many still? It might have just been the way the city was set up. M: Exactly. Um, maybe, three or four per class. S:I would just have expected more by then. M: I don’t think so. What’s the ratio like now? N: Maybe half and half. S: I don’t think so. Maybe like, 30% black. M: I was watching the graduation online. N: I think more than 30. Not half. S: Maybe like, 30% black, 10% other, and 60% white. M: That sounds like the city too. Do you like the new West? N: I like the old West better. S: It just seems like it would be nicer. M: Well maybe when you graduate you can take a class at Lindenwood. N and S: Well thank you very much. M: You’re welcome.