If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

It is interesting to look at pages from old “Tiger Lily” editions, posted on Facebook pages (Port Allegany Remember when… and Port Allegany Then and Now).

Nostalgia. Glimpses of local history. Familiar names. Seeing what persons of our acquaintance, and relatives, looked like when they were in high school. Noticing that some people we know resemble their parents or their older siblings—and realizing that some recent grads resemble their parents or grandparents or uncles and aunts from years ago…

We notice changing times, fashions, customs, laws, slang, hairdos, organizations, courses, entertainment. We trace the careers of teachers, administrators and other staff, through long years of service. How many of those age lines and gray hairs did we add?

In pages headed “Society” from the late 1930s and early 1940s there are references to and snapshots of The Sophomore Initiation. It probably took different forms as years went by, generally becoming milder, but the tradition was maintained at least well into the 1950s.

Was it abandoned when the “new” junior-senior high school went into service? I am not sure. But before then, during most of the years the Arnold Avenue high school was in use, there was a separate junior high (the upstairs of the Church Street School). The high school contained only grades 10, 11 and 12. Reaching that building was a sort of coming of age; but sophomores were the lowest of lower classmen.

Initiation lasted a week It did not begin the first day of school, because, first, the lowly newcomers had to be given the rules.

The idea was to embarrass and mildly humiliate the “greenies.” Seniors could order them around, and require them to perform demeaning tasks such as cleaning seniors’ shoes, carrying their books or band instruments, running errands within the school.

“Sophs” had to wear green signs, green bows in their hair, arm bands or whatever their tormentors thought up. Cleaning an assigned area of floor with a toothbrush was one punishment that could be assigned. Writing an acknowledgment of inferiority or hopeless greenness, over and over on the blackboard, was another.

Some years initiation was climaxed with an evening event in the gym at which a senior boy presided as King. Supposedly, sophomores were not yet genuine high schoolers until the end of that week of hazing, and especially Initiation Night, when they were declared duly initiated.

There were fun-filled faculty parties in those days. I don’t know just how those worked. Apparently they were something like roasts. Descriptions of the events suggest that teachers and even the principal wore comical get-ups on certain occasions.

Dances included the Freshman Frolic, at least some years, although until the Church Street School burned, the freshmen attended it. Were they given the use of the high school gym for their dance? Maybe someone can tell us. The Sophomore Hop was a fine affair, with food at intermission, dancing until 1 a.m.

The Junior prom was the big social event, of course. Juniors and seniors were the students allowed to attend—except that sophomores were admitted if they were the dates of older students. Apparently there was no upper age limit, for alumni were welcome to participate. Faculty and other watchful chaperones kept things proper. After the dance—well, that was another matter.

Yearbook lore shows us there were Christmas trees in some rooms, and Christmas parties and Christmas concerts.

I try to remember where ag and shop courses were taught, and simply do not know. Home Ec was not taught at the high school level—all girls did took it in junior high, and boys took shop.

Until after the Church Street School (built in 1888) burned and a new elementary wing was built onto the Arnold Avenue building, there was no cafeteria. All high schoolers either went home for lunch, if they lived close enough, or brought their lunches. Dinner pails were for younger kids; brown bags were acceptable for high school. On nice days some kids went outdoors to eat their lunches. Students ate their lunches in home rooms.

Some “country” kids (those from Liberty Township) had been accustomed to a cafeteria at Liberty Consolidated School, but once we reached the Church Street School we were back to home packed lunches. I remember two or three grades of us in Room 300, lunching at our desks while Miss Brown or Mr. Lynch ate at the teacher’s desk up front.

Originally the Church Street School was a high school—it was built for that purpose because an earlier high school of wood frame construction had burned. The 1888 school was tall and imposing—and I believe it was enlarged once. There was a “grade school” on North Main Street at the time.

The Church Street High School was a four-year high school with a student population of about 700. There were 12 faculty, including a teaching principal.

That school was converted to a combination elementary school and junior high when the North Main Street school burned. At first there had been talk of building a new elementary school, but the local group charged with the decision opted for a new, masonry high school instead.

Some things don’t seem to change. The rivalry between Gators and Hubbers, for instance.

Something that has changed was the favorite entertainment of many Friday and Saturday nights: seeing a movie at the Grand Theater. Looks as if the Grand will be demolished soon, under the auspices of the McKean County Redevelopment Authority. Combating blight, don’t you know.

Peace.