Chapter 9
Wakefield High School
In
1957, Austin graduated - 'barely' he noted - from Brandon Junior High and enrolled at Wakefield Senior High School.
As with many of the new students, he joined the Ultimi Hi-Y, one of
several service oriented groups for high school students. The Hi Ys were initially affiliated with the
Y.M.C.A. which was discontinued in 1967 as a result of a Supreme Court ruling disallowing religious activities
in schools. The groups met once a week to
organize projects that ranged from community work (food and clothing drives) to
school events.
“Our Hi-Y really was a service organization.
We did other real good things with good participation from all members,”
Austin proudly recalled. “Of course, we
were also known as ‘the masters of mayhem.’”
Their reputations were cemented, he explained, while preparing for the Wakefield
Homecoming Pep Rally and accompanying Float Competition. After weeks of planning, Austin’s Hi-Y
decided to build an oversized toilet as their float entry. Made of wood, it came about primarily through
the fine efforts of Waldo Hicks. Essentially,
five of the Hi-Y members, wearing the football jerseys of Wakefield’s
Homecoming opponent (Washington-Lee High), would march along with the toilet
only to be thrown into it while underneath, the ever enterprising Waldo tossed
out a bucket of water to signify the flush.
He added that all competitors in
the float contest had to name a Homecoming Queen nominee. Since Austin’s Ultimi Hi-Y was an all-male
group, the boys named Tom Lion as their nominee. Much to their surprise, they won the competition
and Tom Lion became Wakefield High School’s first - and likely last - male
Homecoming Queen.
Big John, as the enormous toilet
came to be known, continued its life of service after Homecoming. With the help of others, Waldo Hicks designed
and built a sleigh from Big John’s parts during the Christmas season. “We had a contest,” Austin recalled, “to see
who could collect the most food for the needy.
Big John was huge [and] we filled it full.”
“We were really disappointed when
we did not get Hi-Y of the Year award.
The fix was in … I’m sure the school administration could not let
this happen. Our group was more creative and imaginative than the rest of
them.” Some teachers, he added, “… said
that we should have got it, but our reputations preceded us. Hellfire, we were all trying to conform to
what the bastards wanted and they did not know how to handle it.” In disgust, he noted, the Ultimi Hi Y members
walked out en masses of the ceremony for Hi-Y of the Year.
Once the Christmas season passed,
Big John provided one more day of fun. A
snowstorm left 7 inches of fresh snow, with more on the way, and Austin’s crew
found inspiration. Jim Campbell, Ted
Burkett and Austin hooked up Big John - now a sleigh - to the back of a 1963
Grand Prix Pontiac. “Poor Ted decided to
ride in the sleigh” while Austin and Jim drove down Four Mile Run Road. Deciding that simply pulling Ted wasn’t
enough fun, they drove across the ford while accelerating to over 30 miles per
hour. “Looking through the rear view
mirror,” Austin laughed, “I could see Teddy hanging on for dear life, with his
fingers and face looking like that ‘Kilroy was here’
drawing.” Only Waldo Hicks knows
whatever happened to Big John.
In retribution for not winning
the Hi-Y of the Year award, Austin’s ‘masters of mayhem’ decided to stage an
event and he described one of the greater mysteries that occurred at Wakefield
during his senior year. One day, faculty
and staff were shocked to find a Johnny-On-The-Spot (portable toilet) on the
library roof. The library was one side
of an expansive courtyard more commonly known as the Senior Court. Classrooms provided two more sides, while the
faculty offices completed the quadrangle.
Appropriating a portable toilet
from a local construction site, the club members stashed it away until putting
their plan into play. Late one
afternoon, Craig Chute and Austin headed to the Senior Court, ducking 'anyone
of importance' on their way while pulling the Johnny-On-The-Spot. Unlike the mammoth Big John, this portable
toilet was made of much lighter fiberglass; wisely, they did not take the
bottom portion that served as the receptacle.
Following along moments later were other members including Byron
Wilkins, Neil Fink, John Rohrback, Bob Riordan, Chuck Humphrey, and Jim
Campbell. As Byron and Neil climbed up
to the roof, the others began hoisting the portable toilet up the side of the
library. Once it was in place, they beat
a hasty retreat.
Reputations, however, move faster
than feet. The following day, Austin was
called to the office of the appropriately named Tank Johnson, Wakefield’s Dean
of Boys. Amazingly, the others were not
called in. True to the schoolyard code
of Omerta, when pressed to name names during Tank’s inquisition, Austin replied
that, “Yes, sir, I know who the participants were, but what kind of a guy would I be if
I rat them out?” Johnson agreed but
still punished Austin with ten days of detention.
On another occasion, Austin
reported to Johnson’s office for “… some offense of which I still maintain I
did not do.” When Johnson announced a
three day suspension, he replied, “You really did not want my mother to come
back in with me, Mr. Johnson.”
Predictably, Tank failed to heed Austin’s advice and on the following
day, Juanita Hines - with Austin in tow - knocked on the door of Johnson’s
office. Already perturbed at having to
take a day off from work, Juanita met privately with Tank Johnson as Austin
listened intently outside the door.
“All I could hear was my mother
telling him that she had to take a day off from work,” he recalled, “to listen
to this stuff about her son, then she turned over his inkwell and stomped
out.” Grabbing Austin by the ear, they
left the school. Perhaps Tank finally
understood Austin’s earlier caution about calling in his mother. “After that day,” Austin concluded, “Tank
Johnson pretty much steered clear of me.”
Future matters involving Austin’s
discipline were now the responsibility of a Ms. Mare. His first encounter with her involved a cow
that happened to be on the roof of the school.
Although he gladly accepted responsibility for his other stunts, Austin told
her, “I swear I know nothing about that cow or how it got up on the roof. That, Ms. Mare, was an outside job.”
Pranks continued to occur at
Wakefield, and just as often they involved Austin. One of his more traditional stunts involved
brownies and Ex-Lax. “Needless to say,
by 3:00 pm as classes were getting out,” Austin recounted, “people were
flooding the bathrooms. Literally. Hellfire, I even gave one to Mr. Shreve, our
psychology teacher and a good guy. While
he thanked me for the ‘clean out,’ he was still not very happy.”
As a senior, Austin shared a
locker with his good friend and cohort, Jim Campbell. They modified the locker, setting the center
panel aside, which allowed enough space for 2 six-packs of beer (and some
ice). During one of Wakefield’s
infrequent locker inspections, a Ms. Skorupa wanted to take a look at theirs,
but Austin dissuaded her, “Ms. Skorupa, that Jim Campbell slapped naked
pictures of women all over the locker, which might embarrass you.” The ruse worked
as a now-flushed Ms. Skorupa wordlessly moved on to the next locker.
Although Austin readily accepts
responsibility for most pranks, he remained reticent on one involving a
tombstone. Somehow, Bill Pfahl and
Austin obtained an old tombstone and subsequently placed it on the Wakefield school
grounds. When pressed, Austin provided
only scant details, and his explanation sounds like testimony from a
Congressional hearing: “I provided the transportation. I did not have anything to do with the
placing of the tombstone, I merely handled the transportation. Others were involved but neither of us [Bill
and Austin] can remember their names.”
Austin and his close friends weren’t
the only pranksters at Wakefield. One
evening, a student named Francis Fletcher jumped
over the fence at the bus barn (depot) for south Arlington schools, located on
Shirlington Road, just shy of Walter Reed
Drive. He let the air out of the tires
on the buses that served Wakefield and “the authorities were miffed,” Austin
related, “Fletcher walked clean because there was no proof or witnesses until
now. I’m pretty sure that the statute of
limitations has lapsed on this crime.”
Austin remains confident that he
holds the record for serving detention at Wakefield High. He was a regular in the after-school program,
often joined by Linda Hewitt, Bill DeReuter, and Francis
Fletcher of school bus fame.
Fletcher’s days at Wakefield were numbered, though. “He had a small man complex and always wanted
to pound somebody's ass,” Austin noted, “One time, he got into a fight with a
friend of mine, Keith Douglas, in the boys
bathroom. Well, Keith left him laid out
on the floor.” A few years later, Austin
had a party at this Arlington apartment on South Troy Street, and Fletcher felt
the need to harass someone and made Austin his target. “We went to the front yard,” Austin narrated,
“and I one-punched him in the mouth and he lost a tooth. From there it was a wrestling match until I
sent him on his way.”
There was more to the Francis
Fletcher story, however, and Austin added, “You talk about a troubled soul. Francis was raised by his grandmother as his
parents were both killed in an accident.
Francis's grandmother was the executor of the estate, and besides rolling
in cash from life insurance and such, she was very permissive. Francis always had new cars, clothes and
anything else he wanted … except he could not shake the small man complex. And that would always be a problem for
him. The last I heard he was doing
[prison] time in the Commonwealth.”
By Austin’s senior year, and despite his antics, he had
managed to be on track to graduate. Or
so he thought. Still a senior, Austin discovered that he
still needed one more English credit in order to qualify for graduation. “By the luck of the draw,” Austin’s teacher would be Mr.
Terrevechia, better known by his moniker, ‘Terrible Terrevecchia.’ Austin tried to change teachers, but to
no avail. And so at 8:15 A.M. on a warm
September morning, Austin found himself seated in Terrible Terrevecchia’s English
Literature class. Within 20 minutes of
that first class, Austin’s fears were reinforced as Mr. Terrevecchia announced
a quiz would be given and that the grade would count. “He rode our asses the whole year. I actually had to wait for the last day of
class to see whether I would graduate,” Austin commented, “I did, but
barely. Damn was I a happy camper. You know, after all these years, I do feel
that if it were not for ‘Terrible Terrevechia’ I would not have an appreciation
for Chaucer or Shakespeare.” Ultimately,
it seems, Mr. Terravecchia accomplished his goal.
Wakefield High held the senior party at the Brookville Pool
which was located at the corner of Van Dorn Street and Rickenbacker
Avenue. Everyone showed up, or so it
seemed to Austin. “No helter skelter
with the exception of smuggled-in alcohol in punch bottles.” The highlight of the party, however, was the
girls in bathing suits, a “rare treat for the boys.”
“Probably the happiest times I had, other than fooling
around with Charlie [Weiss] and Jim [Campbell], were spent with Barbara
Hunter. She was my one and only true
love in high school, he reminisced, “I dated a lot but nothing like the great
times I had with her. She was teaching
me how to do the Twist, but I have two weighted left feet and, well … we
laughed for two weeks. You know, I still
have a hard time doing the twist.”
On graduation night, Austin joined nearly 800
hundred seniors as Wakefield Senior High School’s Class of 1963.
Not wanting to let the ceremony pass uneventfully, but in full
understanding that parents were in attendance and diplomas still not in hand,
Austin and Jim Campbell - who were seated next to each other - agreed not to
clap for each other. “When the Principal called my name, I got a standing
ovation,” Austin noted proudly, “I guess it’s because I had been there so
long.” When a beaming Austin returned to
his seat, signed diploma in hand, the perpetually fun-loving Jim Campbell
solemnly intoned, “I did not clap for you." They both laughed long and hard. It was a rather fitting end to his time at
Wakefield.
The Wakefield High School Fight Song:
Wakefield your Warriors will always be true,
For you we'll fight and spread your glory through,
FIGHT! FIGHT!
FIGHT!
Come, let us sing out the Wakefield battle cry,
With thunder clubs and tomahawks
We'll make your name and spread your fame,
Wakefield we're all for you!
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