Thursday, October 11, 2007

Music and Technology, Part I—Cedar Vale


By Gary White

“To the musician who should be an engineer.” wrote our CVHS science teacher, Mr. Williams in my senior class yearbook. That statement nicely encapsulates my twin interests that have been with me throughout life. As a youngster I was an avid reader of Science Digest, a smallish magazine that reported the latest wonders of science and technology. I remember reading an article in the early 1950s about how “electronic brains” would someday make work obsolete. That really appealed to me, being the lazy boy I was. I imagined a world where all of us were on permanent vacation, visiting south sea islands and lying on the beach drinking rum and coke. (More exotic drinks were beyond my imagination at the time.) It is ironic that now we are all slaves to our computers and far from making work obsolete, Americans now work more hours per week on average than they did in the 1950s. So much for the value of prediction.

When my interests veered toward chemistry I memorized all the abbreviations for the elements and studied how they were combined in my own home chemistry lab, creating horrible, stinky messes in the process. No old alarm clock was safe from my prying fingers. I took several apart and put them back together many times, which didn’t improve their ability to keep accurate time. I built my own multi-band radio with some help from Glen Toothacker, the radio repairman at L. C. Adams, and it actually worked. I would monitor the police and aircraft communications bands waiting for snatches of voice communications among all the Morse code transmissions from ham radio operators that were more prevalent in those days. And, yes, I did try to learn Morse code but the transmissions were always too fast for me to understand.

You may have noticed that the passions I was pursuing were all “extracurricular.” In actual science classes I usually already had enough knowledge to get by without study. This earned me the epitaph, “Why study when my brilliant questions baffle the instructors.” beside my picture in the senior yearbook. (Check it out all you CV packrats who keep such items.) I was satisfied with my B or B+, leaving the A grades for Wayne Woodruff and the like.

In fact, I went through CVHS mostly as an extracurricular student: music, girls, science, and technology. Many years later, when my son was a senior in high school, I was called in by his math teacher, who told me that Greg was making a C in Calculus while, at the same time, he had just scored above the 99th percentile in math on his SATs. How could I discipline a son to do ALL the problems, even after he had understood the concepts, when I would likely have acted exactly the same way when I was his age? Oh well, Greg prospered very well at Carnegie Mellon University as an electrical engineering major and is now a highly respected professional engineer with several U.S. Patents to his credit. Ironically, Mr. Williams’ predictions that I should have been an engineer have now come true in a second generation.

8 comments:

Phil Foust said...

Gary, it is not difficult to relate to your extracurricular pursuits at the expense of "real school". After receiving my grades after a six weeks report during my Sophomore year my dad felt compelled to visit with Mr. Humble to express his concerns about his wayward son. I had received a grade of "F" in the English class of "Wild Bill Foster".

Mr. Humble assured dad, "Jesse, don't worry about Phil. He has an active mind and is involved in many pursuits. This is not negative to his education."

In "Foster's" class I had been acting up all day in a very intense way and in restrospect I realize that I should have been removed from said class. Instead, Mr. Foster marched to my desk and asked if I didn't think that I should apologize to the class for my antics? After agreeing, I stood and solemnly and with feeling began reciting Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The instructor was furious and promised that day the "F" grade received on my next report.

Your lack of intense effort during your formal high school education did not thwart your success. My lack of early dedication provided me "not so much".

Mr. Foster addressed his "Cedar Log" comments to me in a somewhat different manner. "Dear Phil, from Third Hill!" (Perhaps my top composition was a quite detailed account about twin brother [Frank Foust] with a residence not in Cedar Vale but in Winfield.)

Unknown said...

Was the teacher Bob Williams

Unknown said...

After re-reading Gary's article, it occurred to me that I was never as smart as he, but knew I needed to study much harder just to accomplish anything. I think I missed a lot by being so serious and not cutting-up as Phil was known to do.

Gary White said...

I doubt that, Wayne. I've always known you as one smart cookie. As the the teacher's name, I'll accept Mr. Williams until someone tells me otherwise. Thanks to all for reading my little jottings.

Dick Williams said...

I took Chemistry & Algebra from B. J. Williams and maybe Biology, I'm not sure.

In the 60's I read an article about him either in the Denver Post or the Phoenix Sun. It seems he was quite prominent in the field of witchcraft. He was the head Warlock in that area.

I recall that when he left Cedar Vale, he trashed the room where he was staying and I don't know where that was. Maybe it was because some of us threatened to hang him by his heels out the library window if he did something.

DFCox said...

It was Glen Toothaker Gary. A true wizard with the innards of old radios, TVs and the like. He was married to Evelyn Gilkey, a nice lady from out on the Irish Flats, who also worked at Adams store. I remember Glen had his "shop" tucked in under the balcony extension of the mezzanine office. DFCox

Gary White said...

Thank, Dick, for confirming that Mr. Williams was our science teacher; and thanks, Don, for giving me Glen Toothaker's name. I've updated my piece to reflect that additional information.

Anonymous said...

I remember Mr. Williams very well. He taught chemistry. He was quite a character! Remember when he taught the class while taking big swigs from a bottle of Pepto-bismal?