The "It's Finally Over...Almost: Part I - The Beginning" Story

Manheim Township High School

It was an ordinary day.  Thinking back to my high school days when my math teacher was a gentleman whose body was twisted enough that it required two canes to maneuver around his classroom.  Mr. Lewis was one of my favorite teachers at Manheim Township High School and gave me the notion that maybe I could be a math teacher like him after I graduated from high school. So, I applied to nearby Millersville State Teacher's College in Millersville, Pennsylvania.  

Millersville's Old Main as it appeared in mid-1900s

A month or so later I received a call from the college asking if I could visit the college and meet with someone in the admission's office.  You bet!  I was so excited that day back in early 1962 that I can still remember dressing up for my interview. They sat me down and after a moment or two told me that my college board scores weren't high enough for their math curriculum.  But...would I be interested in their Industrial Arts program?  "What would I do in that program," I asked.  "You could become a shop teacher, and they are in great demand."  So, I became a shop teacher, after three-and-a-half years of studies and student teaching.  Seems shop teachers were in such demand that I didn't even have to graduate to begin teaching.  So, this squirrelly looking guy with the big black glasses began teaching at York Eastern High School in York, Pennsylvania.  I taught Wood Shop during the second-half of what should have been my senior year at Millersville.  I was in heaven!  I was a teacher...just like Mr. Lewis.  But, after a month or two it became apparent I didn't want to drive almost 40 minutes to get to school each day, so I asked my brother Steve, who happened to be a high school senior at Manheim Township at the time, if he would ask his basketball coach, Mr. Eheman, whom I had as a shop teacher when I attended high school and who happened to be the chairman of the Industrial Arts department at the High School, if he had any job openings for the next school year.  I was still living at home at the time and the following day my brother came home from basketball practice and said, "You got the job!"  Did I mention that Industrial Arts teachers were in great demand?  The following week I met the Superintendent of the school and signed my contract for the 1966-67 school year.  

Showing two of my students how to set type.

I began teaching wood shop and metal shop my first year, then talked Mr. Ehheman into letting me use a small classroom to teach graphic arts.  It was a special time in my life, especially since my girlfriend, Carol, and I had plans to get married on June 17 of 1967.  The following year I had a few graphic arts classes and a wood class.  That summer in 1968 I also began to do all the in-house printing for the district.  Stationery, envelopes, event tickets, etc. were all needed and I was the one to print them.  

I'm showing a student how to use the new offset press.

I used a hand-operated platen press with type that I had set by hand and locked in a chase to place on the press.  The following year the school district allowed me to hire one of my students to help me, since they were beginning to give me much more to print.  A new, small offset press was also purchased for my Graphic Arts class. A year or two later I talked Mr. Ehemann into allowing me to start a class in photography and it was approved.  I was in heaven!  We used the Industrial Arts "smoking room" as the darkroom, which didn't sit well with a few teachers who now had to use a storage trailer outside to smoke.  It was close to this time that my friend from elementary school, Jere, joined me as an Industrial Arts teacher at Manheim Township, our Alma Mater.  We lived a few blocks away from each other most of our lives and he had married his high school sweetheart, Sue, who graduated with both of us. He spent a few years in the Navy before starting classes at Millersville.   A year or two later I made the mistake of adding, just as a joke, a few hundred gallons of fuel oil to to be delivered to my home address, to my yearly high school requisition.  I was called into the office and Mr. Hower, the very large High School Principal, didn't think it to be funny, since the secretaries had to spend time typing all the purchase orders and he had to sign them.  I apologized, but knew it wasn't the end of it.  The end came the following year when I was called into the office and Mr. Hower told me that I would be the new rifle coach.  I looked at him and said, "But I don't know how to shoot a rifle!"  

State Champions!

Didn't matter...  seems it was my punishment from the previous year.  But, I found I didn't really have to know much about the rifles, as long as I knew the personalities of each boy and girl who came out for the team.  And, to my amazement, as well as many others I must admit, my rifle team eventually won the Pennsylvania State Championship.  It was the first team State Championship Manheim Township had ever won in any sport!  Follow along with me tomorrow as I take you with me on more of my teaching journey.  It was 
another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The Lancaster Newspaper named our Rifle Team, "Team of The Year"
These were the five best shooters on the team.  Click to enlarge.