History
In the early 1900s Tecumseh was the county seat, and we had a trolley built by the Interurban Co. that ran between Tecumseh and Shawnee stopping at Benson Park where you could swim, skate, or picnic. My mother and aunts remembered it as a place of enchantment. In their memories Disney World could not even compete. Even the war with the Kaiser did not cause much of a ripple in the contentment and prosperity of the times. Skirts went up and girls wore bobbed hair and sometimes even smoked! Zoot suits for men made them “cool cats.”
The depression years came and progress of a sort. Tecumseh lost the county seat, the trolley and Benson Park died. The WPA built the city hall and the Alumni started meeting there. It may have been a depression with a breakfast of mush and supper of fried mush, but life flourished in Tecumseh and people still had parties and taffy pulls and boys still walked girls and movies came to town and the Alumni grew. White dresses were worn for graduation and male graduates wore ties and suits. Dresses were longer again and hats were a necessity for the well-dressed lady. Men were conservative in dress.
The war years came again … a “second” world war to end all wars … men went to war before they graduated and some never returned. Women became “Rosie the Riveters” and manned the home front. Slacks were common for women, but not in school. Guys still wore slacks. High schools were not casual dress. The alumni continued and grew and gained support. By now families were becoming a continuing force in the organization. As men returned from the service, they returned to high school and in the next few years older faces appeared the graduating class pictures. It was the era of swing bands and bobby sox and swooning over Sinatra and listening to the Crooner Bing Crosby.
Prosperity returns to the country and the baby boomers are born and the schools grow and the alumni association grows. We’re still a small town of good values, FFA and 4-H Clubs. We can still name everyone in our graduating class and directions are still turn left at the Barker house, or go two blocks past the stop sign. Korea is a blip on the screen and as always in a war there are those that go and don’t return. Television is now common and Ozzie is Nelson not Osbourne and no bad words are used in their show. “Father Knows Best” and Loretta Young swings in weekly in gorgeous dresses and a new show. Swanson “perfects” the TV dinner. The space race begins and Sputnik reigns. We look for Communists under the bed and Philbrick led three lives. Even in the land of milk and honey there is an occasional bee sting.
But there is still the alumni and Ferris Willingham singing, “I’m In The Jailhouse Now,” with the rest singing those now familiar songs of another era. Families and former classmates gather and dance and trade news and brag about their lives. If you are at a five-year interval, it’s become a tradition to have a Friday night get-together. Sometimes they are held in private homes, but more often at a Shawnee motel. It’s a night of moving from your parent’s class reunions to yours and all those in between. The really great thing aobut an all school reunion is that you know so many people of all ages. Small towns encourage that connection and the alumni fosters memories.
We go to war again, Viet Nam, a very unpopular war. The innocence of the world is rapidly disappearing. The confidence and comfort of a country that is safe is blown apart by the death of a president, a man with a dream, and a senator. In spite of this, or perhaps because of this, we continue together and walk down memory lane.
Flower power, peace signs, VW buses and bell-bottom pants invoke an era of change again. In spite of this, the alumni flourish and grow and encompass these new people and these changing ideas. The “you can’t trust anyone over 30” group eventually passes 30 and become parents and trade flower power for earning power. Disco and “Saturday Nigh Fever” give way to “Urban Cowboy” and line dancing. We reign in the space race, but the Challenger explodes and reminds us of our mortality even as we stretch for new goals and dreams. Due to a variety of reasons, the alumni decides to build their own building and began a campaign for funds to build a center that can be used by the high school as well. For the first time we have our own “home.”
The last decade of the century brings home computers and surfing the web. The Gulf War shows up on TV like a reality show. April 19th wipes out our last feeling of being above the strife of the rest of the world. The May 3rd Force 5 tornados wipe out a large section of our state, and still we gather on the last Saturday of the month of May and swap tall tales and play “remember when.” Already we’re talking about enlarging our center.
The first decade of the new century is starting out rough. 9-11 is etched into everyone’s memories forever, the shuttle Columbia never made it back and we’ve returned to the Gulf in another war. So why in this time of turmoil and atmosphere of fear and concern do they still have the Academy Awards, Miss USA beauty pageant and Alumni? Because in serious times we need frivolity and beauty and escape. Escape into another world and escape back into our secure lives when our parents protected us and kept the world at bay. In times of stress, we tend to reach back to our past and seek the people who share our values and who, other than our siblings, understand us better than anyone else.
So the Class of ’63 (40 years) asks you to join us in this celebration of 100 years of the Tecumseh Alumni association! If it’s your first, welcome. If it’s your 10th or 100th, welcome back!
Pat Neal Doss
Class of 1963
