Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years.
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Do you remember the pep rallies you had when you were in high school? I loved those things. They got all of us kids together in the high school auditorium on West Sixth Street. The band played, the cheerleaders led cheers, and the students yelled until they got hoarse.
We didn’t have a pep rally for every game. Our high school principal, Fern Mills, decided when we would have a rally. Then she turned the whole thing over to the cheerleader adviser, Polly Widner, who would decide what the program would be. She might have the team captain give a short pep talk about how we were going to beat the tar out of our opponent that night.
Or Polly might come up with some sort of skit. She would outline the whole thing, and assign parts to students. She didn’t write a script; she usually left that up to the kids themselves. Let me give you an example of how she worked.
In 1949, Polly decided to put on a skit at our homecoming football rally. In fact, the skit was a spoof of homecoming. It was put on by boys in the senior class. She outlined the whole thing and assigned parts. She asked me to play the part of the homecoming queen. Then she gave me a dress to wear and a bouquet of artificial flowers to carry.
Polly explained what I was to do. Someone on stage would announce the arrival of the homecoming queen. Then I was to enter through the doors at the back of the auditorium, as Fred Davis walked in front of me playing his saxophone. She didn’t tell me what to do. Instead she left it up to me to do whatever I thought would get a laugh as I came down the aisle.
As I thought about it, I decided it would be funnier to make some kind of unexpected entrance. Then it hit me. Instead of entering through the doors, I would enter by coming down a rope from the balcony. By golly, I thought that would be a great idea, so I went to work on it.
The only rope I had was some clothesline rope at home. That was way too flimsy. So I went to Shuler’s Hardware Store and talked with Mr. Rhodes.
He “loaned” me a coil of really heavy rope. It would be perfect to make my descent from the balcony.
The day of the pep rally, I got to school early. I took the rope to the balcony, which was never used for pep rallies. I tied one end of the rope to the base of a seat in the first row. Then I left the rest of the coil in that same seat.
I put on the dress Polly gave me, and I sat in the balcony clutching the bouquet of artificial flowers as I watched the cheerleaders perform. Finally it was time for the skit. I watched it until the announcement of the homecoming queen’s arrival was made.
That was my cue, so I picked up the coil of rope and dropped it into the aisle below. But it didn’t fall into the aisle. It fell into the first seat off the aisle. And guess who was sitting in that seat. It was our principal, Fern Mills. Oh man, the rope completely encircled her. Thank goodness it didn’t hit her on the head. It was really heavy.
A couple of teachers sitting near her took the rope off Miss Mills and made sure she was not hurt, as they tossed the rope into the aisle. I couldn’t wait any longer. “The show must go on.”
So I climbed over the balcony rail and began letting myself go down the rope. I had never done that before, and it wasn’t easy, especially since I was holding the bouquet of flowers in one hand, and had caught part of my dress on the balcony rail.
When I landed in the aisle, I apologized to Miss Mills. I don’t think she heard me, however, because that is when Fred Davis started playing his saxophone. I followed him down the aisle and up onto the stage where the skit continued.
I think that pep rally must have gotten the team really motivated because they won the homecoming game. In fact, that MHS football team went undefeated that year. You can’t ask for more than that.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at bill@davidwboyd.com