Bruce Fette

Hello All Walnut Hills folks, I hope you all had a chance to enjoy July 4th.

I was invited to fly the Baby Gila Monster at the Great Meadow July 4th celebration, and here is a picture of it rising off the pad on a bright red flame.  Thought some of you might enjoy seeing this Rockets Red Glare.

Also, some of the Walnuts local to DC recently got together for dinner. Left to right: Bruce Fette, Liz Fette, Kathy Spiess, Don Dahmann, Churchill McKinney, Phil Spiess. We all had a great time. Wish all of you out there could have been here.

Bruce

David Buchholz

Bruce, thanks for posting.  It was nice that you could share with so many classmates.  I was busy, of course, as the Grand Marshal of the 4th of July parade that took place in our garden, just as it has for the last, oh, say, about four or five years.  With 75 neighbors and friends in attendance, and catered by Tacos El Rey, a local traveling dining establishment,  ($12 got you a choice of chicken or carne asada burrito, black beans and rice,) or four tacos (chicken, steak or fish), and bottomless margaritas.  With about 15 children joining us, we marched around the house and garden while guests accompanied us on the John Philips Sousaphone.  And this, too, gives me a chance to post a photo of five of the guests, all brought together by virtue of the fact that they are all my grandchildren.

Philip Spiess

Huzzah, David and family!!

Steve Dixon, et al.:  An historical update:  I belatedly learned, from the Cincinnati Public Schools Official Website, that Cincinnati's African-American community petitioned the State of Ohio to have a Black Board of Education, with black public schools, set up in Cincinnati; this occurred in 1852.  After the passage of the 15th Amendment, the Black Board of Education was abolished in 1874, and the dismantlement of the segregated black school system took place over the next ten years.

Nancy:  Don't you worry about calling my posts "stories."  That's what they are.  The word "history" comes from the Greek "'istoria," which means "story."  I used to tell my 5th and 6th Grade parents at "Back to School Night" that there were two ways of teaching History, by facts and by stories.  I taught by stories, because facts were apt to be boring, whereas stories could be remembered.

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

Another good dose of history from Phil. I'd sign up for your class every semester.

The good old tradition of "walking around money" was alive and well in Cincinnati, eh? There is an interesting little book, Plunkett of Tammany Hall, by newspaperman William L. Riordan. Published in 1905, it is a record of Riordan's talks with a mid-level functionary of the Tammany political machine.

As hilarious as it is enlightening, it features such chapter headings as "Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft," and throughout echoes Plunkett's operating principle (?) "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em."

http://www.amazon.com/Plunkitt-Tammany-Hall-William-Riordon/dp/1578989949

Philip Spiess

Interesting, Steve, I just read Plunkett of Tammany Hall last summer (another of those books I'd had for a number of years but hadn't gotten around to reading).  His was an interesting take for 1905:  he told it essentially like it was, in a curious form of "honesty," and his "explanation" was that they were really helping out the people who needed help -- if they voted as directed.

[And a footnote from my mother:  There was one African-American child at Clifton Elementary School when my mother went there (circa 1926-1933).  She lived out of district, but was the child of an African-American maid working for a white woman who lived on Terrace Avenue in Clifton.  Because she had to accompany her mother to work in Clifton, she received a dispensation from the Board of Education to attend Clifton School.  And, yes, there were numerous African-American students at WHHS in my mother's years there, 1933-1939.]

Larry Klein

You'se guys is gettin' awful close to home wid all dis Tammany Talk.  Better ice it, if you'se knows what I mean.

Philip Spiess

Anybody remember our classmate Tammany Tate (okay, Tami Tate)?  She was in my carpool for six years, and her older brother, John, was the best Senior Patrol Leader our Scout Troop (Troop 3 of Clifton) ever had; her mother, Roz Tate, was an adept at the Ouija Board, and we'd periodically invite her over to help us operate it.  (I never admitted, even to my family, that I cheated like hell at it; because I knew much family history, I could stick in things and connect the genealogical dots that my family found inscrutably amazing!)

And Larry, Mob -- no doubt -- stands for "Member of the Board." 

Larry Klein

So, history is a lot like waffle recipes?  You can make up your own as you go along?

I don't really make waffles at home, but I DO put blueberries in just about everything breakfast, including oatmeal, cream of wheat, and cheesey omellettes (sic - that's a 1-egg omelet)..

Thomas Lounds Jr.

Until now, I have delighted in merely reading the posts of this remarkable class of 1964 and I will continue to do so.  However, Stephen Dixon's queries concerning how WHHS handled integration/segregation prompted me to drop my martini and offer some thought for which I may be uniquely qualified.  As some of you may remember, I was a 1956 graduate of WHHS --approximately 30th out of a class of 200.  Some of my more notable classmates were Jerry Rubin of Chicago Seven fame and Nancy Kemp, the mother of Suzy Jessica Parker.--but I digress.  Some insights.

Stephen referred to living in Mt, Washington.  The first thing you need to remember is that it was at one time fairly wild territory.  A quick story for Phil.  I am distantly related to the former "paymaster of the City, Mr. Dabney.  My aunt (father's sister) married a relativeof Mr. Dabney.  The family was flat broke by the time I knew of them.  In fact they lived in the middle of Mt. Washington--remember it was wooded--in a shack without running water or indoor facilities.  My cousin, Jim , one of four children of that family, survived those circumstances, went to WHHS, starred in basket ball  and was a student there when I began teaching there. But what do I remember about WHHS?

When I began as an "Effie" in 1950' I was assigned a Big Brother--actually an African-American Senior-- whose job it was to show me the ropes, probably as much because I was coming, not from Bond Hill but Madisonville, but also because it was a high school environment.  Among the first ropes he showed me was that all black male students swam, nude, in the last class on Friday--then they drained the pool. Two thoughts:  Imagine the hell of having all students--Effie's through seniors in the pool at the same time.  Whitey Davis, our instructor , had only to keep us from killing each other.  Despite WHHS having been State swimming champions, there was no attempt at instruction, etc.  I am embarrassed to say that I don't know what was happening on the girl' s side in miss  Bell' s class.  I could go on but let's stop three.

Apparently, something dramatic happened in the four years I was away at Miami because when I returned , things, but not the teacher, had changed.  There' s more, but I'll stop now. 

Philip Spiess

Mr. Lounds:  The years from 1965 into the early 1970s, the years of my heaviest work at the Cincinnati Historical Society, corresponded pretty much to the days of Civil Rights activism and the so-called "race riots," with the result that many of the graduate students (from various universities around the country), who came to the historical society researching their Master's theses and dissertations, were researching topics in what came to be called "black history."  Everyone of them had to begin with the Wendell Phillips Dabney Papers, which were located at the historical society; they would also use the bound run of Dabney's black newspaper.  Dabney also wrote a published history of the African-American community in Cincinnati, with profiles of some of its prominent citizens.

I remain aghast at Whitey Davis's comments which surfaced in the 50th Reunion video.  You can see my two cartoons of him from my WHHS days on my Profile on this site.  And you may have seen my brief comment above about how African-Americans were kept out of Coney Island for so long; what I didn't say there was that one of the popular sentiments about "letting blacks into Coney Island" was that "they would use the Sunlite Pool, mingling with whites in the water."  I also have a vague memory that certain public swimming pools in parks under the city's Recreation Department were segregated, i.e., that there were "black pools" and "white pools," at least up through the mid-1960s.  I don't know that there was an official policy to this effect, but that's how everybody practiced it (I think it depended on neighborhood).  I also recall that that was the reason for the founding of "Clifton Meadows Swim & Racquet Club" on an old farm property off of Clifton Avenue below Lafayette Avenue:  because it was a  "members only" private club, for years it was a "whites only" membership (later changed, as you can imagine).

Keep the history coming!

Jonathan Marks

Thank you so much  for chiming in, Mr Lounds!  Please keep it up, and don't hold back.  This was fascinatitng.

Dale Gieringer

Mr Lounds -

  Good to hear from you,  didn't know that you were a fellow WHHS alum.  Excuse my ignorance, but who is Suzy Jessica Parker?  Sarah Jessica Parker I know of, and Google lists a former model named Suzy Parker who died recently.  I remember your classmate Jerry Rubin, but didn't meet him until after graduation.   He was sitting on the grass conducting a Vietnam teach-in in Eden Park.  While he was speaking, someone passed him a note.  He glanced briefly at it, crumpled it up and discarded it.   Curious, I picked it up and took a look.  It urged him to put in a word about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, then in progress.   He never did.   It left me with a dim view of him, which was only confirmed by his later  antics as radical clown turned Wall Street stockbroker and life extension huckster.   Still, de mortuis nil nisi bonum - he was once an effie like the rest of us.

Paul Simons

Steven Levinson

And please, please, Mr. Lounds (in our advanced years, hopefully it would not be disrespectful to think of and address you as Tom?), attend our collective 70th Birthday Bash Reunion in June 2016.  I'd like nothing more than the opportunity to catch up with you for a bit.

Sharon Baum (Covitz)

Mr. Lounds, Thank you so much for your comments.  You were in my brother's graduating class - Dave Baum. I really appreciate your comments and I feel terribly uninformed about how WHHS handled this situation.  I tended to look at things through rose colored glasses. Please continue.  

Mary Vore (Iwamoto)

Thank you for commenting Mr. Lounds.  I loved your science class and it helped keep me in science ever since.  I will never forget your discourse on whether it was better to spit or swallow after clearing one's throat!   Please come to the reunion, and keep adding your perspective on this disparate message forum!

Phil - I also remember Clifton Meadows.  I lived with my aunt and uncle in Clifton while in Cincinnati.  My uncle was the minister of  Clifton Methodist Church, and the members gave the family a membership at Clifton Meadows.  My cousins and I very  much enjoyed swimming there.  After my uncle became aware of its unyielding segregation policy, he turned in the membership.  It was a very educational moment for me. 

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

What an absolute treat to hear from you, Mr. Lounds, and not just because you hit the sweet spot on my query about Walnut's history. Between you and Spiess, I am getting a better feel for how Cincinnati, in general, and WHHS, in particular, were so far out front of much of the rest of the country. To all of our benefit I very firmly believe.

I love it, Phil, that way back in the late 20's or early 30's your mom was in an integrated school, albeit in a small way. As with Mr. James Meriedith at UMiss, or Charlayne Hunter at Georgis, the first one across that line was a big deal. I like to hear any more in this area that anyone can share.

I am perplexed, intrigued, somewhat obsessed by the degree to which some people in America, as far back as the 1920's-30's (as above) saw race as a non-issue while some people still today, nearly a hundred years later, seem stuck in the ancient ways of the Dixiecrats.

On a trip last years with my siblings (all older than me) I asked how our parents came to be so markedly unprejudiced. My dad and mom were both born and raised in Nashville,TN (still pretty damn backward, if you ask me). Dad was born in 1909 and mom in 1911. They left Nashville in 1946 and moved to Danville, KY (still pretty southern) where they were living when I was born. We came to Cincy when I was seven. I was curious what my older siblings had to say about this because I obviously have no memories of Nashville and wasn't a big factor in community affairs in Danville.

They all said pretty much the same thing, that "Mama and Daddy were just that way." My oldest brother, Mack, related a tale where our maternal grandfather J.M. Whitsitt had lectured him when he was pretty young about a comment my brother made about a man who worked on Granddaddy Whitsitt's property. In essence he told my brother he should never disrespect another person, whatever their race or economic situation. This is even more amazing, to me, because J.M. was born, I think in 1882 and grew up on a farm in the Nashville area. How he got that perspective, considering when and where he grew up, really puzzles me. I'm surely glad and proud, I am just puzzled.

And then, these days, we see and read and hear some of the reactions to the Charleston shootings, or to Ferguson and it seems that some people are never going to get it. This is all tied in with my interest in how Walnut, while not perfect (as Ben Burton so ably showed us) was something good. Really good.

My dad got transferred by AT&T and we moved to Atlanta in the summer of 1963 (boo-hoo!). I had to do my senior year in what was supposed to be one of the best high schools in the state, Briarcliff High in DeKalb County, GA. What a joke! I lost ground, intellectually, that year. DeKalbwas hotbed of school desegregation turmoil. It had not happened, but the federal courts had ordered the county to submit a plan for majority-to-minority transfers and "busing" to make that possible for the fall of 1964.

Woo, the talk I heard. My experience at Walnut allowed to me say, over-and-over, "You people are nuts! What do you think is going to happen when you have six or eight black students sitting in your history class? I've done it. The families that are willing to send their kids across town are really serious about education. Those kids are going to COMPETE! And the school will be better for it."

On another note, Mr. Lounds, believe it or not, I have continued to talk about you throughout my whole life. Your name comes up often in the gym. Any time I get into a discussion with someone about working a particular muscle, or about range-of-motion, I always start with, "As Mr. Lounds taught me in Human Physiology, every muscle has a point of attachment and a point of insertion." You made a big impression on me, in quite a few ways.

Philip Spiess

Steve (and others):  Don't be too positive about what was happening between the races in 1960s Cincinnati (though it was undoubtedly better than what was happening in the South).  I'll not start now on the issue of what was called "block-busting" then (relating to housing), though I may discuss that later.  I must say that my parents (the World War II generation) were racially prejudiced in ways that kind of mystified my sister and me as we experienced racial integration at Walnut Hills (which, now that I think about it, really speaks to the point of the importance of school racial integration).  Although my 94-year-old mother is still living, and I can query her, I don't think she was ever comfortable with blacks in school with her.  (And, dear friends, forgive me for saying this, but I must, in due respect for the historical record, say that she also has a certain prejudice against Jews, even to this day; I'm sure it was her generation and the times.  After all, my two bosses at the Smithsonian Institution in the 1980s, whom I dearly loved, were both Jewish Walnut Hills graduates from my mother's generation, so again I differed with her on this subject.)  As you know (hopeful humor here), "some of my best friends are Jewish" -- Jeffrey Rosen, Jonny Marks, Steve Levinson, etc. -- and most of the rest of you out there who are my classmates.  The several cleaning women we had for our house in Clifton (on a somewhat irregular basis) were all black, and we thought they were nice ladies, which they were, but I have no idea what they were paid, and, of course, they were treated as "help" (which is the same way white cleaning ladies would also have been treated).

There was also the issue of dating.  My sister (a year older at WHHS) was asked out on a date by a guy who nowadays would be called (if called anything at all today) biracial (I forget who it was, but he was from WHHS).  You can believe that my folks put a nix on that, explaining to her why "that just wasn't done."  I've already written above about interracial swimming.

Oh, and Steve, race was a very big issue in the 1920s.  D. W. Griffith's landmark-making film (landmark-making because of his cinematography), The Birth of a Nation (1915, based on Thomas Dixon, Jr.'s 1904 novel The Clansman), extolled the virtues of the Ku Klux Klan; it was a film that President Woodrow Wilson said was "history writ with lightning" (he was from the South).  Also, the 1920s saw the greatest membership surge in the Ku Klux Klan -- which had its largest membership not in the South, as you might expect, but in Indiana!  [I may have told this before, but I'll tell it again:  when I was a student at Hanover College in the 1960s, I learned of a southern Indiana county that to that day had no blacks living in it, because a black was grilled alive on a griddle (a la St. Lawrence) in that county in the 1920s!]  Steve, just look up "lynching" on the Internet to see what really went on in the 1920s in the South (and elsewhere)!  (Maybe we should have let the southern states secede?)

And finally, one personal note on the current issue of the Confederate flag:  my (now over 50-year) career in heritage preservation:  if you claim that heritage is the issue -- what heritage, slavery?  If you claim that "states' rights" was why the Civil War was fought, what was the states' rights issue?   Answer:  Slavery!  (Read your history, and don't use those Texas school textbooks!

I'm trying to tell it as I remember it.  I hope I've offended no one. [And once again, I've gone on too long.  Sorry.]

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Although I have been an infrequent contributor to this great website, I couldn't help noticing Mr. Lounds' post yesterday and reading all the great responses today, which echo my own sentiments. Thanks so much for sharing your stories and helping us all understand the racism that was around all of us who grew up in Cincinnati during those days (and I know we still have a long way to go as a country.) And I hope you do come to the reunion - it would be great to see you again!

My husband John has been to several of our reunions with me. Having grown up in Texas and graduated from Denton HS in 1962  (the last all-white class in that school before integration), he was really impressed by the diversity of our class of 1964. It certainly changed me, and having you for freshman biology (which I loved) also had a huge impact on me, since you were my first ever teacher of color. (I think my other was Mrs. Dobbins, whose art class I also loved.) Anyway, John's parents have also had a big impact on me. His father grew up in Virginia but rebelled against the Southern "way of life" early on, and his mother grew up in South Carolina, but was sent to Smith College by her father who believed in a good education for girls as well as boys, and that really changed her attitude toward blacks. John's father taught at the U of Oklahoma in the 1940s, at a time when Norman OK had a sign on the outskirts of town sayind "N---, don't let the sun set on you here"  meaning it was okay for blacks to work in town but they just couldn't live there. John's father taught English there and in 1945 he organized a Symposium on American Literature, for which he invited a distinguished African-American poet from Howard University as a guest speaker. The speaker could not stay in a hotel, but the Presbyterian minister offered to house him in his home, where a large group of people gathered outside because they had never seen a black man in a suit! Apparently this incident caused such concern among the community that he ended up losing his job, so they moved to Indiana for a few years and ended up in Texas. (Texas was also segregated, but his parents made it very clear to him early on that it was totally wrong.) And I found out a few years ago that even the Twin Cities, which are considered pretty liberal, had some segregated lunch counters in 1960!

Bonnie Altman (Templeton)

Great to hear from you Mr. Lounds.  I enjoyed your Biology class and thanks for telling us about the discrimination that you suffered.

JoAnn Dyson (Dawson)

Hello.  This is my 1st post.  I've enjoyed reading the messages for months now.  I too enjoy Sousa marches, especially when performed by a military band.  I think the Washington Post march was played on the PBS 4th of July program.  The comments on local and distant cultural, historical and travel topics by Phil and others are great fun.

The current thread on Cincinnati and national race relations really compelled me to join in. There is an interesting divergence in the experience and views of the majority Anglo community and those of the communities of color.  I will add the following to the mix for consideration:

1.  For many years, Cincinnati police were recruited from the sounth because these recruits were viewed by the police leadership as knowing how to treat African Americans to keep us in our place.  The impact on the culture of police behavior in Cincinnati continues as is true in other communities of the US.  Note the fatal outcomes for too many black and Hispanic males who encounter the police or the excessive legal penalties placed on men of color compared to Anglos with similar criminal backgrounds or crimes.

2.  For many years, until sometime in the 50's-60's, qualified certified African American teachers could not teach in any Cincinnati high schools.  This was so for WHHS, hence the impact on the school when our class advisor, Mr. Lounds, joined the WHHS faculty, in a science no less

3.  A 21 yo male so misguided by the information and people in his life that he would murdur 9 people and feel he is a hero.

4.  Continuing today, when the election of a black president of the US is evidence of racial progress, we still have children poorly educated in under-resourced public schools; and health care provided to people of color that does not meet the quality standards, even when insurance coverage is the same.

It would be wrong and show a lack of gratitude not to acknowledge the progress made at great cost and effort.  However, it is important to note that much remains to be done.  What remains is probably the most difficult of all.  It will take more than removal of a flag to address what remains.  I'm encouraged by our youth, though the killer referenced above does represent a deep American river that continues.
 

Philip Spiess

To Mr. Lounds again:  When you talked about the segregated swimming at WHHS (for that is what it was), you said that you didn't know what was happening on the girls' side.  Having dinner tonight with my mother (WHHS Class of 1939), I mentioned your story of the Friday afternoon swimming to her, and the draining of the pool (a story which still rather shocks me, because it seems to have been racially motivated, rather than because it was the end of the week, yes?), and she said, "Oh, lord, yes!  Of course it went on, and the girls' swimming classes, too!"  So now we know.  (I can't think she knew about the draining of the pools -- how could she, unless it was widely remarked upon?)  In our day, when you were our advisor, the only mention of the draining -- or closing -- of the pools was supposedly because "someone" had put Jell-O in the pool and it had to be cleaned out.  As an adult cultural historian and master chef for our household, I'm inclined to think the Jell-O story falls into the category of "urban myth"; how could a package or two of Jell-O "set up" an entire pool filled with chlorine?  (Among other things, you have to mix Jell-O with boiling water to make it work.)  I'll just conclude this post with the story that when Walnut Hills High School was built in 1933 during the Great Depression, it was attacked in the public prints as "palaces with swimming pools built in the name of education"!

JoAnn:  Thanks so much for entering this Forum and this discussion; it adds so much to have your perspective.  Keep it coming!  [And, yes, The Washington Post March was played at the 4th of July celebration.]  And thanks, Becky, for your stories; as Harriet Beecher Stowe so long ago pointed out in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852, written in Cincinnati, and documented in her follow-up, Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, after Southern critics attacked it as being a tissue of falsehoods), the South has no monopoly on racial prejudice; the North is full of hypocrisy on this subject.

Philip Spiess

Okay guys, I don't like to follow one of my posts on this site with another one of my posts, but I'm leaving this weekend for a week-long canoe trip on the James River here in Virginia with my local Boy Scout troop, so here goes:  Gail Weintraub Stern is asking that those of us who recollect which of our WHHS class members were with them in elementary school should please produce a list thereof.  My own list for Clifton Elementary School, and others' lists for a couple of other schools, can be found on "What's New," posted under "Laura Reid Pease" on July 3rd.  Because my list has now been subsumed by the computer as other posts have been added, I'll repeat it here:  Clifton Elementary School (now apparently Fairview-Clifton German Language School -- news to me):  Vicki Baker (Lottes); Gary Beck; Peter Crockett; Donald Dahmann; Douglass Dupee (Trumble); Sally Fox (Korkin); Tom Gottschang; Frances Grace (Reed); Jane Hammond; Deborah King (Wroth); Michael McCurdy; David Mitzel; Stephan Pahner; Becky Payne (Shockley); Richard Ransohoff; Eddie Siddens; Philip Spiess; Robert St. John, Jr.; James Stillwell; Tami Tate (Graham); Cathy Welsh.  Robert Cook lived in Clifton, but moved there, I believe, after elementary school.  I wasn't sure whether David Ransohoff and Albert Weihl went to private or public school; Mike Hunting assures me that David Ransohoff went to Lotspeich School, not to Clifton.  John Jordan, I think, may have been in and out of Clifton School at a given time (his mother was my second boss at the Cincinnati Historical Society, and a very good boss she was).

Jerry Ochs

JoAnn,

Thank you for reminding us all that the fight is far from over.  After the next president is sworn in, Mr. Obama will once again face the danger of walking, running, driving, or just plain standing still while black.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hello all. It's been fascinating reading the input of Mr. Lounds and following responses. I didn't study in Mr. Lounds' class, but I remember freshman biology with Mrs. Powell, also a "woman of color". Anyone else remember her? As far as the whole issue of color goes, from kindergarten through third grade, I went to South Avondale School, which was at least half black, and my best friend was black and was an aunt at the age of 6, which thrilled me. So I guess I sort of had an inner voice which then told me "what's the big deal? Different colored eyes, different colored skin, blondes, redheads, brown hair, black hair - who cares?" I just never understood racial prejudice. To me, people came in a great variety of sizes, colors, and what-have-you. I was probably more personally affected by antisemitism, which was also alive and well in Cincinnati in my time. Our next-door-neighbor called my father a k***, and the kid down the street regularly beat up my brother because all Jews killed Christ, as was taught in the kid's parochial school. I was also very involved in Zionist causes, and duh, here I am living in Israel for the last 47 years....