Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

The Seventh Grade Class 1950-51
Bottom Row L to R: Ray Horch, Earl Christopher. Carroll Whitten, Gene Stonerock, Charles Wooten, Larry Lichleiter (sp?). Second Row L to R: Norma Jean Whaley, Agnes Carle, Verna Lawson, Barbara Minor, Edmona Self, Shirley Morris, Joyce Cook. Third Row L to R: Teacher Mr. William Alspach, Judy Anderson, Ula Jean Ater, Louise Clark, Marilyn Francis, Alice Rigsby, Denny Jackson. Fourth Row: Harvey Rutherford, David Brown, Roy Johnson (?), Marvin Rhoades, John Payne, Joe Pollard, Ronald O’Conner, Tommy Finley.

A New Sheriff in Town
 
When we were in the seventh grade, for the first time in our school lives, we would have a male teacher. We didn’t know how that would be, whether we would like a male teacher or not.
 
Mr. William Alspach and family moved into the house where Eddie James had lived just two doors north of us. We didn’t know what to expect but he turned out to be an excellent teacher. He often complained that it took him an entire six weeks (or two) to teach us to conjugate verbs. I am so glad he did because I never would have learned any other language without his efforts. It’s too bad he didn’t teach us more about commas, semicolons, etc. You have probably noticed that even the Harbrace College Handbook didn’t help me with them either.
 
Anyway, though that was his biggest contribution to me personally, he was also the Junior High coach. He may have become the high school coach later. Though I went to the games and cut out all of the newspaper articles, my mind no longer retains the stats to tell you the story appropriately. 
 
As much as I can remember, I believe our junior high team won everything in the county and then some. Even I saw some of our teams play at Saint John’s Arena when I was a teenager. Verna Lawson (Mowery) was an only child and often invited me to go along with her and her parents to football and basketball games. The school also took buses. My mother let me go but I often had to walk home by myself from the school where the bus dropped us off afterward. I was scared walking home by myself in the dark on Williamsport’s damp, slippery, brick sidewalks.

Williamsport Junior High Basketball Team
Bottom Row L to R: George Eddie James, David Noble, David Brown, Gene Stonerock, Earl Christopher, Richard Carter. Top Row L to R: Ronald O’Conner, Reese Picklesimer, Marvin Rhoades, Ronald Gusset, John Payne and Coach Mr. William Alspach.

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck