T. J. RAY, Oxford, Mississippi

In the summer of 1944 our neighbor in the government housing project had saved enough gasoline rationing stamps for a trip. We loaded three families into his 1940 Ford and went to Gulf Shores. The weather was chilly as I recall; the sand was very gritty; the wind was stout. Despite all that it was a glorious day, except from finding a crate of pineapples from a ship that had been torpedoed somewhere in the area.

The next day mother made her weekly trip to Delchamps, the big food chain near Mobile, for groceries. That was a three mile walk, one way with ration stamps, the return trip with several sacks of stuff. One treasure was a bottle Coke syrup. At home she mixed a little of it with tap water, shook it, and handed us a Coke. Flat though it was, it was delicious, especially with the Bit-O-Honey bar dad had gotten from a fellow ship worker.

At Christmas mom, my brother and I went home to Louisville, Mississippi, on the Gulf Transport bus. The weather was frigid in Louisville, and rather than forcing us to walk across town to grandma's house, Pat Tomlinson drove the bus over and let us out in front of the house.

No, this is not the start of an autobiography. In fact I'll carefully refrain from listing all the things I did to get in trouble in those days. It is an observation of how time and conditions can be so different. Wartime conditions required all sort of adjustments by families and schools and businesses. For instance, there were those uncomfortable air raid drills at school that forced us to our knees under out desks. And there were those nights that were Stygian dark because the Air Raid Wardens would give fines for uncovered lights in the neighborhood. I've read enough things about the war to know that things were not so placid for people over seven years of age. I know there were riots in some cities. And there were even strikes at some war plants. But we survived.

After that survival we flourished, made more and more goods, built larger and larger dwellings. Corporations grew and gave us so many "good" things that we became addicted to having whatever we wanted. Of course, this condition was carefully preserved by ignoring people with painful needs. They lived somewhere else, certainly not in our fine new suburbs.

Now we find ourselves heating and cooling homes with far more space than any of us can productively use. The houses are crammed with stuff that we must have--if only to keep up with the Joneses. And corporations have figured out that to sell us more of this or that, they can make larger profits by moving manufacturing "over there," leaving us with fewer jobs but the addiction to thing. It seems our national motto has become "If It's Good for Business, It's Good for America."

And the very heart of our addictive nature is sitting out front. It rides comfortably down highways that our governments spend inordinate piles of money to maintain. And no one except a few do-gooders really get serious about car-pooling or riding a bus. At a conference this week to discuss how to make Oxford a more desirable and satisfying community, much of the discourse centered around the automobile, the need for fewer and the problem with rising costs.

In a TV survey last week, the reporter polled folks on the street. She began by saying how many million gallons of gas would be saved if every driver in the country gave up 40 miles of driving per week. The number was astounding. Yep, you guessed it: among the responses was "I ain't giving up anything." And that, my friend, is what we have become.

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THANKS TJ, for shaking us up from our lethargy. THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Another way to put it, "The BIS - not all discipline, paddling or work." YES, there were times when the teenage boys pushed the limits and had to be reminded why they were at the BIS (or FSB) and that reminder came in various forms. For years there was a leather strap (with a wooden handle) that was used as an application of "the board of education" and sometimes simple removal of the good things or times was punishment enough. The following comments have been gleaned from our correspondence with former BIS boys during the past two years up to the Summer of 2010.

One former resident wrote, "I could never honestly, say that I recall being on the Hill, like some boys recall, going on a "Scouting" retreat. It was far from camp fire songs  and dunking apples. Nevertheless, in my particular case, it did the trick, so to speak."

Another former resident regarded his stay at the BIS with these words: "I was at the hill around 1953.. No sooner than I got there I ran off, only to be caught soon after. Then they beat my ass with a long strap fixed to a wood handle. Through the years I repeated this. Once leaving the hill I ended up in Mansfield, left [the BIS] when I turned 21. In and out of prison for many years. I now live in Alabama. I've been out of prison for 30 yrs. I became self employed as a painter. Did very well."

Another boy, now 67 years old, from the current days and looking back at his days at the BIS. "I am a retired captain and pilot on the Great Lakes. Some of the boys I tried to keep in contact with were doing good, others not quite as good. They had forgotten what we were taught while on the hill."

THESE PICTURES SHOW A VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES

Three boys all "dressed up in Sunday clothes" or visitation day.

Two residents of the Fairfield School for Boys who were WINNERS at the popular Derby Downs July 24, 1975.

DERBY DOWNS was just down the road where kids from all over got to see how good they could build a soap box derby. Soap boxes they did not resemble---that was a hang-over from the long-gone days when orange crates were transformed into the predecessor of skate boards. Old roller skates were fastened to a discarded wooden crate (in which oranges were shipped to stores). The brick streets at the BIS didn't make very smooth running for skates or skate scooters and when the official Derby Downs season came along it was common to find several boys involved.

SPIT & POLISH --- Yes, there was plenty of that. Discipline, the military style, was also common. Boys lined up, marched (sometimes with a vocal cadence) to the cafeteria or work.

Here is a cadence recalled by Larry Berens, a former employee of the BIS; he said he'd heard this called out thousands of times by the boys marching to their dinner or work details.

Nothing really beats the military way to teach a boy how to "stand up and pay attention" like being dressed up, yes as that old song says, "There's something about a soldier..." Even the "plain clothes" dude looked like he had to stand tall too.

The Boys Industrial School was called the "BIS" for 80 years, until 1964, when it was renamed The Fairfield School for Boys from 1965 till it closed in 1979, was not a Sunday school picnic nor was it always fun but whenever an atmosphere of casual fun could be created, the institution did not short change their wards. Many of the young men who were at the FSB might never have a chance to build a soap box derby car or join the Boy Scouts or get involved in sports but the institution recognized the importance of such activities and as a state organization they got the boys outfitted as good as the common community boys in town. Uniforms and sport [game] clothes were probably better than a lot of outfits the boys in town could afford (remember, the state was paying the bill--with taxes, of course).

In reality, there were high school graduation diplomas awarded to any boy who were there during grade school or high school years. During the years of 1969, 1970 and 1971 FSB students actually got to publish a school annual just like any other high school Regretfully such a publication simply involved a lot of time and effort that was difficult to continue. They even had "school dances" --

yes, they invited the girls from the reform school for girls! You can imagine what kind of chaperoning that required but the boys and girls had fun (just like their counterparts) in any city in Ohio.

Here are some comments from David Shiltz, a former teacher at the FSB. These words may sound staid or even sterile to some but they do set forth some principles and precepts the boys often either did not accept, chose not to recognize or hopefully would get the drift and make sufficient progress to graduate from the FSB school.

"Our existential philosophy of education requires us to encourage the student to a commitment to himself, to the ideal within him, or to the ideal from beyond him. The individual defines himself or. chooses what he becomes. If the student is to discover himself, then he has to understand the influences that have played upon him directly and indirectly. He must understand choices and commitments of others that have impinged upon him. He must become aware of choices that he has made, and he must become aware of possibilities for becoming through new commitments. The teacher as an integrated person is committed to ideals. He is a living witness to this commitment as he works with the students placed in his care."

These principles apply to both the student (boys in this case) and the teachers hired by the State of Ohio. As witnessed in the comments from former residents, some learned how to stay within boundaries and some simply failed to grasp "the message" and they often went back to FSB and even unfortunately graduated to higher levels of crime. You could only do so much, as a teacher, and one of the real concerns of some teachers was "Will we have the boy long enough to do him some good?"

The BIS - Not all spit & polish
Copyrighted 2010, Bill & Jean Venrick
Lancaster, Ohio

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Another article will be forthcoming about the regular school system with two elementary grade schools as well as a high school. THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At the time of publishing T. Joe Eggebrecht's, essay, "Whom Do You Trust?", the following thoughts of former President Thomas Jefferson had been sent to me and it is fitting to follow up Joe's ssay with those Jefferson comments. Someone has accurately stated, "The only constant is change." America has changed, or haven't you noticed? THE WORDWRIGHT

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States (1801-1809) is described by the Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia as a polygraph or, so most of us could understand it better, "A person knowing much; or a person of great and diversified learning." Specifically, Jefferson achieved distinction as a horticulturist, political leader, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia. When President John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." To date, Jefferson is the only president to serve two full terms in office without vetoing a single bill of congress. Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of U. S. presidents. (Attribution hereby given to Wikipedia free encyclopedia for the above description of Thomas Jefferson.)

The sales slogan of the tobacco industry, "You have come a long way baby" seems a fitting expression about the condition of our country compared to the principles laid down in our constitution and other papers in the chronicles of our country. As a citizen of the United States I cannot but yearn for the principles and concepts of Thomas Jefferson. Consider each of the following quotes and mentally review the principles and concepts that are being pandered (like "the gospel") by our country's leaders today.

The following are quotes from the writings of Thomas Jefferson:

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."

And finally, in light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read just one more comment from Thomas Jefferson in 1802:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

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THE WORDWRIGHT asks, "Do you see anything in Jefferson's quotes that give you second thoughts about the direction our country is going or has gone?" In the 201 years that have passed since Thomas Jefferson was our president it is obvious some virtues and principles have been compromised.

Posted by Bill Venrick at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)