[Webmaster note: With the following bio Doris submitted her recollections of American life during our lifespan plus her views on various subjects. You will find her thoughts and reflections by clicking here.]

HAMILTON JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

During my 8th Grade at Hamilton Jr. High School my Mom made me a lovely cotton pink print peasant skirt with a shirred waist for a Spring May Pole dance at Hamilton.  The teachers were amazed how lovely it was and that my Mom had made it all by hand, as she didn't have a sewing machine.  I took the required sewing class at Hamilton, and barely passed, but got so much out of the class that years later I used what I had learned there to make a cover apron for my Mom during the 1980's.  As I worked on her apron, I suddenly realized that the material I picked out was exactly the same pink print pattern of the peasant skirt she made for me in 1948.  Of course, it was from a new roll at Jo Anne's, but the print and color were still being made.  I had a sewing machine, which made it easier.

I loved my Art Class at Hamilton, had a crush on a couple of the fellows, and my first kiss!  Arline Shulmier was our chaperon.

I really enjoyed my Washington State History Class, and have always loved the state of Washington.  I was assured that the volcanoes of the Cascades would never be active.  I thought, "Ah, gee heck!"  I was one of the students in the 9th Grade that was transferred mid-year to Lincoln High School in January 1949 as a last half freshman.

LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL, RAH, RAH, RAH!

Lincoln's hollow halls echoed with the cleats of the guys, and giggles of the gals who were students there.  Skirts styles became so long, tight and straight that it was hard to walk, and don't try to run!  If you could afford them, they were worn with Joyce Shoes from Nordstrom's, fuzzy cuffed Angora socks, and very expensive beautiful cashmere, or less expensive lovely lambs wool sweaters from Scotland.

One of the first things I did to show my independence in my Sophomore Year was to skip Study Hall in the auditorium, AND GET CAUGHT!  The second thing I did was skip school for the day, and I got so bored staying home alone that I dyed my hair with Mercurochrome. You remember, the red stuff in the little bottle to put on cuts that may have had mercury in it? It was a lot of work, and kept me busy all the rest of the day. Oh, my hair was the most beautiful red color under the bathroom light!  When I went to meet Jackie Hill (who had naturally red hair) at the school bus stop, she said, "What did you do to your hair?"

I told her, "I dyed it red!"  She said, "IT'S PINK!”  It was not only pink, but had the strangest iridescent metallic shade of green in some lights.  I didn't get kicked out of school, but washed it twice a day, and it still stayed much the same shade of pink, with the metallic green tinge throughout my sophomore year.  I was nicknamed...Hey, Pinky!

Outdoor Drive-in Movie Theatre's sprung up so viewers could watch the movie from their car with their arm around their date, and there were drive-in places to eat at.  Most households only had one family car, with a one-car garage, and few students had cars of their own.  So, the guys had to ask their folks if they could borrow the family car for a date?  We usually walked or took the bus to the big movie theatres in downtown Seattle. The theatre's I recall are; The Orpheum, Coliseum, Roosevelt, Winter Garden, Blue Mouse, Music Box, Colonial, 5th Avenue, Paramount, Music Hall, Embassy, Liberty, and the Palomar that often included a vaudeville stage show having trapeze showmen, elephants, comedians, and maybe fan dancers? The University District had the Egyptian and Neptune Theatre's.   Every district had one or two smaller theatres we lived near, such as, Wallingford, Phinney, Green Lake, Greenwood, and Ballard. We found jobs in these neighborhood districts or close-by Mom and Pop stores.  We went to roller skating rinks, bowling alleys, libraries, malt shops, high school football and basketball games, Woodland Park and its Zoo or Green Lake for entertainment.  The theatres have vanished one by one, as television sets took their place in the family homes beginning with our generation.

The money we earned after school or during the summer paid for special events at school, dating, or for that special sweater, or pair of shoes that we dreamed about having, but our folks couldn't afford.  The work kept us busy and out of lots of trouble, and few students were fat!  Hairstyles for girls were long or the tight short curls of a Poodle Cut.  The guys had slicked down hair with ducktails, or a crew cut.  The big thing seemed to be polished shoes, and the louder and noisier the cleats were the better, to draw attention to the one wearing them. Smoking was the big sin, or sipping a beer, chewing gum wasn't allowed in school...

The Avalon was a popular dance.  My favorite song was Harbor Lights. Some liked Elvis Presley but, I liked Pat Boone, and who along with his songs wore his favored white bucks in his pictures. White Bucks began to be seen along the halls of Lincoln.

LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS DID HAVE AN INFLUENCE ON MY LIFE.

I was a straight (A) Art Major and Ms. Poor, our Art Teacher, let us just create.  Today our 1953 ANNUAL brings me pleasure to look through.  The fact I design the cover adds to the pleasure along with the memories of the Art Annual Staff serving with me; Sandra Steik, Kay Lamoreux, Pete Kind, Robin Buchan, Bill Quam and myself, Doris Clark, were added with a stick-on inside the back cover page. Would you believe we had been forgotten? Sandra and Kay were extremely talented, and I hope they did some great creative work in the field of Art sometime in their lives after graduation. I didn't!  All other classes I had held little interest for me, and my grades showed it!

I did enjoy Mr. Hay’s history class, and got a strong B.  He made history so interesting. Perhaps that is why I'm a City Historian for the little City of Mountlake Terrace, Washington. Our City is filled with both Lincoln and Ballard grads. Many are World War 2 and Korea Conflict Veteran's, who were the original composition of Mountlake Terrace and bought little cement block love cottages near the King/Snohomish County Line selling for about $5,000.  Today these are selling for over $250,000, though many have been remodeled or added onto, for making room for the large families that love produced. It also shows how much our buying power of the dollar has eroded.

Note of Interest:  When Calvary Fellowship Church that had rented space in Lincoln High School found they had to move out of Lincoln while Ballard High School was being re-built, they bought the Antique Mall building that went bankrupt located in the center of Mountlake Terrace's small downtown.

My husband, a graduate of Ballard High School, and I met on a double date while I was a Junior at Lincoln. We went to a drive-in movie and just held hands. He was in Our Country's Armed Forces, and if I had known that he was a serviceman I would never have gone out with him, as girls that dated service men were thought to be fast, and I sure wasn't. I never saw him in uniform except in pictures. We planned on getting married shortly after we met.

So, when the day came that Ms. Connors, our Comp IV teacher, told everybody in class that they were all going to pass...except, maybe, Doris?  Everybody turned around and looked at me, sitting in the back of the class!  So, I did some fast thinking.  Ms. Connors called me up after class and asked me what my plans were after I graduated?  I put on a act that actress, Claire Trevor, who always played that cheap dumb blonde, would have envied, except I didn't have the chewing gum prop.  I told Ms Connors that I had met this soldier boy.... and would probably work in a dime store until we got married... then I would stay home and have lots and lots of babies. I could almost see her mind thinking that I was this poor dumb kid who would never need to know much about English composition and she passed me!  Boy, were we wrong!

Pretty Ms. Thompson, the girls Health Teacher, terrified me!  Very good students got low grades from her. I was so scared I wouldn't pass that I memorized word for word the huge first chapter of our health book. All the answers to questions on the tests of the following chapters were found in that first chapter, and she gave me an A.  Somehow, I ended up on the Honor Roll to the amazement of my teachers and myself?

I did get secretly married to my soldier boy...but not for almost another year. Ms Thompson was the first teacher to learn I was married, as my good friends who kept my secret told her after I had signed out of her class as a January 1953 graduate. Those days if it was known you were married, you could not attend school, even if close to graduation like I was.

THINGS I'VE DONE!    THOUGHTS I HAVE!

After I graduated from Lincoln I went to Edison Technical School and got a straight (A) in Business English for very short and to the point letters, because I deleted everything I didn't know how to spell or punctuate?  And, as you may have noticed I'm gabby, and still know very little about English mechanics?  I became an IBM Lead Keypunch Operator over 30 women, who always sent me back spelling corrections in my written instructions to them.  I was the first Data Transceiver Operator on the West Coast sending information to Florida's Space Program. I was transferred to the Tabulating Department, which was all men, except for me. It was a "guy thing", and women were considered "no brains", and I never claimed to have any. The pre-computer machines were noisy and large; so were the early computers. My business career ended when I became a mother.

A new career began when I became an Elementary PTA President and our School District's PTSA Council Child Safety Chairman. I wrote our School District's "Detailed Block Parent Child Safety Procedure" (Prior to McGruff), as some children had vanished and this fine child safety plan protecting children on route needed revival. While I held the position, Mount Baker began to shake! I mentioned to the District's Administrator, Dr. Christianson, that I felt we should have Earthquake Drills like we once had Air Raid Drills. He told me, "Doris, I don't know of any school district in the State of Washington that is having Earthquake Drills?" So, he started them, and I received a State Level Parent Teacher Association Award for Outstanding Service to Children.

I was asked to be the Community College Adult Night School Coordinator for our City, which was an administrative position. Thank Heavens we coordinators shared a secretary. The next year I was elected to our Mountlake Terrace City Council, and was appointed to the Snohomish County Health Board. While holding those positions Mt Saint Helen's blew in 1980. I learned a great deal about what happens to cities in an eruption catastrophe. All vehicles in a heavy ash fallout cannot operate. To be safe, keep emergency supplies for more than three days. The teachers at Hamilton were WRONG! The Cascade volcanoes are still very active.

 I serve as Secretary for our City's Historical Committee, and there are few letters to write.  Our Chairman was an elected member of our Edmonds District School Board, and does a great job of editing before she signs... anything, that I type.  She was also in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

We have a Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary.  I'm secretary to one of our City's Park Committees, which has included working with some of the professors at the U.W.  Over the years I've served on many of our City Committees.  I don't think I've ever written anything without a mistake, but it hasn't stopped me. It all would have been much easier though if, I had learned those English composition fundamentals, as a student in Ms. Connors Comp IV Class at Lincoln High School.

I was an elected GOP Snohomish County and Washington State Delegate a few times. Presently I am an Independent! When I was GOP, I had brunch with Spellman during his campaign when he won the position of Governor of our State of Washington.  I've met lots of interesting and dedicated elected people holding office from both the Democrat and Republican Parties.  

My art ambitions, never materialized except for some fun projects involving church and school children. The reality of life, needing money to live on, and issues of my concern have always kept me from following that path.  But then.... the night is young yet.... and who knows.... perhaps my desire to write and illustrate a fun reading book for children with certain disabilities, might still be on the horizon...?  Of course, it would have to be edited...

In a round room lived a rabbit, Sir Walter Robert Richard Redfoot, who had a wonderful wardrobe of red waistcoats he wore whenever, and wherever he went.........

LOVE YA,
Doris (Clark) Cannon - MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 28, 2007

Carol COLLING McKinlay

Highlights since high school: married at 18 - had 4 kids - widowed after 44 years. Met and married Jim one year ago (2002). Worked as a secretary and meter maid over the years at various times. Now do volunteer work with the arts (ballet, theatre and opera).

Favorite pastime - playing tennis.

Wes COPPAGE

Highlights since high school: served in U.S. Army and Navy Reserve. Married Joan in 1961. Served an apprenticeship for journeyman auto mechanic. Moved to Nevada in1969. Worked for City of Henderson, Nevada for 25 years.

Favorite pastimes - motor home camping, off road in dune buggy and '69 Bronco.

Delbert DAHL

Favorite pastime - sailing "Mariah" from Seattle to Panama and all points in between.

Sue DIPPERT Calvert

Highlights: First car, a new '59 Austin Healey Sprite. Staying single 'til late twenties, then marriage to one of the playboys of the western world (a race driver) for 16 years. Raising two neat daughters anyway. Now also have two sons-in-law and five grandsons.

Trips to Mexico and England, but prefer home and my imagination. Realized a dream by doing a major home remodel unrestricted by resale possibilities.

Worked behind the scenes at the Federal Reserve, an insurance company, an engineering firm, Plasteel Inc, with brief stints at Eddie Bauer, the Seattle Times, Competition Systems, an ice cream manufacturer and an office supply company.

Kenneth DONOHUE

Highlights since high school: happily married 48 years (in 2003) and have been drywall contractors 40 years.

Favorite pastime: riding our Gold Wing motorcycle.

William DOUGHERTY

Favorite pastime: life in Alaska.