First Days..White Pine High School

That first day started with a feeling of foreboding, as I climbed out of bed. We McGill heathens had been subjected to all kinds of taunts from the older kids. We were targets for being deprived of our pants by upperclassmen. The upper class girls liked to put on extra lipstick and then kiss us and smear that stuff all over our faces.

Now, one had to understand that at that time we McGill heathens were not very comfortable with girls and they counted on that. In previous years we showed our affection for girls by handing them a lizard or some other slimy critter. Another affectionate thing in the winter was to rub snow on their face or put some down the back of their neck.

I ate a hearty breakfast that morning and then trudged down to the bus stop . We freshmen boys had to ride on the same bus as the sophomores. They gave us a hard time all the way to the high school.

We found our home room and our first experience with a new teacher. Then we had to scramble to find our next classroom. In grade school we stayed in one room for most of the day and with the same teacher. Now in high school, we had classes in different rooms and different teachers. It was strange at first, but we McGill heathens had survived many years of unfair transgressions on our freedoms, so we adapted easily.

One day during our first week we were marched up to the block WP and forced to whitewash the rocks that made up the letters. We were beaten with huge wooden paddles and those pesky girls were all over us with the lipstick routine.

This was our initiation into being a White Pine High School member. It seemed stupid at first, but as the years went by we had a more intimate feeling of belonging. It is a feeling one can only get by going through some hard times . It felt the same after I went through initiation to the Kappa Sigma Fraternity at the U. of U. and again, after getting through basic Army training at Ft. Ord, California.

I am not suggesting that those things were the same. But, we got paddled at “fresh week” in High School and Fraternity , “goat week” and in basic training we went on forced marches. Anyway, we all made it and were much better for going through it.