Memories58

Memories of Growing up in the Spring Valley Area

This is a space for you to tell your story about growing up in this particular time and place!
Contact the Karen to add to this page.

Sharon (Budd) Alton

GROWING UP IN SPRING VALLEY

Memories keep flooding back
Of the lovely valley and wooded hills,
Creating a beautiful playground
To chase away all my childhood ills.

The kids on the hill would “play out”
After supper many a night;
“Tag,” “Hide and Seek,” “Pum-Pum Pullaway,”
And, of course, there was “Starlight-Moonlight.”

The bus ride to River Falls Park
For swimming lessons in the pool;
Later hiking to First and Second Rock
With friends to swim and keep wonderfully cool.

Also in the summer there was camping;
Girl Scout camp and Bible camp too.
Making new friends, learning, growing deeper.
There always was something to do.

Sledding and skating in the winter time,
With the rink out the schoolhouse door.
Then back inside after recess
Till after school when we were ready for more.

Walking friends home after school,
Talking on the bridge for hours.
Playing cowboys and Indians on the hillside.
Springtime walks in the woods picking flowers.

There was Sunday School and P.F. and potlucks
At the Congregational Church on the hill.
I remember well the days of the fires.
Now it looks different but it’s standing there still.

Ballgames, cheerleading, class outings;
Noisy bus rides along the way.
“Take Me Out to the Ballgame,”
More shouting than singing, I’d say.

A wise teacher we had, with his proverbs
Above the blackboards, all in a row.
Teaching life’s important lessons,
Instilling what we needed to know.

Band, choir, plays, speech and barbershop
Kept us going both day and night.
History, English, science, math, sociology;
Hoping our answers on tests would be right.

Our small class of nineteen in eighth grade
Grew to forty-four by our graduation.
As town kids met the new farm kids,
And upper classmen commenced initiation.

And how could we forget the dances?
Homecoming, Sadie Hawkins, and the sock hops.
The bunny hop, polka and schottische
And the proms, they simply were tops.

As I look at the pictures on the web-site
And the couples then that still are wed.
It tells me concerning “high school sweethearts,”
There is something good that can surely be said.

For our parents and teachers we are thankful;
For their loving and caring concern;
For the many beautiful memories
Living in our minds where we can always return.

Marlys (Hanson) Anderson
I enjoyed staying after school to go to football and basketball games and then ride the activity bus home afterwards. Playing my clarinet in the pep band at these games was so much fun. I also remember the parades that our marching band would participate in. Sometimes it was so hot and we wore these band uniforms that felt like wool! Being a part of the choir is also a great memory. Sharon, Bev, Carol and myself sang in a quartet and I remember singing at Bev’s church for some function there.
In the spring of my senior year I had both the measles and chicken pox within six weeks. When I finally got back to school I had to have my picture taken for the annual because I was the recipient of the DAR Award. Needless to say, that picture turned out terrible!

Sandra (Mondor) Mrosek
I submitted a few pictures of Darlene and Marlys on some of our great times together.

Marjorie (Fuhrman) Hammond
We had lots of good times, but when we put on our Junior Class Play sticks in my mind.

James Jorgenson
The fishing trip to Canada with Wally Hanson and the Junior Ag class. What a fun week!

Jim Schultz
Good times on Wilson school bus after the games. Selling hotdogs to all the non-Catholics on Friday nights. The Sadie Hawkins dance and being crowned “Little Abner”. Class plays, my TV shop, Danny Gauvin and Paul Arneson, ‘51 Chevy, achieving valedictorian.

Rita (Traynor) Lynum
During our High School years we were put into alphabetical order many times. I became a locker mate with Judy Truesdill because of our last names. It was a good way to get to know each other and become friends. I also sat in the last row of many classes because of the “T” at the beginning of my last name. That wasn’t the worst thing that could happen in high school.
During the fall of either my sophomore or junior year we canned peaches and tomatoes in Miss Maxwell’s Home-Economics class. We really worked hard and fast to get things ready to be processed in that class hour.

Marlys (Slocum) Wheeler

Sandy, Sis and I going to Ellsworth to the dance Friday nights, milking before we went.

Going to drug store for dinner on Friday’s - bag of chips, cherry coke, hotdog and mustard.

Darlene (Moldenhauer) Wilk

The most vivid memories I have while attending SVHS are going to dances at Ellsworth with Sandy and Marlys, roller skating at Elmwood, also dances at Arkansaw.

Being raised on the farm and having to milk cows by hand, there was no kind of soap that would

get rid of that smell on my hands before going to school.