I was in high school when the first World War began. It was about this same time that Dad was one of the Republican nominees for Commissioner. I remember that I was home when Dad received a phone call telling him that he had been elected to the post. He asked who the other elected commissioners were and was told that all of the others were Democrats. 

Dad told the caller, undoubtedly a member of the election board, to give the post to the Democrat as he wouldn't be able to accomplish much as the only Republican in the group. Later, in a school assembly, I had to sit there and listen to the girl whose father had been given the post my father had turned down being congratulated for her father's winning of the election.

In the summer of 1916, since Tulsa had no summer school, I decided to go to the Edmond State College summer school so that I could graduate at the end of a normal school year rather than at midterm. Graduation at midterm offered none of the frills--banquets or cap and gowns--and you had to wait until the spring exercises were held in order to participate in the graduation services. Also, attending summer school would allow me to graduate in 1918 instead of 1919.

The semester at Edmond State was a nine week course. I had already taken plane geometry but needed a semester in solid geometry. After having had plane geometry, solid was a whiz. I also needed a semester in Latin to complete the two-year requirement to graduate. I had quite a bit of difficulty in getting through one and one-half years of Latin under Mr. Hake, my high school teacher. 

Since some of us had already had a year and a half of Latin, and others were starting their second year, he decided to teach the fifth book of Caesar so that it would be new to all of us. I had just finished translating a much harder book of Caesar and, since the fifth book of Caesar is the easiest of the Caesar books, I made a grade of 97. I also took American history in two classes to complete the requirement for one year in this one semester. 

This was sometimes a little confusing because the second class might require a knowledge of things we hadn't covered in the first class as yet. The Latin, geometry, and two history classes made four credits, but these credits had to be okayed by our former Tulsa teachers.

I entered our new Central High in the fall of 1917 and we were the first class in the new school. As I mentioned, my credits from Edmond had to be approved by our former teachers. History and math were always included in my favorite subjects and my teachers approved these credits with no reservations. 

This was not the case for my Latin credit. Mr. Hake, our Latin teacher, knew that Latin was hard for me as I had only scored in the middle 70's for the year and a half I had studied under him. So he wouldn't give me credit for the semester unless I took six more weeks of Latin under him. This, of course, I agreed to do.

This was my senior year and I was taking teacher's training along with the subjects I needed to graduate. To get our diplomas to teach we had to have a certain number of hours of practice teaching. To earn these hours we substituted in the Tulsa Public Schools and were paid three dollars a day. I earned about fifteen dollars a month for practice teaching.

Our school was new and something new had been added. Phones were installed in each classroom so that the office could call any classroom at any time. My Latin class was my first class in the morning. It would just get started and the phone would ring. Sure enough it would be a call for me to teach somewhere in the Tulsa schools. 

Sometimes this would be for only one day while other times it might be for a week. During the last month of my senior year, I taught the last three weeks. These calls were finally too much for Mr. Hake and he said, "Take your Latin Credit. These constant interruptions cause too much disturbance in the class and it's not worth it." So I didn't have to attend that class anymore. What Mr. Hake didn't know was that the easy fifth book of Caesar was the culprit. I had really earned the grade of 97.

When the high school was moved from the old yellow brick building to the new red brick on Sixth Street, the old yellow brick was again used for teaching the elementary grades, but another class was added for teaching retarded children. This was the first such class in the Tulsa school system. I was called to substitute for a week for this group. 

Whenever I would write on the blackboard, one very large boy would move from desk to desk to be near where I was writing and he would say, "I like you." Later, when I finished my week of substituting, I learned