Claypool High School Class Of '39 Members Look Forward To Reunion
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
CLAYPOOL - Eight of the 21 members of the Claypool High School Class of 1939 are still alive.
Seventy years after their graduation, most of the survivors still live in or around Claypool.
Frances Neff Shively, who turns 88 April 18, will be among the Claypool graduates meeting at the Claypool United Methodist Church May 2 for the yearly school reunion. Her husband, Don Shively, was a 1940 Claypool graduate.
According to the Shivelys, the other living graduates of the Class of 1939 besides Frances are Eugene and Marjorie Metzger Cauffman, Elmer Howard, Esther Beigh Heckman, Emery Rowland, Max Colpetzer and Glenn Messmore.
The Cauffmans, Howard, Rowland and Heckman all live in or near Claypool. They all attend the same church.
"We graduated a bad year because of Hitler. Ten of our men served in World War II," said Frances. Thirteen of the 21 members of the Class of 1939 were boys. "Nobody got killed," she said.
Don served in the Army from November 1942 to February 1946, he said.
The year of their graduation, Frances said, the big movies were "Gone with the Wind," "The Wizard of Oz" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
"We were the Big Band era," said Frances. "We went to the movies for entertainment."
Frances was a cheerleader in high school, and Don played basketball and baseball. For one year, Hubert DuBois coached the Claypool basketball team, Don said. "We had a winning season that year," he said.
Basketball and the movies were the biggest forms of entertainment then. "There wasn't a whole lot to do," Don said.
Frances said, "Kids get so bored now. I can't imagine ever getting bored." While Don was in the service, she said she lived with her parents and worked at the local elevator.
Her father, Royal Neff, was a telegraph operator for 48 years, she said, and graduated from Claypool in 1918. Her mother, Lucile Valentine, graduated Claypool in 1919.During their high school days, Don said classes were only 21 or 22 students. All four grades of high school were together in one big assembly, he said.
"The difference in Claypool now and then was now it's just a bedroom community," Frances said. She remembers the town having a veterinarian, pharmacy, family doctor, two grocery stores and two barber shops. Now, she said, people drive to Warsaw.
"This was a farming and railroad community," Don said.
Now the biggest thing in Claypool, Frances said, is the Louis Dreyfus plant along Ind. 15. "They're open 24/7," she said.
"I live in Claypool because my whole family worked on the railroad. I was born here, he (Don) was born here," Frances said.
In the '30s and '40s, she said school let out in the middle of April so the children could help out on the farm. Classes included Latin, algebra, geometry, social studies and English.
"We were able to have Bible classes. I didn't take it," Frances said. "Most people took two years of Latin."
"The thing that interested everyone was basketball. We had 14 teams in Kosciusko County. Everyone wanted to beat Warsaw," said Frances.
In their days, she said, there was no television and girls didn't have a car. "Very few boys had cars," said Don.
Every year, juniors and seniors took a trip. Frances said her class went to Niagara Falls.
"They made the money by doing concessions at basketball games," said Don.
"Delicious apples sold the best," said Frances. "Huge, delicious apples for a quarter."
"I thought it was a dime," said Don.
"I don't remember it being that cheap," said Frances.
In 1939, Don said, Claypool was the county runner-up in baseball. A year later, it changed to softball and Claypool won the county championship. He said their coach was Howard Bock.
"There was always a lot of rivalry between the county schools," said Don.
The Shivelys are looking forward to the school reunion in about three weeks where more memories of decades past can be shared.
"I think of how nice it is to be in a little school where everybody knows everyone," Frances said.
