When I transferred from Austin High School to Duncan High, I was in the Spanish class. My teacher told me I was way behind and I would have to catch up on my own.Stub Stuaret, who was a sophomore told me that he would help me catch up. With his tutoring I made an A in the class. Stub's father was a race horse trainer.
Thomas Elms and his twin brother John came to Duncan from Oklahoma during my sophomore year. Their dad bought the Chevron Station in Duncan. My junior year, my Uncle Rob Johns had an old model A truck with duel wheels. Stub and I borrowed it and got it running. We decided to take it up to Springville, Arizona, to go fishing. We were going about 50 miles per hour on a gravel road, suddenly it felt like the truck kicked out of gear. We got out and saw we were about to lose one set of dual wheels because a nut had come off. We pushed the wheels back on and used bailing wire to hold the wheels on. We went to a stream and camped. We caught a lot of fish. Every time I went to do something, Thomas would tell me "Let me do it." I finally got mad and we had a fight. We made up and went back to Duncan. I can't remember what we did with the truck. My senior year I was living in this room I rented from Mrs. O'Neill for $10 per month. I had bought a little 1940 Ford Coupe for $300. On a Friday night, Thomas and I went out to Apache Grove for the car races. Thomas saw a man he knew with his two children and two other children. Thomas asked the man to buy us a case of beer, which he did. Thomas and I went back to Duncan and ate at a Cafe. Mutt Chapman, the deputy sheriff, drove by in his Hudson that was red. I yelled out, "Look at the red fire engine." Mutt stopped his car and took me to jail for being out after curfew. I told him I had a beer and he wanted to know where I had gotten the beer. He let me out and told me to go home and not be caught out again. At 7:00 am the sheriff and his deputy woke me up and rove me over to the Post Office where Thomas Elms was working. Being Saturday, the PO windows were closed, but Thomas was working inside. They told Thomas to come out, but Thomas said no. The sheriff said, "You come out or we'll come and get you." Thomas said , "This is a Federal Post Office and if you come in, I'll blow you to pieces with this gum. " They mumbled and durg me off and let Thomas alone. Mutt Chapman said I know how much beer you had and where you got it. They took me to see the County Sheriff who told me "You are in a lot of trouble-you better go see your Uncle Sam, who had been an Arizona State Represenative for over 30-40 years. He told me he'd take care of it.
When my senior year came, I lived in this rented room. About 3:00 am Thomas came knocking on my door and told me that his parents had bought a new car and they told him not to drive out of town. He had taken it to Lordsburg, New Mexico and it broke down on the way back. He wanted me to push him with my car back to Duncan so his parents wouldn't know he had gone out of town. I drove with him for about 20 miles and I got behind him in my 1940 Ford Coupe. I started pushing him toward town. I was tired and sleep at 3:00 am, so I wanted to hurry, so I whipped it up to 80 mph pushing him. When we got stopped in Duncan, he jumped out and started yelling at me about how scared he was, gripping the wheel as tight as he could all the way in. I told him I wasn't scared.
My junior year, Dale Rowley and I were in my dad's 1950 Chevrolet after the seniors graduation and we went up to the airport where some kids were shooting off fireworks. Dale and I were drunk and I rolled the car over. The kids all ran over and tipped the car back up. It would run, but was in bad shape. Dad just asked if anyone was hurt and I said no. That was what he was concerned about.
Sharon Lunt was a friend who went to BYU. When he got back he talked me into applying to BYU for the next year. I was not accepted at that time, but that decision to apply to BYU hanged my whole life.
The principal of our high school was Homer Eldridge. If you did any little infraction at the high school he would take you to the office, open all the doors and paddle you with a 4 foot long paddle. It was a matter of pride to see how many paddles you had received.
When he was a young man he was caught riding a motorcycle down Angel Trail going to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which was illegal. He was good to me. Along toward the end of my senior year, I had about 35 absences. He told me if I got one more he would have to kick me out. There was only one more month to go when I got kicked out. When this happened, two of my friends quit school and we were going to go to South Dakota to shear sheep. After I had been out about a week when Eldridge came and found me and talked me into coming back to school and graduating. My friends went back to school, too. At graduation, I got my diploma, but they didn't.
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