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Today's Featured Biography
Dean Hatch
I was born at a very early age, couldn't walk or talk for a year. We were so poor we couldn't afford shoes, so my Dad painted my feet black and laced up my toes. We had a nice step down apartment, just open the manhole cover and step down.
I attended Saratoga, Irving, and LHS.
SARATOGA
In Kindergarten several of us boys were interested in Mary Ann Tays so when we were seated on the floor while Miss Farquhar read a story we formed a line, the first guy sat next to Mary Ann, and every few minutes he had to get up and go to the end of the line and we all moved up one. In second grade I won the spelling bee. After class I was in the hall with the teacher, Miss Baird, and Miss Williams who would be my 3rd grade teacher. Miss Baird told her that this was little Deanie Hatch who won the spelling bee. "Dean, spell cemetary." So I started "S E " and lost all my credibility.
Other teachers in order were Miss Shively, Mrs Finch, and Miss Harper. Oops, forgot to mention Miss Abbott, 1st grade.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
We had a great neighborhood, 1/2 block from the 14th street lake, skated all winter, fished all summer. Up on Pawnee was Virginia Jewett, working down, there was Nancy Case, Gary Green, Mary Jean Harpstreith, The Custers (Jerry & Bill), Ora Hodge, Judy Schnell, The Parrishes (Bill, Ron, Bonnie), Bob (Pete)Wedner followed by Cecil Heidtbrink, Phyllis Philipsen, over to 13th were the Wenzls, Jack Meisinger, Bill Tussey, Carol Crowl, Larry DeFord, Earl (Porky) Oltman, and on 12th was Wayne House, Kay Wheeler, John Schwindt, Sharon Egger, Wayne Hunt, Ron Danek and George Horst. To the north and east were the Andersons, Rollie Weisser, Rollin Dreamer, Shirley and Janice Murray and Jack Winter. Probably some others I forgot.
We frequently went up to Saratoga when school was out and played Workup. What is Workup you say. That's what my kids say. It's baseball for when you don't have enough players to have 2 teams. Everybody assumes a position, like 3 batters, a pitcher, catcher and as many other positions as you have people for. When a batter makes an out he then moves to right field, the right fielder moves to center, center to left, left the 3rd, etc. pitcher to catcher and catcher to batter. We had lots of fun. I could never get my 6 boys interested, they had to have 2 teams with a winner and loser.
We always had great Hallowe'en. One year Bill Parrish and I dressed as girls. I guess I had better outfit or makeup than Bill because when we went to the Biggerstaffs house, the Mr. said he recognized Bill but didn't know who the girl was. :-)
Since I mentioned Virginia Jewett, that brings up May Day. I'd fix up a little basket, take it to her porch, hit the doorbell, and run like the dickens. May Day has lost it's significance. I visited her while in Lincoln for our 40th reunion. She was quite ill but we had a great conversation. She passed away 2 weeks later.
IRVING JUNIOR HIGH
In 8th grade I was in a play called Elmer and the Lovebug in Mrs. Moores drama class. Cast members were Mary Lou Lull, Agnes Anderson, Marilyn Taylor, Lee Simodynes, Jim Harvey, Mike Stubbs, and Susan Botsford. It was recorded in the Irving News as the most popular play of the year. I still have contact with Agnes but she has no email. There are a couple of issues of the Irving News as well as the Advocate on one of Fred Warren's websites.
http://companion3.tripod.com/LHS/Links52.html
In 9th grade there was a baseball game going on at the Irving playground. I was just a spectator but Jack McKie was playing. While he was waiting to bat, he taught me how to play the scale on his trumpet. That got me interested and my Dad got one for me.
In Irving there were several girls I liked. They might not have known it but I remember Jackie Myers, Carole Unterseher, Marilyn Taylor, and Dorothy Hartwig. Some of us would go to First Plymouth Church on Wednesdays after school and dance to records. Dorothy, I have to say this, :-) but she gave me my first legitimate kiss. We stood on her steps for an hour or so while I tried to get up the gumption. Finally it happened. I was so excited I hopped on my bike, went west on Everett, had to make a left turn and the bike slipped on the snow it and I both slid into the curb. I just layed there and laughed for being so silly.
LINCOLN HIGH
The first semester at LHS Band Director Lyle Welch taught me and Rodney Barker (Trombone) personally, some times we sat out on the lawn on the south side of the school for the class.
In the second semester we were in the band. In our senior year Jack and I became student directors. During basketball season played at Whittier High there was only room for half the band in the balcony. He divided up the band and I picked which one I wanted, He played in mine and I played in his. The first game I directed the Star Spangled Banner with much drama. When that was over I looked at Mr Welch and he was laughing his head off. So I curtailed my direction after that. :-)
That year Jack and I were part of the Trumpet trio and I remember the first time we played in a concert in the school auditorium, my knees were physically shaking so much I couldn't wait for the song to be over. Even someone in the 10th row commented on it later.
We got some PE credits for marching band but not enough to graduate so I had to go out for North Field Football. Phil Sprague was the coach and on the first day he asked me "What can you do?" Wanting to pick the least visible position, I said "Well maybe guard?" and he put me in at guard across from Norm Church. For 2 plays Norm knocked me about 5 yards back. Phil took me out and asked "What else can you do?" :-) So I said maybe running back. Since I never played organized football he had to diagram the simplest play, "Quick Opener" on the ground for me. Well it turned out that as small as I was I had no top speed but good acceleration and we usually got about 10 yards on a 2 yard play. I remember one time having gone through the other backfield and Jerry Green came loping over after me laughing, grabbed my collar and threw me to the ground. Sure was fun. Also North Field baseball was fun. I usually pitched and one day we were playing the varsity. Rich Geier pitched for them and was so fast I think I ducked every time that I batted. There was one guy on the varsity that I didn't like and when he batted, some how I got 2 strikes on him. I decided the next pitch should be my slow curve ball and he did an up and down strike and missed it. I silently shouted to myself. Next batter was Ed Schwartzkopf playing for fun so I threw my same slow curve and he smacked it sooo hard I think it must still be in the air. :-) So I traded places with the second baseman for the rest of the game.
University of Nebraska
I attended for 3 semesters. My initial aim was to become a Pharmacist. I loved Chemistry although I didn't get great grades in Mr. Reels class at LHS. For instance one time I found the recipe for Silly Putty and stayed after school to make it. It was a failure, really silly. :-)
At UNL the chemistry class in the theater-like classroom was at 8am on Monday. Could there be a worse time? Anyway one weekend I didn't get enough sleep, think it was because of a hassle with my Dad but now sure. So sitting in the middle of about 50 students I nodded off. The instructor was a short skinny woman with big eyes and thick glasses. At one point she slammed a book down on the counter, stared directly at me and said "YOU GUYS that sleep in here every day are going to end up in the army!!" Well I never nodded off in any class before and no matter how I did on the final I think I got a D which ended my Chemistry major. So I switched to Geology. That was the most BORING class I'd ever been in including the instructor. I began to feel like I was wasting my Dad's tuition money, after all it was about $65 a semester. In the third semester Rollie Weisser and several of his friends and I went to Offutt Airforce base in Omaha to take the test for Naval Aviation Cadets. Only I and Earl Williams passed it and he declined right away and I was too immature to do something like that on my own, so after a while we all volunteered for the draft and entered the army.
U. S. Army
We started basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Based on things like how well Beersy Anderson had taught me typing etc. my second 6 weeks of basic was in the Artillery Fire Direction class. Based on my ROTC training I had to march the crew to and from the class every day. Learned a lot of marching sayings like "You'll never get home on your left, your right!!" and some that were pretty off color. :-) Following Basic I was sent to Fort Bragg in N.C. to a Company that operated what was called The Atomic Cannon. Began as a clerk in the personnel office but the Officer in charge had very little patience and soon I was moved to become (as a Private) the Intelligence Sergeant. (I could type) Then the intelligence officer became the Commander of the HQ Battery and took me along as the Battery Clerk. Again more typing. The daily report could have no errors or overtyping and was a real challenge and multiple abbreviations.
There came a time when the Company was being sent to Okinawa but by the time they were going, I wouldn't have enough time left so the Commander got me sent to Germany right away for the last 9 months I had left.
My time in Erlangen began again as Battery Clerk but as I became eligible for promotion they made me a gunner on one of the artillery pieces which meant you aimed the piece and fired it on command. Once it was loaded that 3 inch red button grew to about a foot wide in my vision. But on our first test we had the most accurate gun.
Later they needed a replacement Supply Sergeant which is where they put me for the last few months. The whole shebang here is that during that 2 years I found out I did have value and capabilities (aside from what my Dad implied) and reached Sergeant which was unusual for a 2 year draftee. Only problem was that every time I tried to speak German I messed up. Guess Miss Bonelli didn't do well in helping us to construct sentences, I could understand the Germans well.
On the way back I was sent to Ft Sheridan, Ilinois for separation. We arrived there on Friday. Someone said we'd better get a weekend pass or we'd end up working. So I called a former friend from Ft Bragg who lived in Chicago and he said we could come there for the weekend. When we got there his Dad (a Brigadeir in the Salvation Army) said "Yes, you can stay here but you must go to church with us Sunday morning." Oh boy a religious weekend. So my friend took us out to show us Chicago, drove us around the loop, and then to Cicero to a strip joint. What a shock that was. :-) And even though we were in uniform and I was a Sergeant, the manager rushed through the crowd to check my ID.
Getting Home.
Well, after living it up for about 6 months, I said I'd better get a job. Paul Michaud said to come down where he worked. All they did was put these punched cards in a machine, take them out, and put them in again. Well, I thought that was something I could handle. It was the Classified List Co on about 9th and O St. I worked there about a year and learned a lot about processing punched cards and really enjoyed it. Then I had another hassle with my Dad and moved over to the North side of town with a few friends from work. I still went home during the day to check the mail and maybe pick up some clothes. Then on a Wednesday I got a letter from my Dad telling me to turn in my keys to the house and car since I didn't have any business in the house when they weren't home. That was the last straw. I sent a telegram to my friend that lived in Manhattan Beach, he sent back that the side door to the house would be open and so on Thursday I gave notice to the employer, Friday I didn't go in, and Saturday I was on the way to California. Arriving there, in the next week I got a job at Hughes Aircraft processing punched cards. Stayed there about a year until I felt the need to get back in school and one of my Mormon friends suggested I go to BYU. So I registered, got accepted, quit my job and headed to Utah. I thought the GI bill would help me through but after meeting with the Dept head it turned out that he would make me take so many reruns of classes, the GI bill wouldn't cover it. So I stormed out of his office, threw the paperwork in the waste basket, took off, stopped at a store, bought some cigarets and got even by smoking all the way out of town. :-)
To be continued
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