By Ruth Noggle
Prescott was a quiet town in the 1950's and early 1960's. My introduction to school began with kindergarten at Dexter with teacher, Doris Mylott, who remembers me as a "real nice kid." Our report cards graded Music, Art, Science and Social Studies, Number Readiness, Reading Readiness, Language, Work Habits, Health and Social Growth, along with 31 sub-headings.
Entering first grade at Miller Valley School was a big experience. The rooms and hallways had high ceilings and no soundproofing, fans and open windows for air-conditioning, and no drinking fountains outside. There was little traffic at the "Y" where Iron Springs and Willow Creek roads joined, so it didn't distract us kids.
When we left a classroom on an errand or to see the school nurse, we removed our shoes. Mischievous boys and some girls "skied" up and down on the polished, wooden floors when teachers weren't looking. Mr. Foote, the Principal, literally looked down at us little kids over the top of his reading glasses. I tried to avoid him as he appeared like a perched condor.
I liked teacher Miss Beth Campbell in second grade. Her comment for the Year: "I've enjoyed Ruth this year and am happy she was in my room."
My brother, Carl, remembered being disappointed on rainy days. The depressions at the bottom of the slide and beneath the swings filled with water and none of the kids were allowed to use the equipment until the puddles dried up.
Valentine's Day was a special event. Each kid brought one-cent Valentines to exchange. I enjoyed the different designs with lovable hearts and popular phrases.
My dad, Joe Noggle, and my mom, Harriette joined the PTA and went to many meetings at Miller Valley School. We kids went too but played outside until dark, or in one of the schoolrooms or fell asleep on the little kid's nap mats until the meetings broke up and it was time to go home. Sometimes we stayed at home and Nellie Jean Taylor or Mrs. Grace Black baby-sat us.
Grade 3 delighted me when the teacher, Mrs. Newman, read classic books to us. One of my favorites was "The Secret Garden" and it still is today.
My brother, Roy, remembered eye tests in grade 3. He had trouble reading but wasn't about to let anyone know. If kids wore glasses then, they called you "four eyes" or "goggle eyes." Holding the patch over his left eye, the good one, he sneaked it over just enough to read the chart. His "lazy" eye wasn't discovered until 6th grade.
Our family were members of the First Congregational Church that sponsored a Boy Scout troop. Morris Payne brought Troop # 1 to the church and Joe served as a scout leader. Carl became a Boy Scout while Roy began as a Cub Scout. They had no uniforms and Carl remembered Waldo Bast, Scout Master, talking to a dozen boys of his experiences fishing along Clear Creek.
Joe drove back and forth to Tucson and helped build the log and spline Boy Scout Lodge on Top of Mt. Lemmon. His old Reo got stuck in the snow a few times.
Some of my friends during school were Terry A., Sandra, Nancy, Jim, Carol, Eileen, Terry C., Ken, Lynn, Della, Susan, Merrilee, Howard, Duane, Carlton, Mark, Rita, Kim, Dan, Gary, Betty, Dave, Nina, Frank, Chuck, Don and Bonnie among others.
Our report cards covered spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, language, history, health, science, music, art, physical education, citizenship, self-control, work habits, health habits, responsibility, respect for property of others, cooperation, courtesy and following instructions.
Mr. Jim Burns taught Classroom Music in the elementary schools. He walked up and down the aisles in a suit and tie playing his autoharp and singing. I learned to appreciate classical music and sang in church, junior high, high school and college choirs.
For all our school supplies, we went downtown to PBSW on Gurley St. across from the Plaza. Mom got all her stationery supplies there and I liked the sturdy notebooks, fancy fountain pen and pencil sets in hinged boxes, triangular-shaped rulers, metal protractors, # 2 pencils and the smell of newly unpacked paper.
Jimmy Riley, another student, liked to ride his bike on Willow Creek road. One day he was hit by a car and rolled underneath. It happened down the road from our Whetstine house. Joe was working outside, heard the crash and ran down and pulled Jimmy out. His head was split open and Joe picked him up, holding his head together, and carried him down the hill to the hospital saving his life.
When the new north wing was built on the Miller Valley School, we older kids were taught sex education in the cafeteria. I learned how babies came into the world-it took two to tango.
I enjoyed Mr. Glattfelder for 6th grade in the new wing. Later, he also taught one of my classes at the Junior High.
When I went up to Junior High in the old, two-story brick building where the County Jail is today, my friends and I walked on creaky, uneven wooden floors with narrow stairwells. Carl remembered marching down the halls with six or eight friends until Mr. Fetterhoff, the principal, stopped them because he thought the building might fall down.
Joe was a volunteer fireman and lobbied the City and County to fund and install two metal fire escapes on the southern end of the Junior High after he saw what a firetrap the old building had become. The walls were remodeled for metal doors and the fire escapes installed on Union Street helping students feel safer.
My brother and his friends enjoyed the food at the Hub Cafe east of the Junior High-especially the butter buns.
The old Carnegie Library on the corner of Gurley and Marina provided me with further learning. Standing in the aisles, I read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" without anyone knowing. While researching book reports and term papers, I creaked across the floors and the narrow stairs.
I remember Mr. Burr for music, D. Templin and R. Brodie for math, Mrs. Rowland for Social Studies and others.
High school gave me my first lovely, grassy quadrangle between the classrooms of the science and administration buildings. I remember Don Rodger's Latin class and his sand display where little Roman soldiers marched in phalanxes helping his students learn about the Roman Empire. More teachers were Ethel Cary in PE, Foster Green for Algebra and "Pop" McNarie in Geometry. Others were Al West for Biology, Waldo Bast in Chemistry, Jim Burns for Mixed Chorus, Jim Stephenson in Biology and Lela Roach for English.
My brothers enjoyed Mrs. Ethel Tyson, Warner Dixon, Sr., David Ford and the Hiking Club and Robert "Mr. Mike" Milkulewics, among others.
Waldo challenged all his Chemistry classes to memorize a list of 20 chemical formulas. If any class got a perfect score, he'd give each student a stick of Juicy Fruit gum. He saved his money. I memorized them, but no entire class ever got a perfect score.
Roy and Carl and almost every class learned with Waldo and enjoyed mixing certain chemicals together resulting in filling the Science Building with smoke and the smell of rotten eggs. My brothers also built rockets for the Science Club and shot them off on the dry Willow Lake bed. Joe used his truck battery for the electrical charge. After launching one in what is now Prescott Valley, it flew high into the flight path of airplanes out of Love Field, so they had to stop. They made the news in the Prescott Evening Courier and the Arizona Republic.
High school commencement in spring of 1964, was a big thrill. I walked down the quadrangle steps with nearly 263 graduates in blue robes, mortarboards on our heads and carrying diplomas. Many of the kids mentioned before, graduated with me. I had grown in knowledge after 12 years and Arizona State College in Flagstaff, now Northern Arizona University, was next. At that time it had only 4,000 students.
Ruth Noggle is a long-time Prescottonian and her father owned a bronze foundry here.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (pb014i75-138n). Reuse only by permission.
A teacher at Prescott Junior High School (where the County offices on Gurley are today) in 1952, helps students with a project. The teacher-student tradition has started again in Prescott this year and the author recalls her experiences, teachers, and friends as she remembers them in the 1950s and early 1960s.