Me, the formative years!

The hardest blog to write is about yourself, but here goes: I was born on May 1, 1943 and was named David Ralph Jackson. The David, I guess, was after my Grandmother's brother, David Jacobson. The Ralph was after my Maternal Grandfather, Ralph Amos Lake. I was born in the farmhouse on the old Weber farm up Beers Brook. I did have to have a blood transfusion as I was an "rh" baby. In fact Fred Beecher, a long time friend of my mom and dad said "That boy isn't going make it" upon looking at me. I guess my color was bad! I don't of course remember much about my early childhood. I was told that I fell into the brook off the bridge on the old Weber farm at an early age. I don't remember when we moved to Beerston, but I know that by the time I attended kindergarten we were living in Beerston. I guess I had quite an imagination as a child (feel free to insert your favorite insult here!) I told my family that the bus driver, Jim Stanton, let me ride on his lap on the first day of school! A few years later when my mother asked where I had been, I told her that I was picking apples and had picked exactly 60 of them. This was in May, long before the apple season! I also used the word "bull s**t" quite often and had my mouth washed out with Ivory soap as a result.

I attended Townsend School for a few weeks in kindergarten, Mrs. Cora Runnells was my teacher. I was then moved to Miller Avenue School where I attended through 6th grade. I didn't get kicked out of Townsend, I guess I just got rezoned. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! My Miller Avenue teachers included Mrs. Dorothy Thomson, Mrs. Blanche Gilchrist, Mrs Wanda
Henderson, Mrs Haynes (who was Art Jamieson's mother in law), Mrs Margaret Nichols and Miss Bessie Schackelton. I was lucky to have the most caring, dedicated teachers in the world. They actually TAUGHT and expected us to learn, what a concept! Mr. Rosati was the art teacher, Miss Grescavage (later Lucille Courtney) taught music and Mr. Bob Popp, later my basketball coach, taught PE. Miss Merchant (later Mrs Richard Williams) was the school nurse and I think the Dental hygenist was named Mrs Race. Mr. Harry Dyer was the school custodian. Someone please correct me if I am wrong on any of these names. I had lots of friends and great memories of Miller Avenue. I remember playing marbles and usually getting beaten by Willie Tennant, swinging on the swings, riding on the merry go round thingy at breakneck speed, sneaking through the back fence to go down to Liguori's store for candy, playing in the woods, and just doing the fun things that kids do. It was a great break from the drudgery of the farm. I hated it when I was sick and had to miss school. I actually looked forward to going to school, learning and just being a kid. I think that best of all of my teachers was Miss Schackelton who was my 6th grade teacher. We had a group of boys who were feeling our oats by 6th grade and we engaged in farting contests with the attendant laughing and giggling. Miss Schackelton was undeterred and just kept on teaching; I really admired her for that. I remember taking a field trip to Townsend School. When I walked into that gym for the first time, I thought that it was the biggest place ever! Later on, I realized that it was just a bandbox when it came to basketball courts.

Then I moved on to Junior High, 7th and 8th grade. It wasn't much of an adjustment for me; there were teachers and there were things to learn, so I did. I continued to love school and by now had at least a passing interest in girls. I remember in 7th grade that Betsy Telford and I devised a code which allowed us to pass notes back and forth. Again, I had great teachers; Mrs. Oles, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Ligouri, Mrs. Palmquist, Mrs. Pine and Mrs. Forsythe. I never had Mrs. Gadwood for a teacher and I'm sure that I have left someone out, sorry! True story: I was going to Florida in 1970 after I had gotten back from Vietnam, and who should I see on the plane; Mrs. Forsythe! We sat next to each other and had a great conversation. I learned to play the trumpet under Mr. Jamieson, took shop under Mr. Salton, and John Elderkin was my Ag teacher. At 8th grade graduation, I think I was 3rd academically behind Doug Mace and Betsy Kelley. I played Junior High basketball and learned to love the game even though I was not as good as I thought I was. Richard Shepard was probably my best Junior High friend. I remember we went to the 8th grade prom with Donna Budine and Karen Hogan as our dates.

Next of course, came High School. As a freshman I didn't do much except study and learn, I was in band, orchestra and chorus. I played freshman basketball, but had not discovered running yet. In my sophomore year I started taking Agriculture as well as carrying my college prep course load. My relationship with Mr. Elderkin was not all that good. He kept pushing me to do more, to be better and I didn't think I needed that push. I did well in Ag and FFA despite myself. I was the Chapter Vice President for two years (Ryan Kilmer was President), went to the District finals in public speaking and received my Empire Farmer degree. Now almost 50 years later, and after a 35 year career as an Ag teacher myself, I realize that he was right. So for the first time ever I want to say , "Thank you Mr. Elderkin!" It was in this year of school that I discovered running. I went out for track and ran the mile. By the end of the year I was the top miler on the team and had finally found a sport at which I was good. Oh sure, I played JV basketball that year but was limited by my lack of height and my insistence on shooting 20 plus feet set shots! So in my Junior year I went out for cross country. I was immediately the best runner on the team. I regularly finished in the top 5 of most of the inviational meets in which I competed. I remember winning a dual meet against Oneonta and the next Walton finisher was in 11th place. There was only one way for me to run; go out fast and try to hang on. My training was not very scientific, again I did not understand running at a slower than race pace to get into shape. It was all out or nothing for me! At some point, Mr. Jamieson, the music teacher, compared warming up and practicing a musical piece to warming up and preparing for a sporting event. It seemed like he was talking to me! That somewhat changed my approach and served me well later in life. I did well in track my Junior and Senior years, winning a majority of my races and setting a record for the fairgrounds track of 4:48. My senior year in cross country was pretty special too. Myself and Willie Tennant, who was out for cross country for the first time, finished first and second at the Sectional qualifying meet, beating a lot of good runners in the process! I also played varsity basketball but spent most of my time "riding the pine". When I did get into games I was looking for my patented set shot, called the "frog shot". Even if I made the shot, I didn't dare to look back at he bench to see Coach Popp's reaction! What about girls, you ask? Yes I did have some girlfriends, in particular Susan Hulbert. I graduated 9th in the class, wrote the class song and prepared to study agriculture at Cornell University!