Vocal Music and Swimming Lessons at Sky View

 When I was younger, after second and third grades, I took swimming at music lessons.   We would bus from Hyrum to Sky View High School in Smithfield. That is where the school district had a pool.  This was likely around 1965.  In addition to swimming we would also have music lessons together as a big choir.  Stratford Loosle, the Sky View choir director would conduct the music lessons.  We learned songs like "Up with People."  I remember he encouraged everyone to use their diaphragm.  He singled out Lori Yeates (a year older than I.  She lived in Hyrum by the church, 2nd ward.) for doing it correctly as her arms would bounce in front of her as she sang.

As for the swim lessons there were lots of small groups.  They showed we could float by asking us to touch our toes, which would cause you to float.  I was always a capable swimmer.  We also did lots of kicks holding onto the edge of the pool.  

Almost a Fight with Randy Wood

 Randy Wood lived up the canyon at Hardware Ranch.  This was a place where they fed the elk during the winter.  As such he would drive down from the ranch to Hyrum, and catch the bus at the intersection where Canyon Corner use to be.  That is where he would get off in the evening as well.  This was in the days when we went to high school in Smithfield at Sky View.  It was almost a half hour ride each way from Hyrum, going through Logan.

Sometimes the bus was pretty crowded.  Lots of people were hitting my chair or the back of my head as they went up or down the isle.  I interpreted this as they were teasing me on purpose.  Finally I caught Randy as a culprit and told him I was going to get off at his stop and beat him up.  However Randy got off a stop early, by Anderson Drive.  People told me he was getting away.  I didn't pay them no mind because I really wasn't interested in a fight.  My challenge was a quick impulse which I quickly regretted.  And so that is how I had an almost fight with Randy Wood.  

I Made Piñatas

This year I helped Tony with his piñata for Day of the Dead for his Spanish class.  I hadn't made a piñata for some time.  We sort of cheated by putting papier-mâché over cardboard.  It worked, and we did not need as much paste and paper as when you papier-mâché over a balloon as the idea is you pop the balloon and then your creation has to stand on its own.  

My first piñata was in Spanish class.  It did not coincide with Day of the Dead as we made cakes that day.  I made a big bumble bee.  It was yellow and black.  I put each twisted piece of crepe paper on one at a time.  I twisted the crepe paper on the end of a pencil, dipped it in glue, and then stuck it onto the piñata.  It took forever to decorate.  But in the end I won a ribbon.  The art teacher at Sky View judged them.  There were lots of piñatas hanging in the Spanish class for a time.  It was pretty neat.  I wish I had a picture.

I made more piñatas other years in class, but none as elaborately decorated.  I went with Tony the tiger one year.  I also use to make piñatas for family Christmas parties.   A couple years I made two; for Sheri's family and for the Wardle Christmas party.  Of course these were not so elaborate.  Then it seems you could buy a piñata at Food for Less cheaper than i could make it; so I stopped making them.  

1985 Hyrum

1985 Ballard

1984 Bluebell, similar piñata in Hyrum

 

Mexico with Señor Oswald: Mexico City and Teotihuacán

From Guadalajara to Mexico City the road started rather steep as we climbed out of the mountains surrounding Guadalajara and headed to Mexico City.  On of the first activities in Mexico City was to attend a bull fight.  Doug (Tigre) Barker was very impressed with the bull fight as a bull at one point got of the inner ring and someone was gored in the process of getting the bull back into the ring.

The last day in Mexico we visited Teotihuacán, ancient Aztecan ruins.  Here they have the Pyramid of the Sun and the Moon.  I climbed to the top of the Moon, and have always regretted not going up the Pyramid of the Sun, which was taller.  I did take a picture of the Sun from the top of the Moon.

The last legs of our trip was a train rid from Mexico City to the border.  We slept on this train, and it had a dining car.  After arriving at El Paso, we took a bus from there home.  The entire visit was two weeks.

"Homeless" in Guadalajara

Between my junior and senior years in high school, I traveled with the Spanish club to Mexico.  We planned a week in Guadalajara, where we would attend an institute to learn more of the Mexican culture.  During this time we would stay with a host family in Guadalajara.  We were each assigned a room mate who would stay at the same home with us.  My partner was Gordon from Brigham City. 
We arrived at Guadalajara later in the day. 

We went to the institute where we were going to received instruction during the day for the next week.  From there we were loaded into taxi cabs.  The drivers had the address of the home where we were going to stay.  This was all good, but when the taxi driver arrived at ours, he couldn't find the home from the address given.  He looked up and down the street, but nobody knew of us or the family we were seeking.  He finally asked us what we wanted to do, and in our broken Spanish, asked him to take us back to the place where we started.
We got our stuff out of the taxi, to discover that there was no one at the institute and it was all locked up.  We found a patch of grass where I guess we figured we would spend the night, or at least wait for someone to return and figure out what to do with us. 
Within a half hour of our being there someone stopped and asked us what we were doing.  This was a family with a car who were missionaries from the United States serving in Guadalajara.  We explained our predicament.  At this point they invited us to their home for dinner, and to figure things out from there.

While we were eating, the father of the family called the institute and actually got ahold of someone.  They people at the institute had heard of us not arriving as the host family had also called them.  Arrangements were made for us to spend the night where we were, and then the next day after breakfast they would return us to the institute.  The family had a son a close to our age, so we had a place to stay and were fed well; and returned to the institute the next day, no harm done.
The next day when we arrived out the correct address, we realized we were close the day before.  We were only a few blocks away, but a wide highway separated was between where we had been, and the actual address.  We had been close to the Catholic Church, Church of the Cross. 

Mexico with Señor Oswald: Guadalajara

Guadalajara was fun, but not a first day.  We arrived at the institute where they put us all in taxis to host families.  The taxi couldn't find our family, so he drove us back to the institute and dumped us off.  We would have spent the night on the grass, but a family of missionaries picked us up and kept us that night.  We had free time every day.  I roomed with a kid from Brigham City named Gordon.  Our family took us for a riding tour of the city.  One night we visited the baseball stadium to watch the Jalisco Jays play.  They were semi-professional level.  They had a very large Black man playing first base who was very good.  We drove past the soccer stadium, which of course was much larger than the baseball stadium.  Gordon and I attending a dance at the Mormon church for young mens while we were there.  It was really fun, except for the drink the served.  I don't know what it was other than nasty.  There were many girls to dance with.  Gordon and I also found ourselves at a playground with outdoor basketball.  We took on a couple of locals, and lost to our shame.  With the group of travelers we visited a glass industry and watched people blow glass.  I purchased glasses but we were warned not to actually use them for the lead in the glass.  One night there was a big party at a host's home.  They paid for mariachi and it was a big deal.  It was fun with great food.
We ate mostly with our host family, cornflakes with bananas for breakfast, and then traditional dinner.  This often included tortillas.  Left over tortillas were used for making soup, and a pasta like dish.  I remember a big cockroach in the bathroom.  I didn't know what to do with it so I killed it with my shoe and left it there.  We also ate out often.  There was an ice cream shop close to the institute.  the institute was also close to a cathedral. 

The institute where we arrived the first day, and where we returned every day for class

The cathedral.  There were two old and new

glass blowing

views of Guadalajara

This guy taught us songs at the institute including Ay Jalisco

Church by where we stayed

One of the host families sponsored a party for us with mariachi

and dancing

Traveling through Matzatlan with Señor Oswald.

Boarding the bus in Logan

Between my Junior and Senior years of high school, (summer of 1974) I traveled with a group of Spanish students from Sky View to Mexico for a week.  Señor Oswald organized the trip.  Our destination was an institute in Guadalajara.  I can only remember that Terry Caldwell was with us, and perhaps Claudia Houston.  Our first significant stop was Mazatlan.  We crossed the border at Nogales, having gone through Phoenix and Tucson, and continued south to Hermosillo.  In Hermosillo, one of our group paid a couple of kids to have a race so he could see how fast they could run.  We made it to Mazatlan for the night, and were there a couple days.  One day we spent on the beach, and one of our party learned about jelly fish the hard way.  We ate at a restaurant there, and walked back to our hotel from the restaurant.  There was a very large beech area, shaped like a crescent moon.  I remember the cockroaches along the route were quite large.  We did see someone do a cliff dive which was really cool.  (Similar to the dive in this blog.)  He had to wait until the waves were just right before he dived.  A few of us were even able to attend church there, so we were there on a Sunday.

Sky View High School 1975: The Pajama Game

A lot of old friends in these pictures and article from the Herald Journal.  Previous Post from the Program.

Sky View Choir at the Logan Tabernacle

An article from the Herald Journal I kept.  I don't have the date, but this was likely March 1975.

Under the direction of Stratford Loosle, the Sky View High School A Cappella Choir rehearses for a special Sunday concert.  The choir will sing at 8 tonight in the Logan LDS Tabernacle as part of a program for young adult and special interest group of the Logan Region.

I am there someplace, probably second row.

Choir Gives Concert Tonight
The Sky View High School a cappella choir will present a program for the young adult and special interest organization of the Logan Region tonight at 8 o'clock in the Logan LDS Tabernacle.  Stratford Loosle directs the choir of 135, one of the largest school choirs in Utah.
Tonight's concert is a prelude to the choir's tour of southern Utah in April.
At Christmas the group presented a concert for the public and the students of Sky View, and sang at various malls in the Salt Lake area, including Fashion Place, Valley Fair and Cottonwood.
Assisting Loosle in organizing choir productions are Kris Jensen and Robinette Hogan, co-presidents of the choir, Linda Pitcher, Marilyn Timothy, Annette Webb and Myrna Miller, secretaries, and Brian Flammer, reporter.
The program this evening will feature Kris Jensen as soloist and the Barbershop Quartet.
Elder Paul Bott, regional representative of the Council of the Twelve for the LDS Church, will be the speaker.
Presidents Lowell Jenkins and Garth Lee, regional priesthood leaders will preside and Randy Thunnell, region president of young adults and Dan Frodsham, region president of special interest organizations in charge.
Juanita Nielsen and Sylvia Niederhauser will be in charge of greeters and ushers.