William Nelson
Our home was directly across the street from 36th Street Elementary School. Part of the playground and a small parking lot separated it from what was then, Custer High School. We moved there from the South Side (near 23rd and Greenfield) in the summer of 1953, when I was in the middle of 4th grade. When I "graduated" from there at the end of 6th grade, I attended Custer High School for the first semester in 7th grade. I was elected to the CHS student council while I was still 11-years old. I felt out of place at the meetings, but a couple of the seniors, made special efforts to include us in discussions and welcome us to the school. After that summer vacation in 1955, my older brother and his classmates all moved to the new CHS we all graduated from. All of a sudden, I was back to reality and there were only 8th and 9th grades at Edison. Those couple of years were memorable, because, despite removing the top four grades, they began enlarging the school to nearly twice its former size. That activity began with demolishing the north end of the building. Every time the wrecking ball hit, everyone would cringe. Several times, there was a lineup at the pencil sharpeners as a lot of leads were broken in the process.
I didn't know Roger Pederson yet, but had his dad as my metal shop instructor in 8th grade at Edison. My dad was also an Industrial Arts teacher, and he and Rodger's dad were good friends. The first semester of 7th grade, I had Mr. Eberhart for wood shop. He and my dad had been roommates in college at Oshkosh State Teachers College. The 2nd semester, when all the destruction began, we took our shop class in the basement of the old 36th Street School. My cousin (in-law), the late Tom Williams, was the teacher in that shop for several years. When I moved into the new CHS in January, Mr. Eberhart became my drafting teacher.
Rodger and I first met on the stage crew, as I remember. He worked at a hobby store at Capitol Court. Think it was called the Hobby Horse. He introduced me to my first wife, but I won't hold that against him.
The old 36th Street School was torn down a few years later, well after I'd graduated from CHS. My dad had retired by then and he used to walk over there and "supervise" the destruction. Actually, he talked the crews out of some of the materials, like oak and maple, that were going to be trashed. We still have some of that material that was made into various projects by him, my brother, and me.
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