Robert (Bob) =
Cathey
I’ve been asked to do a profile, so I’ve decided to share
some of my fondest memories of Shawnee Mission North.
I remember my first day at SMN.&nbs=
p;
My family has home movies of Linda Sell and me walking into the orig=
inal
entrance that my parents walked through in 1937 and 1940.
I had the unique experience of knowing some of the same teachers my
parents had, too: L. Dale Pig=
g,
Murlie Welch, Harold Garver, and Coach Harold Reade. It didn’t get me better grad=
es,
but they were very nice to me.
On to the sophomore year… I decided to run for Vice President =
of
the class. This was over-conf=
idence
on my part. 1,400+
sophomores… most of whom did not go to Hocker Grove Junior High
School. The only thing that g=
ot me
elected was the fact that I had heard of Playboy
Magazine, and I realized that pretty girls could sell anything
(maybe even me!). Somehow I t=
alked
some female classmates into coming on stage at the end of my campaign speech
holding signs to vote for me! It
worked!
Later, when running for Student Council Vice President, I borrowed f=
rom
a popular TV series “Have Gun, Will Travel.” My campaign slogan “Have Gav=
el,
Will Travel” got me elected. <=
/span>
Sophomore English was the worst experience in my 3 years at
SMN. Miss Goering did not lik=
e me
at all. I’ve thought ab=
out
this many times in the last 50+ years.&nbs=
p;
My conclusions have been:
(1) I reminded her of =
some
guy who stood her up at the Prom; or (2)&n=
bsp;
Doug Gates and I were never making eye contact with her (Miss Goerin=
g)
because we were watching Karen Corson breathe (in her pink sweaters). Anyway, Miss Goering gave me the o=
nly
“F” I’ve gotten in my life! On an essay final. (Goodbye Harvard.)
As a junior, I was in the play “The Night of January
16.” I got sick… =
cold,
flu? Horrible cough. In those days, you could get real =
cough
medicine, with codeine, which was 12% alcohol. I drank a bottle a day, at scho=
ol
! Those were the days! I was able to do my part… Jo=
hn
Graham Whitfield… for dress rehearsal and 2 performances. The drama coach, Ms. Fletcher, was=
very
dramatic and apparently my alcohol/codeine fueled performance worked for her
because I almost certainly overacted.
Another vignette… in SMN senior year: Several of us (Doug Gates, Bill Ov=
erend,
Al Hendricks, Steve McNees, and Ray Ashton) went to the old “Follies
Theater” in Kansas City. At the time, it was a very bold (avant-garde)
thing to do. We sat in the
I remember Student Council meetings. I may have seemed inflexible, but I
really did know “Robert’s Rules of Order.” (No organization since has met my
expectations.)
Most of my misadventures at SMN involved Doug Gates. One of my favorite stories is when=
we
were boating at Lake Quivera one night.&nb=
sp;
Bert Cooper was the victim in this episode. For some reason, he jumped out of =
the
boat and swam to a small dock by the public beach (no bathing
suit). Doug and I decided to =
circle
the dock shining a powerful light on Bert sans bathing suit… it was f=
unny
at the time.
Some final reminiscences: I
was the worst athlete at SMN. I
would not have passed P.E. except for the obstacle course. Coach Bob Johnson (God bless him!)=
had
set a record on a Marine obstacle course in World War II. He decided it would be a good test=
for
high school students. My adva=
ntage
was that I had watched every WWII movie.&n=
bsp;
I was ready! Guess what
?! If you weighed only 125 po=
unds,
this test was easy! I
“maxed” it every time.
I think I ended up with a B.
And lastly, I remember my first real kiss, from Susie Aitken,
inside her front door. Thank =
you,
thank you, thank you. You were
wonderful ! (Guys are so easy=
.)
An idyllic time, long, long ago.&nb=
sp;
How lucky we were!
De Oppresso Liber! I
graduated from the best high school in the USA!
Robert H. (Bob) Cathey