Class of 1975, I Graduated, Whats Next????
The class of 1975 made it through the Pomp and Circumstance” getting our high school diplomas. June 6, 1975 seems like so long ago, but at the same time it seems like it was only yesterday. SO many decisions that were made that would affect our lives forever. I don’t think that we should hold decisions made by an 18 or 19 year old accountable for the rest of their lives. I was 17 when I graduated from high school and I was a very sheltered 17 year old to say the least. I had never dated. I didn’t date until I was 21. It wasn’t a religious thing, it was more like my mind and my age finally caught up with each other. Some of our class would go to college, some would work and some went into the military. Some would do well in college, some would leave home and go wild, but would eventually settle down into a career, some would marry and divorce, others married later, some would have children and some didn’t. This will cover my first year after graduation, what I did. Some of this some of you can relate to, when we graduated I wasn’t the only one without a clear sense of direction.
The night of graduation, I went to my grandmother’s house and we had a little celebration. The next day I began to wonder what I would do. I thought that maybe I would try college, but which one. I wanted to go to Marshall University, but I still had the fear of leaving home. Then I figured that I would go to Beckley College. It was close to home and cheaper than anything else around. My parents seemed to think that college was a waste of money, maybe I wasn’t college material. You would have to understand my parents, they were not anti-education, and they were from a different generation. My parents both graduated from high school, usually unless your family had money or were teachers you went to work. You worked usually at the same job until you retired. My dad wanted me to do what is now CNA work. The reasoning behind this was that I would always have work. I knew that I didn’t have the temperament for that type of work. I still had the dream of radio. My mom got the idea that I should go to Appalachian Bible College, so we set up an appointment and went there to talk to one of the Deans there. I was going to major in Christian Education. That wasn’t a bad idea, except I was 17, and I didn’t like the idea of not being able to wear pants and listen to whatever music I wanted to. I just didn’t feel like it was for me. Now I know that I wouldn’t have fit in, even if I didn’t mind the dress code, or listening only to Christian music. I was raised in a Baptist Church that operated more like a Freewill Baptist or a Pentecostal Church. Our pastor preached about healing and he anointed with oil when he prayed for the sick, people were very free with their praise and worship.
Getting back to the story, I didn’t go to Romney either. I just took part of the year off with getting things ready for January. It felt strange not going to school. I really wanted a job. Everyone was either going to college or working. My mom and I started going to the Y to exercise in the mornings and we shopped and did things together. I helped Sharon wither homework and I sketched and listened to the radio a lot. I would meet with my Division of Rehab Counselor, we got absolutely nowhere, with anything. I guess we were at a stalemate and he didn’t know what to do and then one day I got a call from one of the other counselors there. Her name was Loretta Bays. That’s when things really started happening for me. I told Loretta Bays that I wanted to do radio, the next thing I got a call from Dan Blaney, she had given him my phone number and, he arranged for me to come to the station and meet with him. I was shell shocked, I listened to him every day. So I went to WWNR, and toured the place and then he called Dick Calloway, who was the broadcasting teacher at Raleigh County Vocational School. It is now call Academy of Careers and Technology. There is no broadcasting program there now, but back in the 1970’s there was an agreement between WVPB and the school. The School did the programming from 9 A-5 PM. I didn’t make it to the school right away. I got very sick. My tonsils were infected and they were the size of golf balls. I began to get sick, I remember it well. My mom and I had went to Oak Hill to shop, she was looking for a winter coat for me. I was feeling really bad and when we got home I laid down, when I got up I was running a fever and my ears hurt, it hurt to swallow. I was sick for about two weeks, and then we got snowed in. By the time I called Mr. Calloway, it was the first part of February and I went to the school there and looked everything over. He said I could start school right away. My first day was February 5, 1976. My mom asked Mr. Calloway if he thought I could do it and he said, we will try it and see.
I took to broadcasting and the equipment like a duck to water. I learned how to operating the equipment quickly. The one thing it took me a while to get used to were some of my classmates. Some of them were veterans, they had been in the Army. Military guys have a way of expressing themselves, I blushed a lot my first weeks there. In the class were Shirley Stevens (now Hassler), Buzz Henry, Jacque Bailey, J.C. Meadows, Roger Hutchinson, Jim Covey, Bob Hatcher, Brady English, and over the course of time there were others that came and went. Mike Burns was Mr. Calloway’s assistant, he was mainly a goofer. Looking back, he wasn’t much older or the same age as the students and he didn’t really know how to deal with us. Being properly trained makes a good instructor. In the mornings we would have class going over broadcast laws and other things and after lunch there would be practical radio. One of the things the class had to do was prepare the noon newscast. It was a 30 minute long news block. My first day in class, some of the students went to the VA hospital to run a small radio station there. I can’t remember who I rode there with, but I went along with them and I watched them. Soon, my first day, they had me reading news stories on the air. I was so shocked and very shy at this time. I began to come out of my shell after a while.
Later that summer I met another lifelong friend David Shockey. By then I had some spunk. I had learned not to blush and the guys when they said certain things for shock value, I had also learned to sass Mike Burns when he jumped on me for something, telling him “You don’t talk to me that way you are not my daddy” Yeah I said that. You do what you need to do to survive. Broadcasting school had it good and bad points, I enjoyed learning how to find articles and rewrite them for on air. I enjoyed going to court to write news stories. I did enjoy being at the VA Hospital. I was so young and kind of stupid about things though. Life has taught me a lot over the years, you live and learn. I was on my Way in broadcasting I guess.
In 1976, the United States celebrated its Bi-Centennial, and I was starting in broadcasting. I began to wonder what would be next?
The night of graduation, I went to my grandmother’s house and we had a little celebration. The next day I began to wonder what I would do. I thought that maybe I would try college, but which one. I wanted to go to Marshall University, but I still had the fear of leaving home. Then I figured that I would go to Beckley College. It was close to home and cheaper than anything else around. My parents seemed to think that college was a waste of money, maybe I wasn’t college material. You would have to understand my parents, they were not anti-education, and they were from a different generation. My parents both graduated from high school, usually unless your family had money or were teachers you went to work. You worked usually at the same job until you retired. My dad wanted me to do what is now CNA work. The reasoning behind this was that I would always have work. I knew that I didn’t have the temperament for that type of work. I still had the dream of radio. My mom got the idea that I should go to Appalachian Bible College, so we set up an appointment and went there to talk to one of the Deans there. I was going to major in Christian Education. That wasn’t a bad idea, except I was 17, and I didn’t like the idea of not being able to wear pants and listen to whatever music I wanted to. I just didn’t feel like it was for me. Now I know that I wouldn’t have fit in, even if I didn’t mind the dress code, or listening only to Christian music. I was raised in a Baptist Church that operated more like a Freewill Baptist or a Pentecostal Church. Our pastor preached about healing and he anointed with oil when he prayed for the sick, people were very free with their praise and worship.
Getting back to the story, I didn’t go to Romney either. I just took part of the year off with getting things ready for January. It felt strange not going to school. I really wanted a job. Everyone was either going to college or working. My mom and I started going to the Y to exercise in the mornings and we shopped and did things together. I helped Sharon wither homework and I sketched and listened to the radio a lot. I would meet with my Division of Rehab Counselor, we got absolutely nowhere, with anything. I guess we were at a stalemate and he didn’t know what to do and then one day I got a call from one of the other counselors there. Her name was Loretta Bays. That’s when things really started happening for me. I told Loretta Bays that I wanted to do radio, the next thing I got a call from Dan Blaney, she had given him my phone number and, he arranged for me to come to the station and meet with him. I was shell shocked, I listened to him every day. So I went to WWNR, and toured the place and then he called Dick Calloway, who was the broadcasting teacher at Raleigh County Vocational School. It is now call Academy of Careers and Technology. There is no broadcasting program there now, but back in the 1970’s there was an agreement between WVPB and the school. The School did the programming from 9 A-5 PM. I didn’t make it to the school right away. I got very sick. My tonsils were infected and they were the size of golf balls. I began to get sick, I remember it well. My mom and I had went to Oak Hill to shop, she was looking for a winter coat for me. I was feeling really bad and when we got home I laid down, when I got up I was running a fever and my ears hurt, it hurt to swallow. I was sick for about two weeks, and then we got snowed in. By the time I called Mr. Calloway, it was the first part of February and I went to the school there and looked everything over. He said I could start school right away. My first day was February 5, 1976. My mom asked Mr. Calloway if he thought I could do it and he said, we will try it and see.
I took to broadcasting and the equipment like a duck to water. I learned how to operating the equipment quickly. The one thing it took me a while to get used to were some of my classmates. Some of them were veterans, they had been in the Army. Military guys have a way of expressing themselves, I blushed a lot my first weeks there. In the class were Shirley Stevens (now Hassler), Buzz Henry, Jacque Bailey, J.C. Meadows, Roger Hutchinson, Jim Covey, Bob Hatcher, Brady English, and over the course of time there were others that came and went. Mike Burns was Mr. Calloway’s assistant, he was mainly a goofer. Looking back, he wasn’t much older or the same age as the students and he didn’t really know how to deal with us. Being properly trained makes a good instructor. In the mornings we would have class going over broadcast laws and other things and after lunch there would be practical radio. One of the things the class had to do was prepare the noon newscast. It was a 30 minute long news block. My first day in class, some of the students went to the VA hospital to run a small radio station there. I can’t remember who I rode there with, but I went along with them and I watched them. Soon, my first day, they had me reading news stories on the air. I was so shocked and very shy at this time. I began to come out of my shell after a while.
Later that summer I met another lifelong friend David Shockey. By then I had some spunk. I had learned not to blush and the guys when they said certain things for shock value, I had also learned to sass Mike Burns when he jumped on me for something, telling him “You don’t talk to me that way you are not my daddy” Yeah I said that. You do what you need to do to survive. Broadcasting school had it good and bad points, I enjoyed learning how to find articles and rewrite them for on air. I enjoyed going to court to write news stories. I did enjoy being at the VA Hospital. I was so young and kind of stupid about things though. Life has taught me a lot over the years, you live and learn. I was on my Way in broadcasting I guess.
In 1976, the United States celebrated its Bi-Centennial, and I was starting in broadcasting. I began to wonder what would be next?
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