Page 39 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

presses. Around noon on weekdays, newspaper carriers would head to street corners
downtown, shouting news headlines to the passing pedestrians. Above the newspaper
presses was radio station WJHP. The letters stood for John H. Perry, Publisher. It was
there I met Speed Veal and Ted Chapeau, who called himself “Lazy-Bones” on the
radio. Ted talked with a slow, southern drawl that fit the sleepy image of an old
southern town. Around the corner was the broadcast studio of WPDQ in the basement
of a First Baptist building. Their transmitter was located on Jacksonville’s Westside
under the tall antenna towers on Normandy Blvd.
While attending Robert E. Lee High School, I rode the city bus past 5 Points to McDuff
Avenue where I got off to walk to school. I occasionally stopped at the Lee High shop
to buy a pack of Champion notebook paper or some other school supply. My
homeroom teacher was Leroy MacGowen, head of the Science Department. I loved
most of the subjects taught by my teachers such as Hilda Brantley. Among them was
history with Mrs. Winchester, who may have been part Native American because that
was the part of history she emphasized. We also had to be aware of current events. I
enjoyed my Geometry class with Mrs. Johnella Harden, except for Martha
Williamson’s desk being in front of mine. She always tried to get me to show her my
answers when tests were given. I signed up for Physics in the 11th grade taught by
Dorothy Thomas. I was having trouble with a full load and family problems and had to
drop the class. I was taking Latin with Mrs. Rogers. It was fairly easy because of all my
prior Spanish courses. In my senior year, I had no trouble with Physics, Chemistry, and
Trigonometry. I never had problems with English. It was just the Literature part that
was not my bag. I loved the poetry, but not Shakespeare.

The only part of Physical Education I liked was playing volleyball and running track. I
never could understand basketball, the dribbles or double dribbles. I liked baseball and
football but didn’t have enough size or skill to participate. Study Hall helped me
because I worked at the downtown St. Johns Theatre evenings, so I tried to get as much
homework done in school so I didn’t have much to do when I got home from work
around 10:30 PM.

I made only 35 cents an hour working at the St. Johns Theater, but it gave me an
experience about dealing with people. I also learned about show business since I’d
watch the audience reactions to the movies, and I could study the acting techniques
since I saw each movie seven or eight times. Each movie played either three or four
days, or the popular ones would run a week or longer. I learned that one of the first
31