Ultimate Throwback: A 50-Year Reunion

I recently received a notice about my high school’s 50th year reunion. No…Really? Did the mailman mix up the mail again? Return to sender! Luckily, I still have some basic math skills and after double checking, it’s not a mistake. Once, I thought high school would agonizingly never end and now it seems like a blip of time from the Ice Age.

How did we get here? What did we accomplish? Does anyone care? Oh, what a long, strange, trip it’s been since the crazy days of high school!

Times were different in Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, during the early 1970s. The fashion was bellbottom jeans and miniskirts for girls, Dingo boots and long hair for guys. There were protests, racial tensions, legalized marijuana, drugs, & the drinking age was 18. We had Rock n Roll, Flower Power, Kent State shootings, the Draft, Roe v. Wade, and Watergate. No restrictions for 16 year old drivers and no attendance policy at school. It’s a wonder any of us survived at all.

What about the cars, you ask? In the Detroit area, cars rusted out due to salt used on roads during winter. People sold their car before it reached 100,000 miles, knowing it would be unreliable after that.

Conveniently, when your car loan was paid off, you had to buy another car. It kept drivers in debt and car dealerships profitable.

There’s always a cause and effect. Because of the high turnover of cars, kids in high school could buy cheap, rusty, high mileage Mustangs, Cameros, etc. Some drove muscle cars, like the Mach 1 Mustang, Trans Am, Nova, Impala SS, and GTO, but most drove boring family hand-me-down automatic 6-cylinder cars. I remember one guy drove a way-past-its-prime 1963 Cadillac Coupe Deville. If you were 16, you took anything that rolled.

Party vans and sports cars weren’t as popular. Due to harsh winters, it was nearly impossible to heat them. Some nights I had to put a light bulb under the hood of my Datsun convertible so it would start in the morning. Inside, it never warmed up and had zero traction in snow. Hey, when you’re 16, you make bad decisions…

Rather than get depressed about being on the downward side of life’s seesaw, I figured it would be more worthwhile to talk to someone that was in charge back then. Get the facts.

That would be Al Gallup. Mr. Gallup was the Assistant Principal at Huron when I attended. He was also kind of an enforcer, showing up to try and resolve perilous situations. I assumed he meted out punishments and therefore, it was best to steer clear of him.

I also knew he was the missing link to decades old questions. Like, how was Huron High able to hold parking lot drag races and have an indoor smoking lounge?

Al agreed to meet up, and we had a good time reflecting on the early days at Huron. He’s 97, active, and living at home with his wife Karen. His hair and beard are grey now, but he still has a good sense of humor, an impressive memory, and a twinkle in his eye.

I asked Al what inspired him to pursue a career in education. He said he had an excellent industrial arts teacher in high school and found a passion in teaching industrial arts himself. After serving in the Navy, he attained a college degree using the GI Bill.

In 1951 he took a job teaching in Southfield, earning a respectable $2,600 per year. He commuted 42 miles in his Austin American car, “a small, terrible car” with no heater. Al had to put a blanket over his legs for warmth in the winter. Next, he was offered a teaching position in Ann Arbor, where he taught industrial arts, woodworking, electronics, girls household mechanics, shop math, and metal work.

In 1967, a new school was approved, and Principal Paul Meyers asked Al to be his Assistant Principal.

Huron High opened near the banks of the Huron River in the fall of 1969. The students were racially and ethnically diverse, coming from rural township areas, low-income housing areas, and the most affluent parts of town. Because of this, it was difficult to make the school welcoming to everyone.

At first, Huron didn’t have a mascot and students were called Sewer Rats by the other high school in town. The admin offered up names like the Highlanders, Hurons, and Eagles, but students didn’t like them. They started calling themselves River Rats, after the muskrats that live around the Huron River. Some thought it was a derogatory name, but it stuck. Al said, “soon there were Bat Rats, Mat Tats, Ring Rats, and Sec Rats (secretaries).” Go Rats!

It was very tough to open a new school during this period of high racial unrest, drugs, and rebellion. There were no senior classmen to help lead and no culture for anyone to follow. The admin had a saying, “If we make it through lunch, we’ll probably get through the rest of the day. If we make it through Wednesday, we’ll probably make it to the end of the week.”

The design of the building was unique, having a large dome connected to the other main building by a 3-story-high arch. A 4-lane boulevard ran under the arch to connect both sides of campus. Drivers liked to peel out under the arch, creating a smoke screen effect and making it dangerous to cross between classes. Double speed bumps were installed but that didn’t stop the burning rubber. It only caused a lot of cars to lose their mufflers.

In 1972, Al noticed a gathering of blacks and whites in the far parking lot. In those days it meant trouble, so he turned to his secretary and said, “Be sure to tell my wife I love her,” and headed out the door.

When he arrived, they confronted him and said they wanted to have drag races. He told them they couldn’t do that on school property. Never.

The next morning, before school, four kids, black and white, showed up at his office. They had a plan and a list of rules they would follow if they were allowed to race. For example, they had to own the car, wear helmets, get parent permission, stop speeding under the arch, and go to classes. They all loved racing, and they could do it together. Their plan made good sense, thought Al.

When Al mentioned to the superintendent that Huron was going to have drag races, he told him he should “consider getting mental help.” The legal team reviewed the proposal and found the school board wouldn’t be liable, but the teachers or admin working in support of it would be. Al and his team decided to help the kids do it.

I remember a thousand students turning out to watch drag racing on a spring Friday afternoon. It was a huge success and reported in the Ann Arbor News.

One of the drivers told Al, “Yesterday, we were giving the finger, and now we’re giving the peace sign.” When Al returned to Huron decades later, he asked if there had been any other big groups fighting. They said they hadn’t experienced those types of issues again.

Al gave me one of the “Pit Passes” created for the drag race. It represented the face with four different colors representing all races of people. Very cool!

As far as the smoking lounge question, I found out that Al, the principal, and the superintendent were sued for $100M by a family because the bathroom wasn’t safe. Al said the bathrooms were poorly designed, with a long hallway and 2 turns in it. The smokers would have a look out give warning before anyone could enter.

The solution? Open up the Annex in the cafeteria for smoking! This immediately cleared up the bathroom problem. It made a terrible mess in the smoking lounge, but it was easier to supervise, having all problems are in one place.
The smoking lounge was a large area and many kids hung out there, some playing cards, some eating lunch. Everybody didn’t smoke but everyone who entered went home smelling like stale cigarettes! As students, we didn’t care.

At one point after I graduated, the AG ruled that smoking must be banned in schools. Too bad for Al Gallup. His initials are AG and a lot of students thought he was the one that closed it down, not the Attorney General!

When I asked Al about his memorable successes, he said, “My success stories are Things that I didn’t do. Thats what I learned about success. Give students responsibility and they will do well.” Two things he’s very proud of are:

• • The Drag Races

• • Interest Sessions – One-hour presentations from academics and professionals throughout the year. Voluntary attendance to hear about student relevant topics, such as international travel, space, poetry, legal rights, black experience, dance, etc. 

“Both of these activities were done at a time when the school was close to not operating.”

I asked Al how he thought my class of 1974 did after graduation. He replied, “A lot of them were very successful but you don’t hear about the people that weren’t. Generally, the kids in the first years at Huron had to go back and pick up education again. The school was running on a knife’s edge.”
He continued, “A lot of people wanted to save the world, a very idealistic group. Didn’t worry about themselves as much as about the world. I’m not sure we did as good a job as we would have like to have done, in those late 60’s and early 70’s.”

This reminds me of that saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” My class may have left high school disillusioned, but we learned how to survive in the real world, to overcome adversity, and to define success on our own terms. Like rats we found a way through the maze of Life. If we didn’t make a difference, there’s still time!

My initial goal was to get a story about the High School drag races, but Al and I spent two hours talking about the 70’s and our shared experiences. The drag races were a small part of our discussion. Instead, it turned into me learning about how Al and many others worked hard to support kids in high school. Times were tough, but without people like Al, it would have been a total disaster.

My final question for Al was, “At some point when you drive through the Pearly Gates, what kind of car will you be driving?” He looked up, thought about it, and said, “A hearse.” Seemed like a practical ride but I had to ask, “Not the Austin American?” He was quick to respond, “No, it was a terrible little car!”

To Summarize: Support Drag Racing at your Local School!

 

Note: Black & white photos from Ann Arbor News archives