Strokes from other Pens
Letter to the Editor
October 21, 2020
Letter to the Editor,
This May was the 75th anniversary of the Class of 1945 that graduated from Haxtun High School. Five members of that class live in the area: Edith (Harms) Evans, Sterling, Eloise (Lundberg) Harms and her husband, Virgil Harms, Paoli, and Wilbur Kipp and Jack Falk, both in Haxtun. I have been informed that Viola (Cunningham) Lambert resides in California. Two members of our class who resided in Haxtun passed away in the last year include Ida Mae (Chamblin) Wisdom and Clark Starkebaum.
The Class of 1945 began our high school education in the fall of 1941. Three months later, on Dec. 7, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The rest of our high school years, we were at war. Most of the young men were called or volunteer for military service as the war came to close. Some of the problems we faced was no bus service was provided for country students so we had to find a place to say in town or drive ourselves to school. Rationing for gasoline, tires, much of our food supplies caused issues that we faced.
The Class of 2020 and students in school today face different adversities the COVID-19 pandemic has caused great problems in their education. The events, which are so important such as graduation, prom, music events, sporting events, have been cancelled or postponed. I don’t recall that any of the events were changed during our high school years during the war. I feel that remote learning would be much harder than attending class where you could personally ask the teacher for assistance.
A health issued that existed during our high school years was polio. Some of those who suffered the disease were affected for life. Dr. Salk and Dr. Sabin developed treatment that eliminated the disease. May science develop a vaccine for COVID-19 virus soon.
Jack Falk,
Haxtun
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