Ray Age 15 - 18
My High School years attending Catalina H.S.
During my years of growing up, Tucson, was booming in population due to the growing number of WWII Baby Boomers. New schools needed to be built and my High School along with a number of other High Schools in Tucson were under construction.
At the time I was attending Jr High we had the 7th, 8th and ninth grades all in one school. That school was called Catalina Jr. High School.
Since I was a ninth grader when I started High School, I never had the chance to be a High School Freshman.
I lived in the North East end of Tucson and the only High School I could attend was old Tucson High which was down town Tucson. During those years we had a split shift so we could share the school facilities. For half the year we started class at 6 AM in the morning and finished at 12 noon. The next half we started at noon and finished in the dark at 6 PM.
Life changing Summer Jobs
1955
My first official job was in the summer of 1955 cleaning
cages at the Rincon Kennels on Fort
Lowell Road, A few miles East of Swan
Rd. I was making 50 cents an hour.
The summer of 1956 I turned 16, got my drivers license and
was hired by Ramsower's Market as a stock boy. I was pulling down a big
75 cents an hour. Gas was 25 cents a gallon. I could buy 3
gallons for an hours work.
Interesting to compare the average cost of a gallon of gas
in 2018 is $3 and the average starting wage is $9 ph. Over 60 years later three
gallons of gas costs one hour of labor. Does that show our numbers get larger
but our buying power stays much the same?
When I was growing up in Tucson during the '50's, anyone earning
$10,000 yearly were the wealthy and living up in the foothills at the end
of N. Campbell Ave.
Their homes had the most beautiful night time views of the whole Tucson valley. The
end of Campbell was
also a favorite spot to take your girlfriend.
My best friend, Dave Tropp had a 1949 white Ford convertable in our Junior year at High School. He had a large paper route and used it early in the morning every day of the year.
The most fun we had at night was visiting Johnie's Drive-In on Speedway for sodas. One time Dave slid down low in the drivers seat and I on the passenger side gave him directions as we slowly drove through the area, everyone went crazy seeing a driverless car going through Johnie's.
During our Junior and Senior years Dave's dad helped pay for all the expenses for him to build an 18 ft cabin cruser. I also helped Dave as often as I could and we finished it just in time for our Senior year picnic. We were the hit of the at Kinsley Ranch Lake, 30 miles south of Tucson.
The only picture I have of the HeeBeeGeeBee is with my mother
on a later trip that summer to Canyon Lake with our families.
Back before I graduated High school. My first official job before my senior year was at Ramsowers market the starting place for my
lifetime future career. No, I didn't go into the grocery business.
It just so happened my chores at the store each week required me to take down
the old paper signs, wash the windows and put up the new paper signs. On
this one particular day, I had just finished washing the windows when I saw the
sign guy delivering the new signs. The cashier, Marian Finley, was paying
him in cash. Five dollars for each of the four signs. The papers signs
were 3ft x 10ft and painted with red poster paint.
As I began to put up the new signs and tape them to the
windows I wondered how long it took the sign guy to create each sign.
Little did I know at that moment getting the answer to that question would
change my life forever.
Since I had not yet thrown away the old paper signs I took
down from the windows I decided to take them home and give them a closer
look. Within a few days I had set up a sheet of plywood on my back porch
and convinced my mom it would not be there forever.
Back in the 50's there were no such things as computers and
printers, so if you wanted a sign you had to have it painted by a professional
sign painter.
At Posner's Art Supply store near the University of Arizona I
got help selecting my first sign painting supplies. I learned that sign painters favorite paint
brushes were expensive red sable brushes.
I also picked up red and black poster paints to practice with.
Each week I would take the old signs home and over paint the
red letters with black paint. By the time my senior year was ready to
start at Catalina
High School I was able to
create my own paper signs that looked a lot like the professional ones. I
also discovered it took less than 30 minutes to paint a complete new paper
sign. That meant the local sign guy was earning $20 each week for the two
hours he worked to paint the 4 signs for our store. I was working 40 hours to earn only $30
dollars.
That revelation encouraged me to paint up two sample signs
that I took in and showed Mr. Ramsower.
When I rolled out my paper signs, his first comment was that he didn't
order these signs. That was a good sign
because he didn't see any difference between my lettering and the regular sign
guy. When I told him that I had painted
the signs he was surprised at my sign painting skills and when I told him I
would also only charge him $4 each and saved him 25% off his regular sign
cost. I had the job.
During the time I was back in school I also had the chance
to paint signs for other stores and businesses.
My time was now worth $8 or more per hour for sign painting.
After I graduated High School and before I started attending
the University of
Arizona in 1960 I had a
number of different sign paint jobs beyond painting paper signs. During the summer of 1957 I went to work for
KOLD Television (the first TV station in Tucson) I was hired as a sign painter...
where I painted "Show Cards that were used to announce up coming TV programs.
KOLD-TV was the first television station in Tucson. It went on the January 13, 1953. The first owner was cowboy actor Gene Autry, who also owned KOOL-TV, Channel 10, in Phoenix.
When the station first signed on, the population of Tucson was just over 55,454 in the city and 118,034 in the metropolitan area. Much of the city's growth at that time was attributed to the return of servicemen and their families to Tucson after the war as well as the advent of air conditioning.
KOLD-TV's first station was located on Drachman Street close to downtown Tucson.
In 1958 I discovered I would not be accepted at the U of A unless
I took another High School year of English and Algebra. With only having two classes back at High
School it gave me free time to work for a local Sign Shop.
During that time I learned all about silk
screening Bus Bench Backboards and outdoor sign painting.
The next school year I attended the Malan School of Fine Art
in downtown Tucson.
My focus was on Typology, learning all about basic type fonts and understanding
the history of this art form.
In 1960 I started attending the University of Arizona
but was not able to carry a full load due to my need to continue working as a
sign painter to earn money for my apartment and expenses. My mother and dad got a divorce in 1959 and
mom moved to NY and took my brother Larry with her.
In November of my second year at the U of A I was notified
by the U.S. Army that I was going to be drafted. I was not carrying enough college credits to
avoid the draft. They did give me the option to select from a list of job
choices I could choose if I added a third year.
I selected Photo Lab Technology.
My Basic training was at Fort Ord,
California near Monterey.
After I finished Basic near the end of February in 1961 they sent me on
to Ft. Monmouth, NJ for eight weeks.
Contributed by Margie Wagner Fangmeier '58
It became apparent in 1953 that Tucson's population had grown significantly after WWII and the city was in need of more than one high school. So the Tucson Public School's governing board voted to build two new high schools. One was to be named Pueblo High School with Elbert Brooks as its principal, and the other to be named Catalina High School with Rollin T. Gridley as its principal.
In the fall of 1954, a total of 6.800 high school students attended Tucson High School. It was the largest high school in the nation. All students were Tucson High Badgers. Most students living north of 6th Avenue attended classes in the morning session while most students living south of 6th Avenue attended classes in the afternoon. The following year, the sessions were reversed.
Beginning the fall of 1955, the north students became officially Catalina High School students. The south students became Pueblo High students. Those students living within the boundaries of Tucson High remained Tucson High students. In April 1956, Pueblo High School students moved to their new facility near Sentinel Peak (A Mountain).
After another semester at Tucson High, the doors of the newly constructed, but not totally completed, campus opened to its first student body on January 17, 1957. Catalina High School finally had a home of its own. The very first senior class graduated May 31, 1957.
In our 1957 Catalina High School year book 'The Torch', the following was written by our Principal, R.T. Gridley:
Out of the Desert We Grew
The students who entered the new Catalina High School plant in January 1957 will long remember the excitement, confusion, pride and awe that was felt during the first week of occupation. The structure was completed and ready for classes by January 21, The building contains seventy-nine class rooms, including one library, a unique circular auditorium, one of the largest gymnasiums in Arizona, a girl's gymnasium which is separate from the main gym, cafeteria, and a complete wing of administration offices, just to mention a few of the outstanding area of the plant.
To quote R.T. Gridley, principal of C.H.S.: "The beautiful buildings were constructed for the pupils -- they were considered first. There is no 'gingerbread'; every foot of space is utilized." Perhaps this statement will serve equally well in portraying the student's reactions toward the $2,933,314.88 structure. With the passing of every day, the student body becomes more aware of the luxurious, but functional design of the buildings. A ramp extending from the first to the second floor of the main classroom wing makes it less breathtaking to climb the height, the school-wide PA system saves much time and walking for administrators and students; there is chute on the outside of the library to make it easier for the students to return books ... for all this we are thankful.
Catalina High School has begun to unfold after two years of planning, designing and construction, and we hope that each year will find it growing more successful in everything it plans and represents.
Some comments classmate
overhearing in 1957.
(1) "I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, its going to be impossible to buy a weeks groceries for $20.00."
(2) "Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long when $5,000 will only buy a used one."
(3) "If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous."
(4) "Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?"
(5) "If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store."
(6) "When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage,"
(7) "Kids today are impossible. Those ducktail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls,"
(8) "I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying damn in "Gone With The Wind", it seems every new movie has either hell or damn in it."
(9) "I read the other day where some scientists thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas."
(10) "Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday that they will be making more than the President."
(11) "I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now"
(12) "It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet."
(13) "It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work."
(15) "I'm just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business."
(16) "Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. . . I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to Congress."
(17) "The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on."
(18) "I guess taking a vacation is out of the question now days. It costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel."
(19) "No one can afford to be sick any more, $35.00 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood
We will always thank the owners of Ronstadt's Hardware Store in Downtown Tucson for their best Gift to our world, their daughter Linda Ronstadt.
Next chapter in my life: Ray 1958-1961 back to Ray's
