Rick Houser
In the fall of 1962 I began attending Felicity Franklin schools instead Moscow schools. That fall I entered the 8th grade as I entered a school with kids and teachers I had never seen before. The first few days of school were to say the least scary to me but as each day passed I met more and more kids and began to learn their names. Also I met my teachers and, along with their names, I learned the names of those teachers I didn’t have that year. Leaving a community that I had been in with all the kids I had known to transfer to a school twice the size was the biggest adventure I had ever taken up to that point in my life.

I think due to the fact Felicity was a rural school and the student body had so much in common with how I was growing up helped speed up the acceptance I obtained at Felicity. I feel a major part in getting included had to do with staying after school. I had been invited to be a member of the baseball team and pitch for them. (At the time junior high baseball was played in the fall.) Practice was immediately after school, so I had to stay and go with the other guys to practice. At practice I began to mix with the team and as is natural in life I began wanting to be around some guys more than others.

After practice we would go back to the school and wait for our rides home. While waiting we would cross the street and go to the restaurant across the street from the school. During the years the place was owned and or operated by several people and the business name would change with the owners. I can’t recall their names so I am just calling it the Greasy Spoon. It was the perfect place to hang if you were a teen in school. There was a juke box playing all the hot songs of the time. This was 1962 to 1963, before the Beatles and the British Invasion, so one heard a lot of Elvis, The Beach Boys, The Four Seasons, Paul Anka, etc. Next to the music were booths and a couple tables that different groups would congregate at while drinking a small Coke and maybe some French Fries. If that wasn’t enough there were pin ball machines where another group might be gathered at. It was pure teenager heaven! There wasn’t a place I could go to like this in Moscow and this was so cool that I always wanted my mom or dad to run a little late so I could hang out a little longer.

That first school year I also played basketball and ran track in the spring so I got to spend a lot of time across the street or in and around the school. Being at school after school hours was a time that I liked as the same guidelines we adhered to during class weren’t the same and being in the gym or multipurpose room took on a much different feel, a feel that we the kids had a much looser rein. Also during the time at the school and at the Greasy Spoon I continued to form more friends and developed likes and dislikes among the kids going to school at Felicity. As a person knows and it can be felt quickly if you are fitting with some people or you become a great fit right from the beginning.

Another thing I learned after school was there was more than the team I was practicing with. Along with the baseball team was the football team, the cheerleaders, the drum majors and an assortment of kids staying after to participate in academic programs. I hadn’t realized that there was such a variety of events a person could be involved in. This never showed on a report cart but it was an education to me.

I attended Felicity from 1962 to May 1967 when I graduated. During those years I invested many hours of after school hanging out time at school and across the street. When I hit high school I enrolled in Vocational Agriculture, as all I ever wanted to do was be a farmer and Mr. Ron Ramey was the Vo-Ag teacher at Felicity in those days. He came with a reputation as the teacher to have if you were to be that lucky. I found out he indeed was all and more than advertised. I think it was the only class that I made steady A’s in and I worked very hard to get them. But better than that I got to stay after school as I joined anything Mr. Ramey offered extra. From soil and livestock judging to square dancing, I got educated and entertained all in one trip to town!

Over the years I made what I guess we would call core friends, and as the years passed some of the core would change. I guess that comes with growing older. Entering Felicity I began attending with Charlie Marshall at my side and as I made friends Charlie also made friends. We each eventually developed our own cores for those years and we probably still have some we keep in contact with. I know I became friends with Gary Garrison in high school and then we went different directions, in the past few years we have connected again and it is rare that we don’t converse frequently.

So we entered the Greasy Spoon with the songs of Wipeout, Blue Velvet, Sherry and many more and with that in the background we grew our friendships and groups and enjoyed doing so.

Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and loves to share stories about his youth and other topics. He may be reached at houser734@yahoo.com.