Forced busing caused heartbreak

By the mid 60s, St. Louis was heavily involved in voluntary and forced busing of students from one school district to another in the quest for desegregation. But when busing started, inner city white and black kids were bused to other districts to achieve equality in education. (That's a picture of Wade Elementary on Vandiventer).

I attended the same grade school from kindergarten through 8th grade. It was about 5 city blocks from home and I walked to and from school. All the kids either walked, rode a bi-state bus (St. Louis Mass Transit) or were brought by a parent. Prior to forced busing, there was one "bully" in the entire school. Everyone knew who he was and most of the kids tried to avoid him. There was even one year, when he threatened to beat me up if I didn't hang out with him. My 4th grade teacher actually let me leave early at noon and when school was over to avoid a confrontation with the Bully because I was terrified of him. He once tried to drag me into the girl's restroom and push my face down into a toilet, but I resisted and a teacher came along before  he could force my face into the water. The next school year, all the doors had been removed from the stalls in the bathrooms - probably so nothing funky could go on behind closed doors - and it coincided with forced busing.

Suddenly my seemingly quiet grade school now had dozens of "bullies". The principal referred to them as "those kids" and if there was any trouble, we were told to try and avoid confrontations. The principal, Margaret Woehr, was not happy with forced busing. Her quiet little grade school changed suddenly. She was a pleasant lady to a point - but the kids liked to call her Werewolf. One of the bused in bullies was Joey Davis. Built like a wrestler and dumb as a door knob. He carried a small paper bag in his pants pocket, and several times a day would bring it out and inhale from it. He had airplane glue in that bag. Joey dropped out of grade school before graduating.

Mr. Stumpe (STUM-pee) was principal when I was in kindergarten. He always wore a suit and had a crew cut. I had some monopoly money one time and he offered to sell me the school. I was 5 and thought he was halfway serious. The following year Margaret Woehr replaced him. But I digress.

Point A - Curb where my nose was broken, Point B - Corner Tim was standing on

While walking to school one day, a patrol boy, Tim Griffith, was getting some red hots from another kid. They were a few years older than me. The red hots were being poured into his red patrol boy helmet in his hands.
I don't know why, but as I walked by, I hit the bottom of the helmet intentionally and red hots went flying. Much to my surprise, Tim was furious and chased me up the block before catching me. He grabbed my shirt around the shoulders and threw me face down to the concrete curb. It broke my nose. This was just outside the girls playground and a teacher came running pretty quick and escorted me inside. They called my parents to come get me because they couldn't get the bleeding stopped.

That event would stay with me my entire life. In 7th grade a girl once said, "if your nose was a penis, you'd be a good lay." I didn't even know what that meant until a friend explained it to me. Needless to say I was devastated, particularly since I hadn't done anything to provoke her comment aside from being in the same classroom. In high school, I worked as an assistant to the guidance counseling office. I had to deliver a note to a particular teacher, Mr. Anton, that would excuse one of his students from school for some personal family business for the day.. I never had Mr. Anton as a teacher and had never met him. But as I handed him the note, he said, "Gee, if I had your nose full of nickels I'd be rich!", and the entire class laughed. I turned red and retreated from the classroom. I didn't have a snappy comeback, because he caught me totally off guard. I didn't expect anything like that to come out of the mouth of an adult.

Wade Elementary is also where I was exposed to asbestos. In the middle of the basement were the boilers that provided heat to the classrooms. A group of us guys were exploring around the boiler room, and one of the things we did was peel back the white asbestos from a pipe to see what was underneath. That event, too, would stay with me.Recent years have brought a diagnosis of "scarring consistent with exposure to asbestos" to my lungs from various specialists.

When busing started, the new kids were being bused in from an elementary school district about two districts away from Wade. And there were girls. New girls. One in particular caught my eye, Faith McEntire. She looked like a fairy princess. Long blonde hair, nice features and nice personality. I tried very hard to get closer to Faith. She pretty much ignored me. One Saturday a group of us boys went to the The Shenandoah on Grand for some movie or other, and Faith was there with some of her friends from school.. Usually we went to The Columbia Theater on The Hill, in the opposite direction of The Shenandoah and not quite so far from home. I had hopes of sitting close to her, but the boys headed to one part of the theater and the girls to a different part. I didn't pay much attention to the movies, because I was mainly there to see Faith.


I was heartbroken over Faith, and she had no idea.. I don't know whatever happened to Faith, but I hope she has had a good life. I certainly have.


So it goes.