Reply To: Redwood High in the 1960s (from original forum archive)
I'm a 77' grad, but my older sister was 66'. I remember being in the car driving her to school, and it was the only building out in the middle of a marsh. She said that every time she saw this egret on the way, it was a good day. If not, it was a bad day. She has a plastic egret that my Dad bought her years ago out in garden today.
Paul Penna;963 wrote: Bob Troppmann (two p's, actually) was about the only really decent human being in the boy's PE department (actually, he was the head) when I was there 1960-1964. Well, Al Endriss was pretty much OK too, but I didn't have him much. I never forgot or forgave the one who singled me out in front of everybody one day by calling me "Slim Pickens."
Mr. Troppmann was the only P.E. teacher I ever had who wasn't a sadist. Al Endriss was okay, not great but not bad either. Not really a sadist but he did have a macho streak.
Archie Bunker;960 wrote: Bob Tropmann and Sylvia Jones were still there when I attended (1983-7). They were both very cool.
Bob Troppmann (two p's, actually) was about the only really decent human being in the boy's PE department (actually, he was the head) when I was there 1960-1964. Well, Al Endriss was pretty much OK too, but I didn't have him much. I never forgot or forgave the one who singled me out in front of everybody one day by calling me "Slim Pickens."
Bob Tropmann and Sylvia Jones were still there when I attended (1983-7). They were both very cool. But I wish I would have attended Redwood when you did. I would have fit right in with the hippies. Sadly, when I went to Redwood all the kids were very snobbish and worshipped Ronald Reagan.
Mrs. Markoff was also still there. She wasn't as popular with the kids but I always liked her.
Interesting to hear of the cultural differences just a few years brought. I think you might call my class of '64 the last "innocent" one. Ours was really a 50s culture - the 60s didn't begin until 1965. HS society still broke down into such traditional divisions of the rich kids, the working class kids, the brains, the hoods. Hippies were yet to be born. We had one guy who was widely regarded as a beatnik - black turtleneck, black hornrims, liked poetry, even had a scraggly growth that could be interpreted as either an attempt at a goatee or just bad grooming - can't remember if he ever wore a beret. The major "new" societal group at the time were surfers. We had one black student, transfered from Tam for some reason I only heard rumors about, some trouble he'd gotten into, although he gave the impression of being a wiseguy trickster as opposed to a badass. To the extent that PE coaches were resented, it was for being taskmasters rather than for political reasons. Despite my being a pitiful dweeb, I liked Bob Troppmann and I think he liked me once he realized I was a lost cause sports-wise.
The back parking lot was the place to spent your lunch hour back in the day. Remember the guy who patrolled the school and wore the derby hat? He looked like "ODD JOB" in Goldfinger.
Like many fellow Marinites, I attended Redwood High School from 1966 through 1970. The thing I remember most about Redwood was that when we started there it was still mandatory to attend "pep" rallies after school. You had to sit with your classmates and then cheer as loud as you could to get some credit. Four years late, a kid named Kevin Pusser, who was the top cross country runner on our boys team refused to cut his hair in accordance with athletic director Bob Troppmann's edict, and he took his case all the way to the state supreme court! The resulting mess and bad publicity so disturbed the "old school" Troppmann that he quit his post as AD and Head varsity football coach, which everyone thought was a big mistake. Troppmann may have been intractable on this issue, but he was a fine coach, a decent man, and he really helped his kids and cared about them. Just ask former Redwood star Pete Carroll, class of 1969 who is now coaching at USC! Redwood also had the misfortune of looking somewhat like San Quentin Prison, which is only two miles due east of the school across 101. We used to call the school: "Little San Quentin!" My favorite teacher was humanties instructor Tino Lavezzo, who I understand just recently retired. One thing I remember also, kind of a funny story, John Whitelaw, one of my oldest friends and a fine bass guitar player (sadly John died two years ago at the young age of 53), and I put together a funny 20 minute tape of funny stories from our neighborhood for a project in Mrs Markoff's sophmore english class. We did spot on impressions of the kids in our neighborhood, as well as their parents, ( we of course exaggerated everything for greater effect!) and after listening to our tape, the kids in the class were rolling in the aisles with laughter! Unfortunately Mrs Markoff hated the effort, thought it was "highly inapprorpriate" and gave us an "F!" I still have the tape today (its coverted to a dvd) and I must say I still think it's quite funny to listen to after all of these years! We had some interesting times at Redwood. I remember the "jocks" and the "hippies" were just two of the main cliques, and once there was a protest during the Vietnam war that actually shut down the school. Our principal, Mr Donald Krebs, kept his cool however, and managed to keep the two sides of kids from beating each other's brains out by organizing a forum in the gym where everyone could talk about the issue. When Robert Kennedy was assasinated in June of 1968, I remember Brunhilda Thylin (isn't that a great name!) my German teacher, and Sylvia Jones (English teacher) actually cancelled their classes because they were so upset. A lot of the kids were too. The drug culture was also just getting started in those days, but I didn't notice a lot more than just some pot smoking in the back parking lot. But obviously there were kids doing more than just smoking, and sadly, many of our classmates and others from earlier and later classes are now dead because of drug use. I guess I was one of the lucky ones however, being one of those "nerds" who worked on the Bark and wanted to be a sportscaster, so I wasn't going to too many of the big concerts at the Fillmore or the Avalon Ballroom in SF and getting high with everyone else!
