School Boy Patrol
On the first day of class in the 5th grade at West Riverside Elementary, on Herschel Street in Jacksonville, in September 1957, I heard a bunch of yelling outside. What's that racket? I asked my teacher, Mrs. Lewis. She informed me that it was our school boy patrol, relaying from school to the outlying guards, that it was time to come to class. The guards closest to the school would shout "Knoocckk ooff!", and the guards a block away would then repeat it to the guards 2 blocks away.
At the end of the 5th grade, two dozen or so of us were selected to be the street crossing guards for the next school year. We had been evaluated for our grades and maturity. There was some training during the summer and we elected a Captain and Lieutenant for the first 6 weeks of school. I was elected Captain the last 6 weeks session. I got called to the principal's office once for riding my bicycle past the schoolyard before class one morning with my feet up on the handlebars. The Captain and Lieutenant rode around to the street crossing posts, which were manned before and after school, to check on the guards. There were no girls in the patrol. We had a closet near the auditorium, with our rain gear and poles with flags. We were issued belts and badges which we took home. The white canvas belt was @ 2" wide, and went around the waist and had a diagonal strap across the chest where the badge was fastened.
What is striking to me is that we 6th graders were trusted to be responsible enough to stop traffic and escort our classmates across the intersections. During my tour, no one was hurt or caused an accident.
After school was out in June, the patrol went to Washington DC for a week. I think we took the train. We stayed in a hotel and visited the Smithsonian, the Lincoln Memorial, and climbed the inside steps of the Washington Monument. We got in trouble one night for tossing water balloons out of our 3rd (?) story window at passers-by. We only got scolded and told to stop. I was expecting worse.
February 6, 2012
School Boy Patrol
West Riverside Elementary 1958-1959
Sandy Lyle: Went up in the attic today to get some fall decorations. And I hadn’t forgotten about your picture. Here it is
Name as many as you can and I’ll try to fill in the blanks. I know most of them ,except one or two ,I think
Top row left to right is Alan Preston, Chris Gardner, Andy Bunch, Pete Phillips, David Stage, and Mike Gaddy
Middle row is left to right Joe Burnam, Eddie Ward ,David Stearns, Walter Eubanks, I don’t know that guy, and Myron Knott
First row is George Dickey, Sandy Lyle, Freddie Langston, Jesse Knapp and John Simpson
And Jack Carithers is missing from the picture for some reason and I think one of the Hacketts was in patrol and he’s not in the picture.
