A ’64 Highlander sent in several terrific pieces which will be incorporated in this blog over the next few entries. This one about Margaret Ferrell, a ’62 Highlander, is the first of them, mostly because I also knew Margaret and always thought very highly of her.
Margaret was a strikingly beautiful girl with luxuriant black hair that really rivaled that of TV’s early Mouseketeer heart throb, Annette Funicello. Margaret’s desk was next to mine in a 1960-61 class where we became class friends and I got to know well her kind heart and gentle nature. But alas, I was just a lad of 15 and Margaret was an older woman of 16, so I never held out any hope of dating her. I had forgotten that she was a Meadowbrook cheerleader until the following reminisces were sent in by a 1964 Highlander…..At EHHS, Margaret was a member of NHS and achieved the Leonard's Star Award all 3-years....
CJ64--In the fall of 1958 Meadowbrook Junior High was no more than 4 years old. Until its completion, the Meadowbrook Elementary building housed grades 1 through 8 or 9 (I’ve forgotten which). The junior high building was located across Meadowbrook Drive from the elementary and was typical 1950s architecture, long and flat and rectangular, with nondescript pink-orange brick. It looked nothing like the classic architecture of the elementary, which is a beautiful building to this day.
The junior high housed grades 7, 8, and 9. Grades 7 and 8 were taught the end courses of the traditional grammar school, while the 9th grade received the high school curriculum (hence “junior” high).
My first memory of my first day as a 7th grader was our pep rally in the auditorium. We walked into the auditorium with the band blaring “The National Emblem March”. (Seems like every pep rally from then on through high school featured this march at entry). Like all good marches this one boasted several memorable melodies. The second melody was the one where we all used to sing “Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole, round the flag pole, round and round…). We were all handed a mimeographed sheet with the school fight song and alma mater on it. Once seated, the band played our alma mater, to the tune (and many of the words) of the Ohio State alma mater:
Oh, come let’s sing to Meadowbrook’s praise,
And songs to alma mater raise.
While our hearts rebounding thrill,
With joy which death alone can still.
Summer’s heat or winter’s cold,
The seasons pass, the years will roll.
Time and change will surely show,
How firm thy friendship,
Buffaloes!
Next came the fight song, to the very familiar tune from Sousa’s “Field Artillery March”:
Through the rain, through the hail,
We will hit the beaten trail
As those buffaloes go galloping along.
Watch us march, to the top,
We will never, never stop
As those buffaloes go galloping along.
For it’s one, two, three
We’ve won the victory!
Buffaloes are always, always strong!
And where’er we go, you will always know
That those buffaloes are leading the throng,
Keep ‘em leading!
That those buffaloes are leading the throng!
Anyway, maybe they were corny, but like most kids, most of us thought they were very stirring.
Next came the first cheer, and my introduction to Margaret Ferrell. Margaret was the first cheerleader on the left as you faced the stage. She wore a white sweater with a green megaphone superimposed with a gold M, a knee-length white pleated skirt, bobby sox, and black suede loafers. She had dark, short curly hair combed into a ducktail, large dark eyes, a turned up Irish nose, curvy lips, and a cute figure. She was gorgeous, and I was hopelessly in love for the first time in my life. I have no memory at all of any of the other cheerleaders.
The first cheer (always the first cheer, as we later found out), was Twirl My Turban:
Well, twirl my turban, man alive!
Here comes Meadowbrook’s super tribe!
Do we love ‘em, well I guess,
Meadowbrook, Meadowbrook, yes, yes, yes!
Hey, Hadden, Hadden, he’s our man,
If he can’t do it,
Reynolds can! Reynolds, Reynolds, he’s our man,
If he can’t do it,
Brown can!
(and so forth, through each cheerleader). The names above referred to the football stars, of course – Dave Hadden (halfback), Don Reynolds (quarterback), and Doug Brown (end). After the “yes, yes, yes!” Margaret turned sideways to her left, raised her right arm straight up, yanked it down to form a right angle, and yelled “Hadden, Hadden” at the bottom of the yank while turning back to face the audience, then turned it over to the next cheerleader to pay our respects to Mr. Reynolds, and on down the line. Margaret was always first and always started off with Hadden. I don’t know why or how she chose Hadden, as they were never a couple, but she always did.
I worshiped Margaret Ferrell throughout the entire 7th grade. She graduated and moved on to Eastern Hills High and was there as a senior when I was a sophomore, but the crush did not survive the transition. That was mainly Suzanne Hoffman’s doing, who was a junior cheerleader in high school when I first met her. She walked right up to me on the first day of high school and pinned one of those spirit ribbons on me (Beat Haltom!), and flirted with me, a mere sophomore, and I was hooked again. Suzanne was tall, dark, and gorgeous with long pretty legs and an effervescent personality who I later got to know better when we both worked at Six Flags Over Texas (I was still hooked).
Anyway, I’ve always wondered what happened to the lovely Margaret Ferrell. I hope wherever they both are that they have led very happy lives.
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