The EHHS Social Order – 10.3 – The He-Man Women Haters’ Club, Part 1 - Gay B.

This brief digression is for house-keeping purposes in order to better set up the next few articles…all of them about the “He Man Woman Haters’ Club.” 

Gay Burton.  Gay, my luv, if you ever stumble in here…please forgive me for calling you out like this.  If I were to summon memories of a single person who had a significant influence in coloring my very earliest notions of love and the fairer sex, it was Gay...smart, beautiful, vivacious, and perhaps most importantly at the time….a cheerleader. 

Since my first introduction, in 7th grade at Richland JH to the spectacle of an all-school pep rally presided over by several cute girls, Judy, Betty Kay, Paula, Karmen, Linda, and Patsy, I had set my nascent amorous ambitions on dating a cheerleader.  And Gay, who was at the top of my personal MJH rating stack, fit that bill just fine. 

With no older siblings, there was no one at my house to help interpret how best to become a 13-year old Valentino, or equivalent….and as the new kid at school, Gay didn’t know me from Adam…and she was in serious “like” with that damned Roby (see numerous other references).  Never mind that the sultry 13-year old Celia nor the pixie-like Julie weren't showing me any love either.

Anyway, a couple of years went by and Gay & Co. finally deigned to nod at me in the halls….still no love, though.  Since in my mind, Gay owned MJH for those couple of years I’ve tended to file away obscure snippets of information as I’ve been occasionally writing pieces for this blog, wondering how she originally came to prominence at such a tender age.  A 1964 Highlander sent me a collection of scans, now about 57-years on, that to my mind satisfactorily answers the question…Gay had help and she got it before I got there…read on.

The first EH Class of 1963 MJH cheerleader was not Gay, but Celia Beall, elected to the squad as a 7^th grader; after Celia, there would be just one more 7^th grade cheerleader on the varsity squad--Sandra Fish; after that, just 8^th and 9^th graders. 

The 1957 football team picture shows the cheerleaders seated in the front row.  Gay’s not there; no, she was elected the following spring, 1958 and was on stage my first semester at MJH so, she was simply a fact in my experience of those years.

The accompanying article describes the spring election of cheerleaders for our upcoming first Meadowbrook Buffalo City Championship football team.  Future Classes of 1963 & 1964 are represented there and the girls from both classes would continue to comport themselves very well at EHHS.

So, how did Gay propel herself to such prominence, so early?  Well, I’m pretty sure big sister Melany had something to do with it.  The first time I ever saw Melany was at EHHS as a Class of 1961 cheerleader…and in that 1957 MJH football team picture, there she is sitting in that same front row as Celia.   But, that’s not enough to explain it.  No, take a look below at the Meadowlark Staff …there’s big sister Melany, the editor.  O.K., now consider the huge front page picture of 7^th grader, little sis Gay, promoting the 1958 Stars Over Meadowbrook variety show; the issue of that edition just 1-month before cheerleader elections.  Seventh graders NEVER got their pictures in the paper for much of anything, much less a quarter-page, above the fold feature on the Front Page! …and suddenly, there’s my friend, another future unrequited love--Gay. 

See, kids…thought you got away with it clean, didn’t you?

 "Book 'em, Danno!"