David Hammett
Item
Title
David Hammett
Remember Those Days Jeffersonville High School
1950 through 1970 oral history project
Interview with David Hammett, 1960-1963
Jen Weidner 0:06: Today is October 21, 2020. This is Jen Weidner the Jeffersonville Township Public Library. I'm conducting interviews for Remember Those Days Jeffersonville High School in 1950 through 1970 oral history project with a grant from the Indiana Genealogical Society. I'm here today with David Hammett. David who your parents?
David Hammett 0:27: My parents were Ed and Geneva Hammett
Jen Weidner 0:32: And what was your mother's maiden name?
David Hammett 0:34: McNutt
Jen Weidner 0:35: Okay, and where did you live while you were going to high school?
David Hammett 0:40: When I was going to high school at Jeff[ersonville High School] I lived out near where Walnut Ridge [Garden Center] is on Hamburg pike.
Jen Weidner 0:49: Okay, and you told me earlier that you didn't start out at Jeff High. How did you end up there?
David Hammett 0:57: I actually grew up, I went, eight years of grade school at St. Anthony's in Clarksville, I grew up in Clarksville in old Clarksville.
Jen Weidner 1:09: Okay
David Hammett 1:10: Probably about four blocks away from Clarksville High School.
Jen Weidner 1:14: Oh okay so right in that area. Yeah.
David Hammett 1:16: So when I graduated from the eighth grade. My parents decided that we were going to move out to Montana. So we did. I spent my freshman year of high school in Great Falls, Montana.
Jen Weidner 1:34: That had to be quite the culture shock.
David Hammett 1:36: No, I've been out there before.
Jen Weidner 1:37: Okay.
David Hammett 1:39: My grandparetns lived out there, two sets of aunts and uncles
Jen Weidner 1:42: So you had family out there.
David Hammett 1:43: Older brother.
Jen Weidner 1:43: Okay
David Hammett 1:45: So we spent a year there, and then moved back. Well, I assumed that I would be going to, well I wanted to go to Providence. My dad figured I had eight years of Catholic education that was probably enough. And, and I had an academic, he's I had an academic scholarship and Jeff High School and it wouldn't cost him a nickle. (Laughing)
Jen Weidner 2:10: Of course not.
David Hammett 2:12: So, I had heard all the worst stories about, Jeff High School
Jen Weidner 2:17: The big bad Jeff High. Yeah.
David Hammett 2:20: And having grown up only four blocks from an almost brand new Clarksville High School, I, I really, if I wasn't going to Providence I really wanted to go to Clarksville. But I went to Jeff[ersonville High] and I found that it wasn't anything...
Jen Weidner 2:40: All the rumors were not true.
David Hammett 2:41: No, no, and so that's pretty much how I wound up.
Jen Weidner 2:47: Okay, so what years did you attend there
David Hammett 2:50: Uh Jeff, I was there in the fall of 1960 in my sophomore year through my graduation then in 1963.
Jen Weidner 2:59: Okay, did you marry anybody that went to Jeff High?
David Hammett 3:02: As a matter of fact I did.
Jen Weidner 3:04: And what's her name.
David Hammett 3:05: Her name is Carol, maiden name was Blythe.
Jen Weidner 3:08: Okay.
David Hammett 3:09: And she is a class of 1964. She and I met in Latin class, in my senior year, and her sophomore, uhh, her junior year, and we started dating and, and now some 54 years later,
Jen Weidner 3:30: The rest is history.
David Hammett 3:30: Yeah.
Jen Weidner 3:33: Do you remember how many about how many students you graduated with?
David Hammett 3:37: Well, I looked it up. Just over the weekend, a seating chart for the graduation ceremony. And the way I calculate those at least who were on the chart, there was 220.
Jen Weidner 3:55: Oh, that's a good size class.
David Hammett 3:56: Yeah, I was surprised that it was, I mean it's not nearly...
Jen Weidner 3:59: Not what it is now. I graduated in 1992 and we had over 400. I think I didn't know half my class.
David Hammett 4:06: Yeah. oh Yeah.
Jen Weidner 4:09: Were you in any sports or any clubs or anything?
David Hammett 4:12: I, my sophomore year when we moved back, because I had played football in in Montana, as a ninth grader. I went out for the football team. I didn't last very long. In my junior year I started out again with the intention of playing and hurt myself and, and I said well this is it. Plus I had a part time job by that time and that's.
Jen Weidner 4:46: So you had priorities that were different than sports. Yeah.
David Hammett 4:51: So yeah, and I think I was on Student Council, my sophomore year at the high school. I didn't belong to any of the clubs or organizations along that line. That was really, that's really about it.
Jen Weidner 5:11: Okay. Yeah, you did participate in some.
David Hammett 5:14: Yeah
Jen Weidner 5:15: Activities, yeah. What do you remember about the school itself. Like the classrooms, the teachers, the school grounds?
David Hammett 5:23: Well, I remember coming in to the main building, and the main hallway where the offices and everything. And the hardwood floor, and you can look down a hall and all the years of wear in the flooring there was, there was like a dip, where you just can't fill in
Jen Weidner 5:54: Right.
David Hammett 5:54: Worn out
Jen Weidner 5:55: Especially wood, yeah
David Hammett 5:57: And the same way with, with some of the staircases that you know you, the stair treads were kind of worn down. The other thing was that I was not accustomed to having multiple buildings. That you know everything I had attended before then, that St. Anthony's and out in Great Falls. Everything was all in one building.
Jen Weidner 6:21: Yeah.
David Hammett 6:22: And here you had the commercial building, you had a fine arts building you had the shops.
Jen Weidner 6:29: It's almost like a small college campus.
David Hammett 6:31: Exactly, and then and then you have the little bookstore that that's out there. So, rain, sleet, snow, whatever you, you made the dash between the buildings.
Jen Weidner 6:43: How many, how much time did you have between classes, do you remember?
David Hammett 6:46: I don't really remember it was, depending on whether or not I had an exam, it was not nearly enough.
Jen Weidner 6:53: Right
David Hammett 6:56: If I was out in the hall, trying to negotiate a date with somebody. It was not nearly enough.
Jen Weidner 7:04: Of course not. Of course not.
David Hammett 7:06: But by and large, maybe it was 10 minutes. And it was, it was adequate I think I don't recall ever having been tardy to a class, by, by design.
Jen Weidner 7:24: Right, right. Yeah, things happen. Did you have any favorite subjects?
David Hammett 7:30: I leaned more heavily towards the history, end of it. At one time I thought maybe that I would become a history teacher.
Amanda Kincaid-Prentice 7:45: Okay
David Hammett 7:47: I enjoyed English., I did not enjoy math.
Jen Weidner 7:53: I'm right there with you. So I'm a librarian. (laughing)
David Hammett 7:58: But, but, yeah, beyond that that was a that's the only, and a strange thing is that I look at, I look at some of my old report cards and the courses that I've had taken. And, and I think, you know, I really thought I took more, more things. And it really wasn't as, as many as I thought. And now, if I had to do over again I do a whole lot better. I'm a little more structured now.
Jen Weidner 8:33: Yeah, oh yeah, it changes as you get older. Do you remember any? Like did you have a favorite teacher, or?
David Hammett 8:41: Um, I think, probably Jack Brogan was one of my favorites. He taught economics.
Jen Weidner 8:50: I think his name's been brought up in other interviews.
David Hammett 8:53: And I enjoyed. I enjoyed his class. And I don't well, I had, uhh, (laughing) Bill Johnson for health class. Bill was easy enough to divert off the subject of health and on to basketball.
Jen Weidner 9:19: I was going to say he was the basketball coach and what
David Hammett 9:21: At one time,
Jen Weidner 9:21: Johnson arenas named after. Okay, that Bill Johnson.
David Hammett 9:26: And he had a file cabinet, and he said, Oh well, wait a minute, let me pull out a stack of pictures of 1940 players and, and.
Jen Weidner 9:37: So you all knew how to get him,
David Hammett 9:39: We knew how to work the system.
Jen Weidner 9:40: go and, yes, yes..
David Hammett 9:41: He and uhh, but we called him Boo-Boo (Kenneth) Davis. He taught World History. And he was the same way, I think he was the baseball coach.
Jen Weidner 9:53: Okay.
David Hammett 9:54 And assisted with other sports and so forth but he was easily diverted also. But when you would let him away from probably whatever, world history you weren't enjoying,
Jen Weidner 10:06: Of course, yes, you could just you knew how to get. Yeah,
David Hammett 10:11: But, But other than that, that was that the only one I could say it was a favorite. I don't know that I totally disliked any of them.
Jen Weidner 10:24: So a lot of people have talked about being able to leave campus to go to lunch.
David Hammett 10:29: Yeah, that was, I've never did that. I never ate lunch, for the most part that's what.
Jen Weidner 10:36: Okay.
David Hammett 10:37: That's why I enjoyed the at the bookstore. Mr. Allen used to sell these really great delicious red apples. And I bought one of those and have a have a big ol' apple for lunch, and pocket the difference from the money my dad gave me.
Jen Weidner 10:59: Yeah, he had a little extra spending money.
David Hammett 11:03: But yeah, I never, I never once that I recall ate in the school cafeteria. I never went across the street to the Luncheonette because that was where all of ruffians hung out.
Jen Weidner 11:16: That's what everybody has said.
David Hammett 11:18: Yeah, you know, cut your way through the smoke to get into it. And, and then there was O'Neill's who were on that the other corner. And, and I never went in there because they were always so busy, but. So I just passed lunch and, and, and went about my normal business.
Jen Weidner 11:44: Did you go to any ballgames or dances or any social functions during high school?`
David Hammett 11:51: ‘Course I went to the football games, and I wasn't into basketball, believe it or not at that point in time. And I went to a couple of basketball games. I, they used to have sock hops, in what was called the old gym which was part of what still exists, or will the building portion of it still exists now, as the new Franklin square elementary but it's for the girls, or the girls had phys. Ed. class. The boys had the Fieldhouse.
Jen Weidner 12:37: Okay so you all did not even take gym class together you had segregated.
David Hammett 12:41: Girls used to hate when, when there would be fire alarms, they would have drills and they'd have to grab the side and those little red jumpsuits. My wife still talks about how embarrassing those were. But they wouldn't have sock hops and assemblies in the old gym. From the, I think that sector that one time was Jeff[ersonville] Junior HIgh School.
Jen Weidner 13:06: Okay.
David Hammett 13:07: And, but we would have, we would have sock hops there. I went to a couple of those, I really. But by that time I was a junior in high school and I had a part time job after school, Working for the greenhouse at Walnut Ridge. And I worked until like 10 o'clock at night, and I had a car. I didn't need, I mean I needed the money.
Jen Weidner 13:40: Right.
David Hammett 13:41: More than I needed the social life. So, no. I didn't really go to the dances.
Jen Weidner 13:46: Did you ever go to the dances that we're at Ewing Lane?
David Hammett: No, no never did that.
Jen Weidner: Okay. So you said you had a car. You did have car.
David Hammett 13:56: I guess that's what we called it that. Yeah.
Jen Weidner 14:01: Is there anything else you want to talk about high school? About anything that you think is interesting that you did or happen.
David Hammett 14:08: Well, you know, the only thing I can remember. Carolyn should talk about this. She knows more about it than I do but apparently there was a rule that girls were not allowed to wear pants.
Jen Weidner 14:21: Oh my mom has talked about that all the time,
David Hammett 14:24: In the winter time they could wear them to school, underneath a skirt or dress. But as soon as they were at school. They had to remove them. And I just, I just can't get over that. The other thing is that our principal that I had for the first couple of years was a man by the name of Cecil Erwin, and Cecil was, he had a saying, and I remember to this day to “Be Where You Have To Be When You Ought To Be Whether You Want To Be Or Not”.
Jen Weidner 15:05: Somebody else has said that exact same thing in their interview Yes. Was he the one that did cartwheels?
David Hammett 15:12: I don't know. Could be, I don't know. I do know that he, he must he must have lived somewhere out near where I did there on Hamburg Pike, because he would walk to school. Almost every day. Less I guess, unless weather was ...
Jen Weidner 15:29: That's quite the hike.
David Hammett 15:30: Well it was
Jen Weidner 15:31: To downtown. Yeah.
David Hammett 15:32: You know he was a spitfire. You’ve probably seen...
Jen Weidner 15:36: I've seen pictures Yeah.
David Hammett 15:38: You know, and a well-kept man. But that, his saying and he was, he was an authoritarian but he was not overly so. And of course his muscle man was Claude Musselman (laughing) and Claude was the one who dished out punishment.
Jen Weidner 16:20: Was he the Dean of boys?
David Hammett 16:22: Well, I think he was assistant principal.
Jen Weidner 16:24: Okay.
David Hammett 16:25: Yeah. And I never, I never had the opportunity to enjoy his company.
Jen Weidner 16:33: I guess that's good.
David Hammett 16:35: Absolutely! Because if I had enjoyed his company there. I would have enjoyed my dad's company at home. That is one of the old you know..
Jen Weidner 16:42: Yes.
David Hammett 16:43: But that's really about the only thing, you know. I'm, I'm kind of a nostalgic. It broke my heart, when I watched them tear down the school. You know it broke my heart when they closed the Le Rose Theatre.
Jen Weidner 17:07: Right
David Hammett 17:07: Broke my heart yeah, all those kind of things.
Jen Weidner 17:10: When you see all of your childhood going away. Yeah.
David Hammett 17:13: Yeah, And, and I have on occasion now gone to events at New Albany High School, and they still have the old New Albany High School, but it's been modernized and updated.
Jen Weidner 17:34: Yeah.
David Hammett 17:35: And I think boy, I only wish Jeff could have done that, and kept that, building. It wasn't pretty, and there were areas of it that was condemned.
Jen Weidner 17:50: Oh yes of course, yeah.
David Hammett 17:52: The crow's nest, which is, which is where Mr. Davis had his world history class. It was up there with just a little. It wasn't a room any larger than this one here, you know, 10 by 15.
Jen Weidner 18:03: Oh wow, that's a tiny classroom,
David Hammett 18:05: it was I mean we, if there'd been a fire drill.
Jen Weidner 18:09: You'd be in trouble
David Hammett 18:11: Exactly. But, but it was. I enjoyed the school. There was, here was some comfort to it. Like anything, you know, when I was in the Navy I was on board a ship. Which is here again, like it no longer exists. It's been scrapped for metal and you know as much as I did as much as I was looking forward to getting out of the Navy there were times when I would come back to that ship at night and I'd look at it and see it and I say that's home.
Jen Weidner 18:51: I mean it's what we get used to.
David Hammett 18:53: And that is sort of the way the high school was and I mean that. And of course, the other thing I do remember is that first it had no air conditioning
Jen Weidner 19:05: Right.
David Hammett 19:05: So in the spring of the year and, and in warmer weather the windows would be thrown open and I can still remember the smell of the grass cutting because it would be the first cutting.
Jen Weidner 19:08: Oh yeah, that first spring cut, yeah.
David Hammett 19:24: And that come wafting through the window, and parking was just horrendous.
Jen Weidner 19:33: Everyone said there was no parking , and you just had to risk it and park on the street somewhere.
David Hammett 19:39: Yep, Exactly. Course the other thing was, the joke always was that if you wanted to have a fight hold it across the street on the Courthouse lawn, because all the police were out somewhere else.
Jen Weidner 19:58: (laughing) Right, right!
David Hammett 20:00: And there were a number of them, you know. There was always, you know, here again. I figure let them go.
Jen Weidner 20:09: Right, I mean it's just part of it I guess.
David Hammett 20:12: I don't have a dog in that fight.
Jen Weidner 20:13: You were like I'm not getting into that
David Hammett 20:14: Exactly.
Jen Weidner 20:16: So, what did you end up doing after high school? You said you were in the Navy.
David Hammett 20:20: When I graduated a year later, course I had, I joined the Navy around the end of December, 1962.
Jen Weidner 20:37: Ok, so right before you graduated.
David Hammett 20:39: Right, as a result of the Cuban Missle Crisis.
Jen Weidner 20:44: Ok.
David Hammett 20:4: I got highly patriotic or whatever and I joined the reserve and they deferred my active duty for a period of a year. So I didn't really go on active duty until February of 1964 and uh, so I was on active duty for two years and when I got out, uh, in June of that year 1966, uh, Carol and I got married. I went to IUS [Indiana University Southeast] downtown Jeffersonville and, uhh. That's about the extent of that.
Jen Weidner 21:32: So what did you end up doing after you got your degree?
David Hammett 21:35: Well, uhh, I worked in a number of different jobs, and I had my own business for a long time. I was in material, I was in sales, primarily. I was in industrial sales. I spent probably about 12-15 years in fire protection. Then I went into material handling for the rest of the time and all of it was here in this area. We've lived in Jeffersonville. Carol and I, until we got rid of our landline a couple of years ago we had the same telephone number from June of 1966 til then.
Jen Weidner 21:42: My mom still has her same phone number from 55 years ago.
David Hammett 22:34: You know we are just kind of hanger-ons.
Jen Weidner 22:37: Yeah, I think a lot of people, they came here they were born and raised here or they found their way here and they just stayed. My parents were born and raised here, their parents so on and so forth, and we have deep roots here. It's home.
David Hammett 22:49: That's it, I see no reason to change that now in my advanced age (laughing).
Jen Weidner 22:57: Do you have anything else you would like to add?
David Hammett 22:59: No I think that pretty much would cover it, I can't think of anything we haven't touched on.
Jen Weidner 21:42: Thanks for coming out today I really appreciate it.
1950 through 1970 oral history project
Interview with David Hammett, 1960-1963
Jen Weidner 0:06: Today is October 21, 2020. This is Jen Weidner the Jeffersonville Township Public Library. I'm conducting interviews for Remember Those Days Jeffersonville High School in 1950 through 1970 oral history project with a grant from the Indiana Genealogical Society. I'm here today with David Hammett. David who your parents?
David Hammett 0:27: My parents were Ed and Geneva Hammett
Jen Weidner 0:32: And what was your mother's maiden name?
David Hammett 0:34: McNutt
Jen Weidner 0:35: Okay, and where did you live while you were going to high school?
David Hammett 0:40: When I was going to high school at Jeff[ersonville High School] I lived out near where Walnut Ridge [Garden Center] is on Hamburg pike.
Jen Weidner 0:49: Okay, and you told me earlier that you didn't start out at Jeff High. How did you end up there?
David Hammett 0:57: I actually grew up, I went, eight years of grade school at St. Anthony's in Clarksville, I grew up in Clarksville in old Clarksville.
Jen Weidner 1:09: Okay
David Hammett 1:10: Probably about four blocks away from Clarksville High School.
Jen Weidner 1:14: Oh okay so right in that area. Yeah.
David Hammett 1:16: So when I graduated from the eighth grade. My parents decided that we were going to move out to Montana. So we did. I spent my freshman year of high school in Great Falls, Montana.
Jen Weidner 1:34: That had to be quite the culture shock.
David Hammett 1:36: No, I've been out there before.
Jen Weidner 1:37: Okay.
David Hammett 1:39: My grandparetns lived out there, two sets of aunts and uncles
Jen Weidner 1:42: So you had family out there.
David Hammett 1:43: Older brother.
Jen Weidner 1:43: Okay
David Hammett 1:45: So we spent a year there, and then moved back. Well, I assumed that I would be going to, well I wanted to go to Providence. My dad figured I had eight years of Catholic education that was probably enough. And, and I had an academic, he's I had an academic scholarship and Jeff High School and it wouldn't cost him a nickle. (Laughing)
Jen Weidner 2:10: Of course not.
David Hammett 2:12: So, I had heard all the worst stories about, Jeff High School
Jen Weidner 2:17: The big bad Jeff High. Yeah.
David Hammett 2:20: And having grown up only four blocks from an almost brand new Clarksville High School, I, I really, if I wasn't going to Providence I really wanted to go to Clarksville. But I went to Jeff[ersonville High] and I found that it wasn't anything...
Jen Weidner 2:40: All the rumors were not true.
David Hammett 2:41: No, no, and so that's pretty much how I wound up.
Jen Weidner 2:47: Okay, so what years did you attend there
David Hammett 2:50: Uh Jeff, I was there in the fall of 1960 in my sophomore year through my graduation then in 1963.
Jen Weidner 2:59: Okay, did you marry anybody that went to Jeff High?
David Hammett 3:02: As a matter of fact I did.
Jen Weidner 3:04: And what's her name.
David Hammett 3:05: Her name is Carol, maiden name was Blythe.
Jen Weidner 3:08: Okay.
David Hammett 3:09: And she is a class of 1964. She and I met in Latin class, in my senior year, and her sophomore, uhh, her junior year, and we started dating and, and now some 54 years later,
Jen Weidner 3:30: The rest is history.
David Hammett 3:30: Yeah.
Jen Weidner 3:33: Do you remember how many about how many students you graduated with?
David Hammett 3:37: Well, I looked it up. Just over the weekend, a seating chart for the graduation ceremony. And the way I calculate those at least who were on the chart, there was 220.
Jen Weidner 3:55: Oh, that's a good size class.
David Hammett 3:56: Yeah, I was surprised that it was, I mean it's not nearly...
Jen Weidner 3:59: Not what it is now. I graduated in 1992 and we had over 400. I think I didn't know half my class.
David Hammett 4:06: Yeah. oh Yeah.
Jen Weidner 4:09: Were you in any sports or any clubs or anything?
David Hammett 4:12: I, my sophomore year when we moved back, because I had played football in in Montana, as a ninth grader. I went out for the football team. I didn't last very long. In my junior year I started out again with the intention of playing and hurt myself and, and I said well this is it. Plus I had a part time job by that time and that's.
Jen Weidner 4:46: So you had priorities that were different than sports. Yeah.
David Hammett 4:51: So yeah, and I think I was on Student Council, my sophomore year at the high school. I didn't belong to any of the clubs or organizations along that line. That was really, that's really about it.
Jen Weidner 5:11: Okay. Yeah, you did participate in some.
David Hammett 5:14: Yeah
Jen Weidner 5:15: Activities, yeah. What do you remember about the school itself. Like the classrooms, the teachers, the school grounds?
David Hammett 5:23: Well, I remember coming in to the main building, and the main hallway where the offices and everything. And the hardwood floor, and you can look down a hall and all the years of wear in the flooring there was, there was like a dip, where you just can't fill in
Jen Weidner 5:54: Right.
David Hammett 5:54: Worn out
Jen Weidner 5:55: Especially wood, yeah
David Hammett 5:57: And the same way with, with some of the staircases that you know you, the stair treads were kind of worn down. The other thing was that I was not accustomed to having multiple buildings. That you know everything I had attended before then, that St. Anthony's and out in Great Falls. Everything was all in one building.
Jen Weidner 6:21: Yeah.
David Hammett 6:22: And here you had the commercial building, you had a fine arts building you had the shops.
Jen Weidner 6:29: It's almost like a small college campus.
David Hammett 6:31: Exactly, and then and then you have the little bookstore that that's out there. So, rain, sleet, snow, whatever you, you made the dash between the buildings.
Jen Weidner 6:43: How many, how much time did you have between classes, do you remember?
David Hammett 6:46: I don't really remember it was, depending on whether or not I had an exam, it was not nearly enough.
Jen Weidner 6:53: Right
David Hammett 6:56: If I was out in the hall, trying to negotiate a date with somebody. It was not nearly enough.
Jen Weidner 7:04: Of course not. Of course not.
David Hammett 7:06: But by and large, maybe it was 10 minutes. And it was, it was adequate I think I don't recall ever having been tardy to a class, by, by design.
Jen Weidner 7:24: Right, right. Yeah, things happen. Did you have any favorite subjects?
David Hammett 7:30: I leaned more heavily towards the history, end of it. At one time I thought maybe that I would become a history teacher.
Amanda Kincaid-Prentice 7:45: Okay
David Hammett 7:47: I enjoyed English., I did not enjoy math.
Jen Weidner 7:53: I'm right there with you. So I'm a librarian. (laughing)
David Hammett 7:58: But, but, yeah, beyond that that was a that's the only, and a strange thing is that I look at, I look at some of my old report cards and the courses that I've had taken. And, and I think, you know, I really thought I took more, more things. And it really wasn't as, as many as I thought. And now, if I had to do over again I do a whole lot better. I'm a little more structured now.
Jen Weidner 8:33: Yeah, oh yeah, it changes as you get older. Do you remember any? Like did you have a favorite teacher, or?
David Hammett 8:41: Um, I think, probably Jack Brogan was one of my favorites. He taught economics.
Jen Weidner 8:50: I think his name's been brought up in other interviews.
David Hammett 8:53: And I enjoyed. I enjoyed his class. And I don't well, I had, uhh, (laughing) Bill Johnson for health class. Bill was easy enough to divert off the subject of health and on to basketball.
Jen Weidner 9:19: I was going to say he was the basketball coach and what
David Hammett 9:21: At one time,
Jen Weidner 9:21: Johnson arenas named after. Okay, that Bill Johnson.
David Hammett 9:26: And he had a file cabinet, and he said, Oh well, wait a minute, let me pull out a stack of pictures of 1940 players and, and.
Jen Weidner 9:37: So you all knew how to get him,
David Hammett 9:39: We knew how to work the system.
Jen Weidner 9:40: go and, yes, yes..
David Hammett 9:41: He and uhh, but we called him Boo-Boo (Kenneth) Davis. He taught World History. And he was the same way, I think he was the baseball coach.
Jen Weidner 9:53: Okay.
David Hammett 9:54 And assisted with other sports and so forth but he was easily diverted also. But when you would let him away from probably whatever, world history you weren't enjoying,
Jen Weidner 10:06: Of course, yes, you could just you knew how to get. Yeah,
David Hammett 10:11: But, But other than that, that was that the only one I could say it was a favorite. I don't know that I totally disliked any of them.
Jen Weidner 10:24: So a lot of people have talked about being able to leave campus to go to lunch.
David Hammett 10:29: Yeah, that was, I've never did that. I never ate lunch, for the most part that's what.
Jen Weidner 10:36: Okay.
David Hammett 10:37: That's why I enjoyed the at the bookstore. Mr. Allen used to sell these really great delicious red apples. And I bought one of those and have a have a big ol' apple for lunch, and pocket the difference from the money my dad gave me.
Jen Weidner 10:59: Yeah, he had a little extra spending money.
David Hammett 11:03: But yeah, I never, I never once that I recall ate in the school cafeteria. I never went across the street to the Luncheonette because that was where all of ruffians hung out.
Jen Weidner 11:16: That's what everybody has said.
David Hammett 11:18: Yeah, you know, cut your way through the smoke to get into it. And, and then there was O'Neill's who were on that the other corner. And, and I never went in there because they were always so busy, but. So I just passed lunch and, and, and went about my normal business.
Jen Weidner 11:44: Did you go to any ballgames or dances or any social functions during high school?`
David Hammett 11:51: ‘Course I went to the football games, and I wasn't into basketball, believe it or not at that point in time. And I went to a couple of basketball games. I, they used to have sock hops, in what was called the old gym which was part of what still exists, or will the building portion of it still exists now, as the new Franklin square elementary but it's for the girls, or the girls had phys. Ed. class. The boys had the Fieldhouse.
Jen Weidner 12:37: Okay so you all did not even take gym class together you had segregated.
David Hammett 12:41: Girls used to hate when, when there would be fire alarms, they would have drills and they'd have to grab the side and those little red jumpsuits. My wife still talks about how embarrassing those were. But they wouldn't have sock hops and assemblies in the old gym. From the, I think that sector that one time was Jeff[ersonville] Junior HIgh School.
Jen Weidner 13:06: Okay.
David Hammett 13:07: And, but we would have, we would have sock hops there. I went to a couple of those, I really. But by that time I was a junior in high school and I had a part time job after school, Working for the greenhouse at Walnut Ridge. And I worked until like 10 o'clock at night, and I had a car. I didn't need, I mean I needed the money.
Jen Weidner 13:40: Right.
David Hammett 13:41: More than I needed the social life. So, no. I didn't really go to the dances.
Jen Weidner 13:46: Did you ever go to the dances that we're at Ewing Lane?
David Hammett: No, no never did that.
Jen Weidner: Okay. So you said you had a car. You did have car.
David Hammett 13:56: I guess that's what we called it that. Yeah.
Jen Weidner 14:01: Is there anything else you want to talk about high school? About anything that you think is interesting that you did or happen.
David Hammett 14:08: Well, you know, the only thing I can remember. Carolyn should talk about this. She knows more about it than I do but apparently there was a rule that girls were not allowed to wear pants.
Jen Weidner 14:21: Oh my mom has talked about that all the time,
David Hammett 14:24: In the winter time they could wear them to school, underneath a skirt or dress. But as soon as they were at school. They had to remove them. And I just, I just can't get over that. The other thing is that our principal that I had for the first couple of years was a man by the name of Cecil Erwin, and Cecil was, he had a saying, and I remember to this day to “Be Where You Have To Be When You Ought To Be Whether You Want To Be Or Not”.
Jen Weidner 15:05: Somebody else has said that exact same thing in their interview Yes. Was he the one that did cartwheels?
David Hammett 15:12: I don't know. Could be, I don't know. I do know that he, he must he must have lived somewhere out near where I did there on Hamburg Pike, because he would walk to school. Almost every day. Less I guess, unless weather was ...
Jen Weidner 15:29: That's quite the hike.
David Hammett 15:30: Well it was
Jen Weidner 15:31: To downtown. Yeah.
David Hammett 15:32: You know he was a spitfire. You’ve probably seen...
Jen Weidner 15:36: I've seen pictures Yeah.
David Hammett 15:38: You know, and a well-kept man. But that, his saying and he was, he was an authoritarian but he was not overly so. And of course his muscle man was Claude Musselman (laughing) and Claude was the one who dished out punishment.
Jen Weidner 16:20: Was he the Dean of boys?
David Hammett 16:22: Well, I think he was assistant principal.
Jen Weidner 16:24: Okay.
David Hammett 16:25: Yeah. And I never, I never had the opportunity to enjoy his company.
Jen Weidner 16:33: I guess that's good.
David Hammett 16:35: Absolutely! Because if I had enjoyed his company there. I would have enjoyed my dad's company at home. That is one of the old you know..
Jen Weidner 16:42: Yes.
David Hammett 16:43: But that's really about the only thing, you know. I'm, I'm kind of a nostalgic. It broke my heart, when I watched them tear down the school. You know it broke my heart when they closed the Le Rose Theatre.
Jen Weidner 17:07: Right
David Hammett 17:07: Broke my heart yeah, all those kind of things.
Jen Weidner 17:10: When you see all of your childhood going away. Yeah.
David Hammett 17:13: Yeah, And, and I have on occasion now gone to events at New Albany High School, and they still have the old New Albany High School, but it's been modernized and updated.
Jen Weidner 17:34: Yeah.
David Hammett 17:35: And I think boy, I only wish Jeff could have done that, and kept that, building. It wasn't pretty, and there were areas of it that was condemned.
Jen Weidner 17:50: Oh yes of course, yeah.
David Hammett 17:52: The crow's nest, which is, which is where Mr. Davis had his world history class. It was up there with just a little. It wasn't a room any larger than this one here, you know, 10 by 15.
Jen Weidner 18:03: Oh wow, that's a tiny classroom,
David Hammett 18:05: it was I mean we, if there'd been a fire drill.
Jen Weidner 18:09: You'd be in trouble
David Hammett 18:11: Exactly. But, but it was. I enjoyed the school. There was, here was some comfort to it. Like anything, you know, when I was in the Navy I was on board a ship. Which is here again, like it no longer exists. It's been scrapped for metal and you know as much as I did as much as I was looking forward to getting out of the Navy there were times when I would come back to that ship at night and I'd look at it and see it and I say that's home.
Jen Weidner 18:51: I mean it's what we get used to.
David Hammett 18:53: And that is sort of the way the high school was and I mean that. And of course, the other thing I do remember is that first it had no air conditioning
Jen Weidner 19:05: Right.
David Hammett 19:05: So in the spring of the year and, and in warmer weather the windows would be thrown open and I can still remember the smell of the grass cutting because it would be the first cutting.
Jen Weidner 19:08: Oh yeah, that first spring cut, yeah.
David Hammett 19:24: And that come wafting through the window, and parking was just horrendous.
Jen Weidner 19:33: Everyone said there was no parking , and you just had to risk it and park on the street somewhere.
David Hammett 19:39: Yep, Exactly. Course the other thing was, the joke always was that if you wanted to have a fight hold it across the street on the Courthouse lawn, because all the police were out somewhere else.
Jen Weidner 19:58: (laughing) Right, right!
David Hammett 20:00: And there were a number of them, you know. There was always, you know, here again. I figure let them go.
Jen Weidner 20:09: Right, I mean it's just part of it I guess.
David Hammett 20:12: I don't have a dog in that fight.
Jen Weidner 20:13: You were like I'm not getting into that
David Hammett 20:14: Exactly.
Jen Weidner 20:16: So, what did you end up doing after high school? You said you were in the Navy.
David Hammett 20:20: When I graduated a year later, course I had, I joined the Navy around the end of December, 1962.
Jen Weidner 20:37: Ok, so right before you graduated.
David Hammett 20:39: Right, as a result of the Cuban Missle Crisis.
Jen Weidner 20:44: Ok.
David Hammett 20:4: I got highly patriotic or whatever and I joined the reserve and they deferred my active duty for a period of a year. So I didn't really go on active duty until February of 1964 and uh, so I was on active duty for two years and when I got out, uh, in June of that year 1966, uh, Carol and I got married. I went to IUS [Indiana University Southeast] downtown Jeffersonville and, uhh. That's about the extent of that.
Jen Weidner 21:32: So what did you end up doing after you got your degree?
David Hammett 21:35: Well, uhh, I worked in a number of different jobs, and I had my own business for a long time. I was in material, I was in sales, primarily. I was in industrial sales. I spent probably about 12-15 years in fire protection. Then I went into material handling for the rest of the time and all of it was here in this area. We've lived in Jeffersonville. Carol and I, until we got rid of our landline a couple of years ago we had the same telephone number from June of 1966 til then.
Jen Weidner 21:42: My mom still has her same phone number from 55 years ago.
David Hammett 22:34: You know we are just kind of hanger-ons.
Jen Weidner 22:37: Yeah, I think a lot of people, they came here they were born and raised here or they found their way here and they just stayed. My parents were born and raised here, their parents so on and so forth, and we have deep roots here. It's home.
David Hammett 22:49: That's it, I see no reason to change that now in my advanced age (laughing).
Jen Weidner 22:57: Do you have anything else you would like to add?
David Hammett 22:59: No I think that pretty much would cover it, I can't think of anything we haven't touched on.
Jen Weidner 21:42: Thanks for coming out today I really appreciate it.
Description
Remember Those Days Jeffersonville High School
1950 through 1970 oral history project
Interview with David Hammett, 1960-1963
<article class="transcript">
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner <time>0:06</time></span>: Today is October 21, 2020. This is Jen Weidner the Jeffersonville Township Public Library. I'm conducting interviews for Remember Those Days Jeffersonville High School in 1950 through 1970 oral history project with a grant from the Indiana Genealogical Society. I'm here today with David Hammett. David who your parents?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett <time>0:27</time></span>: My parents were Ed and Geneva Hammett
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 0:32</span> And what was your mother's maiden name?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 0:34:</span> McNutt
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 0:35:</span> Okay, and where did you live while you were going to high school?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 0:40:</span> When I was going to high school at Jeff[ersonville High School] I lived out near where Walnut Ridge [Garden Center] is on Hamburg pike.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 0:49:</span> Okay, and you told me earlier that you didn't start out at Jeff High. How did you end up there?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 0:57:</span> I actually grew up, I went, eight years of grade school at St. Anthony's in Clarksville, I grew up in Clarksville in old Clarksville.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:09:</span> Okay
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:10:</span> Probably about four blocks away from Clarksville High School.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:14:</span> Oh okay so right in that area. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:16:</span> So when I graduated from the eighth grade. My parents decided that we were going to move out to Montana. So we did. I spent my freshman year of high school in Great Falls, Montana.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:34:</span> That had to be quite the culture shock.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:36:</span> No, I've been out there before.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:37:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:39:</span> My grandparents lived out there, two sets of aunts and uncles
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:42:</span> So you had family out there.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:43:</span> Older brother.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:43:</span> Okay
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:45:</span> So we spent a year there, and then moved back. Well, I assumed that I would be going to, well I wanted to go to Providence. My dad figured I had eight years of Catholic education that was probably enough. And, and I had an academic, he's I had an academic scholarship and Jeff High School and it wouldn't cost him a nickle. (Laughing)
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:10:</span> Of course not.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 2:12:</span> So, I had heard all the worst stories about, Jeff High School
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:17:</span> The big bad Jeff High. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 2:20:</span> And having grown up only four blocks from an almost brand new Clarksville High School, I, I really, if I wasn't going to Providence I really wanted to go to Clarksville. But I went to Jeff[ersonville High] and I found that it wasn't anything...
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:40:</span> All the rumors were not true.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 2:41:</span> No, no, and so that's pretty much how I wound up.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:47:</span> Okay, so what years did you attend there
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 2:50:</span> Uh Jeff, I was there in the fall of 1960 in my sophomore year through my graduation then in 1963.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:59:</span> Okay, did you marry anybody that went to Jeff High?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:02:</span> As a matter of fact I did.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:04:</span> And what's her name.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:05:</span> Her name is Carol, maiden name was Blythe.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:08:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:09:</span> And she is a class of 1964. She and I met in Latin class, in my senior year, and her sophomore, uhh, her junior year, and we started dating and, and now some 54 years later,
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:30:</span> The rest is history.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:30:</span> Yeah.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:33:</span> Do you remember how many about how many students you graduated with?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:37:</span> Well, I looked it up. Just over the weekend, a seating chart for the graduation ceremony. And the way I calculate those at least who were on the chart, there was 220.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:55:</span> Oh, that's a good size class.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:56:</span> Yeah, I was surprised that it was, I mean it's not nearly...
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:59:</span> Not what it is now. I graduated in 1992 and we had over 400. I think I didn't know half my class.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 4:06:</span> Yeah. oh Yeah.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 4:09:</span> Were you in any sports or any clubs or anything?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 4:12:</span> I, my sophomore year when we moved back, because I had played football in in Montana, as a ninth grader. I went out for the football team. I didn't last very long. In my junior year I started out again with the intention of playing and hurt myself and, and I said well this is it. Plus I had a part time job by that time and that's.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 4:46:</span> So you had priorities that were different than sports. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 4:51:</span> So yeah, and I think I was on Student Council, my sophomore year at the high school. I didn't belong to any of the clubs or organizations along that line. That was really, that's really about it.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 5:11:</span> Okay. Yeah, you did participate in some.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 5:14:</span> Yeah
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 5:15:</span> Activities, yeah. What do you remember about the school itself. Like the classrooms, the teachers, the school grounds?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 5:23:</span> Well, I remember coming in to the main building, and the main hallway where the offices and everything. And the hardwood floor, and you can look down a hall and all the years of wear in the flooring there was, there was like a dip, where you just can't fill in
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 5:54:</span> Right.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 5:54:</span> Worn out
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 5:55:</span> Especially wood, yeah
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 5:57:</span> And the same way with, with some of the staircases that you know you, the stair treads were kind of worn down. The other thing was that I was not accustomed to having multiple buildings. That you know everything I had attended before then, that St. Anthony's and out in Great Falls. Everything was all in one building.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 6:21:</span> Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 6:22:</span> And here you had the commercial building, you had a fine arts building you had the shops.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 6:29:</span> It's almost like a small college campus.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 6:31:</span> Exactly, and then and then you have the little bookstore that that's out there. So, rain, sleet, snow, whatever you, you made the dash between the buildings.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 6:43:</span> How many, how much time did you have between classes, do you remember?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 6:46:</span> I don't really remember it was, depending on whether or not I had an exam, it was not nearly enough.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 6:53:</span> Right
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 6:56:</span> If I was out in the hall, trying to negotiate a date with somebody. It was not nearly enough.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 7:04:</span> Of course not. Of course not.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 7:06:</span> But by and large, maybe it was 10 minutes. And it was, it was adequate I think I don't recall ever having been tardy to a class, by, by design.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 7:24:</span> Right, right. Yeah, things happen. Did you have any favorite subjects?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 7:30:</span> I leaned more heavily towards the history, end of it. At one time I thought maybe that I would become a history teacher.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weider 7:45:</span> Okay
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 7:47:</span> I enjoyed English, I did not enjoy math.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 7:53:</span> I'm right there with you. So I'm a librarian. (laughing)
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 7:58:</span> But, but, yeah, beyond that that was a that's the only, and a strange thing is that I look at, I look at some of my old report cards and the courses that I've had taken. And, and I think, you know, I really thought I took more, more things. And it really wasn't as, as many as I thought. And now, if I had to do over again I do a whole lot better. I'm a little more structured now.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 8:33:</span> Yeah, oh yeah, it changes as you get older. Do you remember any? Like did you have a favorite teacher, or?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 8:41:</span> Um, I think, probably Jack Brogan was one of my favorites. He taught economics.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 8:50:</span> I think his name's been brought up in other interviews.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 8:53:</span> And I enjoyed. I enjoyed his class. And I don't well, I had, uhh, (laughing) Bill Johnson for health class. Bill was easy enough to divert off the subject of health and on to basketball.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:19:</span> I was going to say he was the basketball coach and what
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:21:</span> At one time,
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:21:</span> Johnson arenas named after. Okay, that Bill Johnson.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:26:</span> And he had a file cabinet, and he said, Oh well, wait a minute, let me pull out a stack of pictures of 1940 players and, and.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:37:</span> So you all knew how to get him,
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:39:</span> We knew how to work the system.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:40:</span> go and, yes, yes..
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:41:</span> He and uhh, but we called him Boo-Boo (Kenneth) Davis. He taught World History. And he was the same way, I think he was the baseball coach.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:53:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:54:</span> And assisted with other sports and so forth but he was easily diverted also. But when you would let him away from probably whatever, world history you weren't enjoying,
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 10:06:</span> Of course, yes, you could just you knew how to get. Yeah,
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 10:11:</span> But, But other than that, that was that the only one I could say it was a favorite. I don't know that I totally disliked any of them.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 10:24:</span> So a lot of people have talked about being able to leave campus to go to lunch.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 10:29:</span> Yeah, that was, I've never did that. I never ate lunch, for the most part that's what.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 10:36:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 10:37:</span> That's why I enjoyed the at the bookstore. Mr. Allen used to sell these really great delicious red apples. And I bought one of those and have a have a big ol' apple for lunch, and pocket the difference from the money my dad gave me.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 10:59:</span> Yeah, he had a little extra spending money.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 11:03:</span> But yeah, I never, I never once that I recall ate in the school cafeteria. I never went across the street to the Luncheonette because that was where all of ruffians hung out.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 11:16:</span> That's what everybody has said.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 11:18:</span> Yeah, you know, cut your way through the smoke to get into it. And, and then there was O'Neill's who were on that the other corner. And, and I never went in there because they were always so busy, but. So I just passed lunch and, and, and went about my normal business.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 11:44:</span> Did you go to any ballgames or dances or any social functions during high school?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 11:51:</span> ‘Course I went to the football games, and I wasn't into basketball, believe it or not at that point in time. And I went to a couple of basketball games. I, they used to have sock hops, in what was called the old gym which was part of what still exists, or will the building portion of it still exists now, as the new Franklin square elementary but it's for the girls, or the girls had phys. Ed. class. The boys had the Fieldhouse.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 12:37:</span> Okay so you all did not even take gym class together you had segregated.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 12:41:</span> Girls used to hate when, when there would be fire alarms, they would have drills and they'd have to grab the side and those little red jumpsuits. My wife still talks about how embarrassing those were. But they wouldn't have sock hops and assemblies in the old gym. From the, I think that sector that one time was Jeff[ersonville] Junior HIgh School.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 13:06:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 13:07:</span> And, but we would have, we would have sock hops there. I went to a couple of those, I really. But by that time I was a junior in high school and I had a part time job after school, Working for the greenhouse at Walnut Ridge. And I worked until like 10 o'clock at night, and I had a car. I didn't need, I mean I needed the money.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 13:40:</span> Right.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 13:41:</span> More than I needed the social life. So, no. I didn't really go to the dances.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 13:46:</span> Did you ever go to the dances that were at Ewing Lane?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett:</span> No, no never did that.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner:</span> Okay. So you said you had a car. You did have car.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 13:56:</span> I guess that's what we called it that. Yeah.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 14:01:</span> Is there anything else you want to talk about high school? About anything that you think is interesting that you did or happen.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 14:08:</span> Well, you know, the only thing I can remember. Carolyn should talk about this. She knows more about it than I do but apparently there was a rule that girls were not allowed to wear pants.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 14:21:</span> Oh my mom has talked about that all the time,
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 14:24:</span> In the winter time they could wear them to school, underneath a skirt or dress. But as soon as they were at school. They had to remove them. And I just, I just can't get over that. The other thing is that our principal that I had for the first couple of years was a man by the name of Cecil Erwin, and Cecil was, he had a saying, and I remember to this day to “Be Where You Have To Be When You Ought To Be Whether You Want To Be Or Not”.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 15:05:</span> Somebody else has said that exact same thing in their interview Yes. Was he the one that did cartwheels?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 15:12:</span> I don't know. Could be, I don't know. I do know that he, he must he must have lived somewhere out near where I did there on Hamburg Pike, because he would walk to school. Almost every day. Less I guess, unless weather was ...
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 15:29:</span> That's quite the hike.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 15:30:</span> Well it was
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 15:31:</span> To downtown. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 15:32:</span> You know he was a spitfire. You’ve probably seen...
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 15:36:</span> I've seen pictures Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 15:38:</span> You know, and a well-kept man. But that, his saying and he was, he was an authoritarian but he was not overly so. And of course his muscle man was Claude Musselman (laughing) and Claude was the one who dished out punishment.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 16:20:</span> Was he the Dean of boys?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 16:22:</span> Well, I think he was assistant principal.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 16:24:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 16:25:</span> Yeah. And I never, I never had the opportunity to enjoy his company.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 16:33:</span> I guess that's good.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 16:35:</span> Absolutely! Because if I had enjoyed his company there. I would have enjoyed my dad's company at home. That is one of the old you know..
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 16:42:</span> Yes.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 16:43:</span> But that's really about the only thing, you know. I'm, I'm kind of a nostalgic. It broke my heart, when I watched them tear down the school. You know it broke my heart when they closed the Le Rose Theatre.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 17:07:</span> Right
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 17:07:</span> Broke my heart yeah, all those kind of things.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 17:10:</span> When you see all of your childhood going away. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 17:13:</span> Yeah, And, and I have on occasion now gone to events at New Albany High School, and they still have the old New Albany High School, but it's been modernized and updated.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 17:34:</span> Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 17:35:</span> And I think boy, I only wish Jeff could have done that, and kept that, building. It wasn't pretty, and there were areas of it that was condemned.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 17:50:</span> Oh yes of course, yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 17:52:</span> The crow's nest, which is, which is where Mr. Davis had his world history class. It was up there with just a little. It wasn't a room any larger than this one here, you know, 10 by 15.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 18:03:</span> Oh wow, that's a tiny classroom,
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 18:05:</span> it was I mean we, if there'd been a fire drill.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 18:09:</span> You'd be in trouble
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 18:11:</span> Exactly. But, but it was. I enjoyed the school. There was, here was some comfort to it. Like anything, you know, when I was in the Navy I was on board a ship. Which is here again, like it no longer exists. It's been scrapped for metal and you know as much as I did as much as I was looking forward to getting out of the Navy there were times when I would come back to that ship at night and I'd look at it and see it and I say that's home.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 18:51:</span> I mean it's what we get used to.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 18:53:</span> And that is sort of the way the high school was and I mean that. And of course, the other thing I do remember is that first it had no air conditioning
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 19:05:</span> Right.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 19:05:</span> So in the spring of the year and, and in warmer weather the windows would be thrown open and I can still remember the smell of the grass cutting because it would be the first cutting.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 19:08:</span> Oh yeah, that first spring cut, yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 19:24:</span> And that come wafting through the window, and parking was just horrendous.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 19:33:</span> Everyone said there was no parking, and you just had to risk it and park on the street somewhere.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 19:39:</span> Yep, Exactly. Course the other thing was, the joke always was that if you wanted to have a fight hold it across the street on the Courthouse lawn, because all the police were out somewhere else.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 19:58:</span> (laughing) Right, right!
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:00:</span> And there were a number of them, you know. There was always, you know, here again. I figure let them go.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:09:</span> Right, I mean it's just part of it I guess.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:12:</span> I don't have a dog in that fight.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:13:</span> You were like I'm not getting into that
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:14:</span> Exactly.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:16:</span> So, what did you end up doing after high school? You said you were in the Navy.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:20:</span> When I graduated a year later, course I had, I joined the Navy around the end of December, 1962.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:37: </span>Ok, so right before you graduated.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:39:</span> Right, as a result of the Cuban Missle Crisis.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:44:</span> Ok.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:4:</span> I got highly patriotic or whatever and I joined the reserve and they deferred my active duty for a period of a year. So I didn't really go on active duty until February of 1964 and uh, so I was on active duty for two years and when I got out, uh, in June of that year 1966, uh, Carol and I got married. I went to IUS [Indiana University Southeast] downtown Jeffersonville and, uhh. That's about the extent of that.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 21:32:</span> So what did you end up doing after you got your degree?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 21:35:</span> Well, uhh, I worked in a number of different jobs, and I had my own business for a long time. I was in material, I was in sales, primarily. I was in industrial sales. I spent probably about 12-15 years in fire protection. Then I went into material handling for the rest of the time and all of it was here in this area. We've lived in Jeffersonville. Carol and I, until we got rid of our landline a couple of years ago we had the same telephone number from June of 1966 til then.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 21:42:</span> My mom still has her same phone number from 55 years ago.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 22:34:</span> You know we are just kind of hanger-ons.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 22:37:</span> Yeah, I think a lot of people, they came here they were born and raised here or they found their way here and they just stayed. My parents were born and raised here, their parents so on and so forth, and we have deep roots here. It's home.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 22:49:</span> That's it, I see no reason to change that now in my advanced age (laughing).
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 22:57:</span> Do you have anything else you would like to add?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 22:59:</span> No I think that pretty much would cover it, I can't think of anything we haven't touched on.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 21:42:</span> Thanks for coming out today I really appreciate it.
</article>
1950 through 1970 oral history project
Interview with David Hammett, 1960-1963
<article class="transcript">
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner <time>0:06</time></span>: Today is October 21, 2020. This is Jen Weidner the Jeffersonville Township Public Library. I'm conducting interviews for Remember Those Days Jeffersonville High School in 1950 through 1970 oral history project with a grant from the Indiana Genealogical Society. I'm here today with David Hammett. David who your parents?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett <time>0:27</time></span>: My parents were Ed and Geneva Hammett
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 0:32</span> And what was your mother's maiden name?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 0:34:</span> McNutt
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 0:35:</span> Okay, and where did you live while you were going to high school?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 0:40:</span> When I was going to high school at Jeff[ersonville High School] I lived out near where Walnut Ridge [Garden Center] is on Hamburg pike.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 0:49:</span> Okay, and you told me earlier that you didn't start out at Jeff High. How did you end up there?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 0:57:</span> I actually grew up, I went, eight years of grade school at St. Anthony's in Clarksville, I grew up in Clarksville in old Clarksville.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:09:</span> Okay
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:10:</span> Probably about four blocks away from Clarksville High School.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:14:</span> Oh okay so right in that area. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:16:</span> So when I graduated from the eighth grade. My parents decided that we were going to move out to Montana. So we did. I spent my freshman year of high school in Great Falls, Montana.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:34:</span> That had to be quite the culture shock.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:36:</span> No, I've been out there before.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:37:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:39:</span> My grandparents lived out there, two sets of aunts and uncles
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:42:</span> So you had family out there.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:43:</span> Older brother.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 1:43:</span> Okay
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 1:45:</span> So we spent a year there, and then moved back. Well, I assumed that I would be going to, well I wanted to go to Providence. My dad figured I had eight years of Catholic education that was probably enough. And, and I had an academic, he's I had an academic scholarship and Jeff High School and it wouldn't cost him a nickle. (Laughing)
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:10:</span> Of course not.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 2:12:</span> So, I had heard all the worst stories about, Jeff High School
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:17:</span> The big bad Jeff High. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 2:20:</span> And having grown up only four blocks from an almost brand new Clarksville High School, I, I really, if I wasn't going to Providence I really wanted to go to Clarksville. But I went to Jeff[ersonville High] and I found that it wasn't anything...
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:40:</span> All the rumors were not true.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 2:41:</span> No, no, and so that's pretty much how I wound up.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:47:</span> Okay, so what years did you attend there
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 2:50:</span> Uh Jeff, I was there in the fall of 1960 in my sophomore year through my graduation then in 1963.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 2:59:</span> Okay, did you marry anybody that went to Jeff High?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:02:</span> As a matter of fact I did.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:04:</span> And what's her name.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:05:</span> Her name is Carol, maiden name was Blythe.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:08:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:09:</span> And she is a class of 1964. She and I met in Latin class, in my senior year, and her sophomore, uhh, her junior year, and we started dating and, and now some 54 years later,
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:30:</span> The rest is history.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:30:</span> Yeah.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:33:</span> Do you remember how many about how many students you graduated with?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:37:</span> Well, I looked it up. Just over the weekend, a seating chart for the graduation ceremony. And the way I calculate those at least who were on the chart, there was 220.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:55:</span> Oh, that's a good size class.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 3:56:</span> Yeah, I was surprised that it was, I mean it's not nearly...
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 3:59:</span> Not what it is now. I graduated in 1992 and we had over 400. I think I didn't know half my class.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 4:06:</span> Yeah. oh Yeah.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 4:09:</span> Were you in any sports or any clubs or anything?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 4:12:</span> I, my sophomore year when we moved back, because I had played football in in Montana, as a ninth grader. I went out for the football team. I didn't last very long. In my junior year I started out again with the intention of playing and hurt myself and, and I said well this is it. Plus I had a part time job by that time and that's.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 4:46:</span> So you had priorities that were different than sports. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 4:51:</span> So yeah, and I think I was on Student Council, my sophomore year at the high school. I didn't belong to any of the clubs or organizations along that line. That was really, that's really about it.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 5:11:</span> Okay. Yeah, you did participate in some.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 5:14:</span> Yeah
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 5:15:</span> Activities, yeah. What do you remember about the school itself. Like the classrooms, the teachers, the school grounds?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 5:23:</span> Well, I remember coming in to the main building, and the main hallway where the offices and everything. And the hardwood floor, and you can look down a hall and all the years of wear in the flooring there was, there was like a dip, where you just can't fill in
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 5:54:</span> Right.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 5:54:</span> Worn out
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 5:55:</span> Especially wood, yeah
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 5:57:</span> And the same way with, with some of the staircases that you know you, the stair treads were kind of worn down. The other thing was that I was not accustomed to having multiple buildings. That you know everything I had attended before then, that St. Anthony's and out in Great Falls. Everything was all in one building.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 6:21:</span> Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 6:22:</span> And here you had the commercial building, you had a fine arts building you had the shops.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 6:29:</span> It's almost like a small college campus.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 6:31:</span> Exactly, and then and then you have the little bookstore that that's out there. So, rain, sleet, snow, whatever you, you made the dash between the buildings.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 6:43:</span> How many, how much time did you have between classes, do you remember?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 6:46:</span> I don't really remember it was, depending on whether or not I had an exam, it was not nearly enough.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 6:53:</span> Right
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 6:56:</span> If I was out in the hall, trying to negotiate a date with somebody. It was not nearly enough.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 7:04:</span> Of course not. Of course not.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 7:06:</span> But by and large, maybe it was 10 minutes. And it was, it was adequate I think I don't recall ever having been tardy to a class, by, by design.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 7:24:</span> Right, right. Yeah, things happen. Did you have any favorite subjects?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 7:30:</span> I leaned more heavily towards the history, end of it. At one time I thought maybe that I would become a history teacher.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weider 7:45:</span> Okay
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 7:47:</span> I enjoyed English, I did not enjoy math.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 7:53:</span> I'm right there with you. So I'm a librarian. (laughing)
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 7:58:</span> But, but, yeah, beyond that that was a that's the only, and a strange thing is that I look at, I look at some of my old report cards and the courses that I've had taken. And, and I think, you know, I really thought I took more, more things. And it really wasn't as, as many as I thought. And now, if I had to do over again I do a whole lot better. I'm a little more structured now.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 8:33:</span> Yeah, oh yeah, it changes as you get older. Do you remember any? Like did you have a favorite teacher, or?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 8:41:</span> Um, I think, probably Jack Brogan was one of my favorites. He taught economics.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 8:50:</span> I think his name's been brought up in other interviews.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 8:53:</span> And I enjoyed. I enjoyed his class. And I don't well, I had, uhh, (laughing) Bill Johnson for health class. Bill was easy enough to divert off the subject of health and on to basketball.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:19:</span> I was going to say he was the basketball coach and what
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:21:</span> At one time,
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:21:</span> Johnson arenas named after. Okay, that Bill Johnson.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:26:</span> And he had a file cabinet, and he said, Oh well, wait a minute, let me pull out a stack of pictures of 1940 players and, and.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:37:</span> So you all knew how to get him,
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:39:</span> We knew how to work the system.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:40:</span> go and, yes, yes..
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:41:</span> He and uhh, but we called him Boo-Boo (Kenneth) Davis. He taught World History. And he was the same way, I think he was the baseball coach.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 9:53:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 9:54:</span> And assisted with other sports and so forth but he was easily diverted also. But when you would let him away from probably whatever, world history you weren't enjoying,
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 10:06:</span> Of course, yes, you could just you knew how to get. Yeah,
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 10:11:</span> But, But other than that, that was that the only one I could say it was a favorite. I don't know that I totally disliked any of them.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 10:24:</span> So a lot of people have talked about being able to leave campus to go to lunch.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 10:29:</span> Yeah, that was, I've never did that. I never ate lunch, for the most part that's what.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 10:36:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 10:37:</span> That's why I enjoyed the at the bookstore. Mr. Allen used to sell these really great delicious red apples. And I bought one of those and have a have a big ol' apple for lunch, and pocket the difference from the money my dad gave me.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 10:59:</span> Yeah, he had a little extra spending money.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 11:03:</span> But yeah, I never, I never once that I recall ate in the school cafeteria. I never went across the street to the Luncheonette because that was where all of ruffians hung out.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 11:16:</span> That's what everybody has said.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 11:18:</span> Yeah, you know, cut your way through the smoke to get into it. And, and then there was O'Neill's who were on that the other corner. And, and I never went in there because they were always so busy, but. So I just passed lunch and, and, and went about my normal business.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 11:44:</span> Did you go to any ballgames or dances or any social functions during high school?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 11:51:</span> ‘Course I went to the football games, and I wasn't into basketball, believe it or not at that point in time. And I went to a couple of basketball games. I, they used to have sock hops, in what was called the old gym which was part of what still exists, or will the building portion of it still exists now, as the new Franklin square elementary but it's for the girls, or the girls had phys. Ed. class. The boys had the Fieldhouse.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 12:37:</span> Okay so you all did not even take gym class together you had segregated.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 12:41:</span> Girls used to hate when, when there would be fire alarms, they would have drills and they'd have to grab the side and those little red jumpsuits. My wife still talks about how embarrassing those were. But they wouldn't have sock hops and assemblies in the old gym. From the, I think that sector that one time was Jeff[ersonville] Junior HIgh School.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 13:06:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 13:07:</span> And, but we would have, we would have sock hops there. I went to a couple of those, I really. But by that time I was a junior in high school and I had a part time job after school, Working for the greenhouse at Walnut Ridge. And I worked until like 10 o'clock at night, and I had a car. I didn't need, I mean I needed the money.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 13:40:</span> Right.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 13:41:</span> More than I needed the social life. So, no. I didn't really go to the dances.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 13:46:</span> Did you ever go to the dances that were at Ewing Lane?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett:</span> No, no never did that.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner:</span> Okay. So you said you had a car. You did have car.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 13:56:</span> I guess that's what we called it that. Yeah.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 14:01:</span> Is there anything else you want to talk about high school? About anything that you think is interesting that you did or happen.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 14:08:</span> Well, you know, the only thing I can remember. Carolyn should talk about this. She knows more about it than I do but apparently there was a rule that girls were not allowed to wear pants.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 14:21:</span> Oh my mom has talked about that all the time,
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 14:24:</span> In the winter time they could wear them to school, underneath a skirt or dress. But as soon as they were at school. They had to remove them. And I just, I just can't get over that. The other thing is that our principal that I had for the first couple of years was a man by the name of Cecil Erwin, and Cecil was, he had a saying, and I remember to this day to “Be Where You Have To Be When You Ought To Be Whether You Want To Be Or Not”.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 15:05:</span> Somebody else has said that exact same thing in their interview Yes. Was he the one that did cartwheels?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 15:12:</span> I don't know. Could be, I don't know. I do know that he, he must he must have lived somewhere out near where I did there on Hamburg Pike, because he would walk to school. Almost every day. Less I guess, unless weather was ...
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 15:29:</span> That's quite the hike.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 15:30:</span> Well it was
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 15:31:</span> To downtown. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 15:32:</span> You know he was a spitfire. You’ve probably seen...
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 15:36:</span> I've seen pictures Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 15:38:</span> You know, and a well-kept man. But that, his saying and he was, he was an authoritarian but he was not overly so. And of course his muscle man was Claude Musselman (laughing) and Claude was the one who dished out punishment.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 16:20:</span> Was he the Dean of boys?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 16:22:</span> Well, I think he was assistant principal.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 16:24:</span> Okay.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 16:25:</span> Yeah. And I never, I never had the opportunity to enjoy his company.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 16:33:</span> I guess that's good.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 16:35:</span> Absolutely! Because if I had enjoyed his company there. I would have enjoyed my dad's company at home. That is one of the old you know..
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 16:42:</span> Yes.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 16:43:</span> But that's really about the only thing, you know. I'm, I'm kind of a nostalgic. It broke my heart, when I watched them tear down the school. You know it broke my heart when they closed the Le Rose Theatre.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 17:07:</span> Right
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 17:07:</span> Broke my heart yeah, all those kind of things.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 17:10:</span> When you see all of your childhood going away. Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 17:13:</span> Yeah, And, and I have on occasion now gone to events at New Albany High School, and they still have the old New Albany High School, but it's been modernized and updated.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 17:34:</span> Yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 17:35:</span> And I think boy, I only wish Jeff could have done that, and kept that, building. It wasn't pretty, and there were areas of it that was condemned.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 17:50:</span> Oh yes of course, yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 17:52:</span> The crow's nest, which is, which is where Mr. Davis had his world history class. It was up there with just a little. It wasn't a room any larger than this one here, you know, 10 by 15.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 18:03:</span> Oh wow, that's a tiny classroom,
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 18:05:</span> it was I mean we, if there'd been a fire drill.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 18:09:</span> You'd be in trouble
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 18:11:</span> Exactly. But, but it was. I enjoyed the school. There was, here was some comfort to it. Like anything, you know, when I was in the Navy I was on board a ship. Which is here again, like it no longer exists. It's been scrapped for metal and you know as much as I did as much as I was looking forward to getting out of the Navy there were times when I would come back to that ship at night and I'd look at it and see it and I say that's home.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 18:51:</span> I mean it's what we get used to.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 18:53:</span> And that is sort of the way the high school was and I mean that. And of course, the other thing I do remember is that first it had no air conditioning
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 19:05:</span> Right.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 19:05:</span> So in the spring of the year and, and in warmer weather the windows would be thrown open and I can still remember the smell of the grass cutting because it would be the first cutting.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 19:08:</span> Oh yeah, that first spring cut, yeah.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 19:24:</span> And that come wafting through the window, and parking was just horrendous.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 19:33:</span> Everyone said there was no parking, and you just had to risk it and park on the street somewhere.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 19:39:</span> Yep, Exactly. Course the other thing was, the joke always was that if you wanted to have a fight hold it across the street on the Courthouse lawn, because all the police were out somewhere else.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 19:58:</span> (laughing) Right, right!
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:00:</span> And there were a number of them, you know. There was always, you know, here again. I figure let them go.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:09:</span> Right, I mean it's just part of it I guess.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:12:</span> I don't have a dog in that fight.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:13:</span> You were like I'm not getting into that
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:14:</span> Exactly.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:16:</span> So, what did you end up doing after high school? You said you were in the Navy.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:20:</span> When I graduated a year later, course I had, I joined the Navy around the end of December, 1962.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:37: </span>Ok, so right before you graduated.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:39:</span> Right, as a result of the Cuban Missle Crisis.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 20:44:</span> Ok.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 20:4:</span> I got highly patriotic or whatever and I joined the reserve and they deferred my active duty for a period of a year. So I didn't really go on active duty until February of 1964 and uh, so I was on active duty for two years and when I got out, uh, in June of that year 1966, uh, Carol and I got married. I went to IUS [Indiana University Southeast] downtown Jeffersonville and, uhh. That's about the extent of that.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 21:32:</span> So what did you end up doing after you got your degree?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 21:35:</span> Well, uhh, I worked in a number of different jobs, and I had my own business for a long time. I was in material, I was in sales, primarily. I was in industrial sales. I spent probably about 12-15 years in fire protection. Then I went into material handling for the rest of the time and all of it was here in this area. We've lived in Jeffersonville. Carol and I, until we got rid of our landline a couple of years ago we had the same telephone number from June of 1966 til then.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 21:42:</span> My mom still has her same phone number from 55 years ago.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 22:34:</span> You know we are just kind of hanger-ons.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 22:37:</span> Yeah, I think a lot of people, they came here they were born and raised here or they found their way here and they just stayed. My parents were born and raised here, their parents so on and so forth, and we have deep roots here. It's home.
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 22:49:</span> That's it, I see no reason to change that now in my advanced age (laughing).
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 22:57:</span> Do you have anything else you would like to add?
<span class="subject1">David Hammett 22:59:</span> No I think that pretty much would cover it, I can't think of anything we haven't touched on.
<span class="interviewer">Jen Weidner 21:42:</span> Thanks for coming out today I really appreciate it.
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