Rick Elliott
Item
Title
Rick Elliott
Remember Those Days
Jeffersonville High School 1950 through 1970 oral history
Interview with Richard Elliott, 1965-1967
Jen Weidner 0:04 This is Jen Weidner of the Jeffersonville Township Public Library, I'm conducting interviews for Remember Those Days Jeffersonville High School 1950 through 1970 oral history project with a grant from the Indiana Genealogical Society. I'm here today with Rick Elliott. Rick, who were your parents?
Rick Elliott 0:23 Richard and Marjorie Elliott,
Jen Weidner 0:25: And didn't your mom work at the high school?
Rick Elliott 0:27: She was the secretary to the Dean of Boys. It was of Dean of Boys? It might have been the Dean of everybody. I can't remember. But it was a dean.
Jen Weidner 0:39: And she stayed there while you were there?
Rick Elliott 0:41: Oh yeah! Yeah!
Jen Weidner 0:44: (Laughing) And where did you live growing up?
Rick Elliott 0:47: 724 Roma [Jeffersonville, Indiana].
Jen Weidner 0:48: Okay, And did you marry someone that went to Jeff[ersonville] High?
Rick Elliott 0:53: I did marry Drucilla Levertt. And she was four years behind me, or four years younger than me. Maybe going on five.
Jen Weidner 1:04: What years were you at Jeff High?
Rick Elliott 1:07: I was actually at Jeff[ersonville] High 1965 and through 1967, 1966 and 1967, 1965, 1966, 1967. The first two years of high school I went to Providence [Catholic High School].
Jen Weidner 1:21: Okay,
Rick Elliott 1:21: Yeah.
Jen Weidner 1:22: Yeah, okay.
Rick Elliott 1:23: I did so. And then I transferred to Jeff[ersonville High].
Jen Weidner 1:28: And Providence is our local Catholic school.
Rick Elliott 1:30: Yeah. My mother, since she worked at Jeff[ersonville High], thought it would be a good if I went to another school. And you know my friends were there and I went there and gave it a try and it wasn't for me. It was too much like the Catholic grade school.
Jen Weidner 1:45: Right, right!
Rick Elliott 1:46: And I want some change so, luckily, I was able to go Jeff.
Jen Weidner 1:51: Happens a lot of, yeah, Catholic school kids end up going to..
Rick Elliott 1:54: And enjoyed my time there. [I] really had a ball.
Jen Weidner 1:57: Okay. Um, how many students were in your graduating class? An estimate?
Rick Elliott 2:04: Oh, 350. Maybe,
Jen Weidner 2:06: Oh. Wow! That's pretty big for back then.
Rick Elliott 2:09: I don't know. I can't remember, seemed like there was quite a few.
Jen Weidner 2:16: Okay
Rick Elliott 2:16: Yes.
Jen Weidner 2:17: Some of the earlier years there was like 100, 150.
Rick Elliott 2:19: Yeah, I'm thinking more like 300.
Jen Weidner 2:21: Okay. Did you participate in any sports or any clubs?
Rick Elliott 2:25: I did, I did clubs at Jeff, I remember what's called Octagon Club, which was part of the Optimist organization and it was a social club. I guess it was kind of like the Key Club.
Jen Weidner 2:44: Okay
Rick Elliott 2:44: You know, something like that.
Jen Weidner 2:47: Did you all do like community service projects?
Rick Elliott 2:49: We actually raised money to donate. A little bit of community service. We were, we did a few things I can't remember exactly. They weren't big by any means. We didn't have funds, you know whatever we had, whatever we got we donated ourselves or got donated but...
Jen Weidner 3:12: How did you raise those funds?
Rick Elliott 3:14: Begging (laughing) just asked, We didn't do anything.
Jn Weidner 3:19: Okay, have like a bake sale or anything like that?
Rick Elliott 3:22: No, no just ask people for donation.
Jen Weidner 3:24: Okay.
Rick Elliott 3:27: And most people were nice enough to give you $5 and those added up
Jen Weidner 3:32: Back in the day $5 was a lot. Yeah.
Rick Elliott 3:35: That was like getting fifty dollars now.
Jen Weidner 3:37: Yeah. What do you remember about the school classrooms teachers, school grounds?
Rick Elliott 3:43: The school, mostly I remember, the second floor, of the old high school 220 study hall. They called it the 220 study hall because that's really what it was a study hall. It was huge. And I spent a lot of time in there, or outside of in the hallways.
Jen Weidner 4:08: Okay.
Rick Elliott 4:10: It was also real close to the, all the principals and hierarchy at school, their offices, so it was kind of like, if there was gonna be trouble it's gonna be right in there and they could all get there in a hurry. And back in the day, there was a lot of fights, you know, this fights.
Jen Weidner 4:33: Right, right,
Rick Elliott 4:35: Or pushing fights.
Jen Weidner 4:37: Nothing like today we have to be concerned about weapons and all that kind of
Rick Elliott 4:40: No, I don't think I ever saw a weapon. The whole time I was in school I never saw anything other than once in a while or somebody throw a shoe. But I remember that and you spent a lot of time in there, in that study [hall]. A lot of times just, that'd be your first plan for the day. And it would just be a study period. And it was a social time. And then they also had they had TV monitors in there and I think they had what they called TV English. Oh they talked about, television, one of the first,
Jen Weidner 5:19: Like precursor to remote learning now.
Rick Elliott 5:23: We did some of that. Teachers I had two or three that really I, I really liked. Mr. Kennedy was one of them. He was my algebra, chemistry.
Jen Weidner 5:42: That was Mr. Kennedy?
Rick Elliott 5:43: Mr. Kennedy. Yes. Jim Kennedy, and then one, the guy that I thought was a hoot was an older gentleman named Bob Detamore.
Jen Weidner 5:55: Somebody else mentioned him in their interview.
Rick Elliott 5:58: Oh yeah he was a psychology, sociology guy, and just, oh he had, he just had a lot of knowledge. So he didn't have notes. It all came from his head and he would tell stories, they may not have been true but they were interesting,
Jen Weidner 6:18: They kept your attention.
Rick Elliott 6:21: And I do remember Miss Hoehn. Because back in the day you took typing class. There was no such thing as computers or keyboarding it was all typing. And I've never been involved in anything like that my whole life I mean, she was like a conductor of a symphony. Yes, she had you. Had to put your...You had to have your hands a certain way and not look and all that, and stone serious about it, you know, and I never did get it.
Jen Weidner 6:58: I was going to ask did you learn to type?
Rick Elliott 7:00: I learned. I learned a little bit, but not to the point where I was gonna make a career out of typing. But I remember those two especially. There was so many of them I had, I had a Spanish teacher named, and I'm looking for her in a book. I didn't see her Miss Kill K-I-L-L. And, and I reason I thought about her is everybody else was so old, and she was like just a kid she's like one of us
Jen Weidner 7:31: She probably just finished teachers school.
Rick Elliott 7:34: Just got out of college. I said, “how did she get here”. You know, and she was real down to earth, you know, and basically talked our language,
Jen Weidner 7:46: Right, no one understood what it was like to be...
Rick Elliott 7:49: Teachers were, they were actually good people, and they were sincere what they were doing. I wasn't the smartest student in the class. But I did understand that if you sat next to somebody who was a National Honor Society, you got a little help. Yeah, and I did figure that out early. I looked up who was National Honor Society people. That's what I sat by.
Jen Weidner 8:18: So you have to sit in alphabetical order or anything? You got to choose?
Rick Elliott 8:22: Choose a little bit. And most people that were smart, real smart, were kind of geeky, so nobody wanted to sit by them.
Jen Weidner 8:32: You didn't care. You wanted help with your schoolwork.
Rick Elliott 8:34: I just wanted to say, hey, what do you think about that question?
Jen Weidner 8:38: Just want your opinion on... Yeah.
Rick Elliott 8:41: And a couple of them were really good about it and they helped and. But I was, I was average basically, and maybe could have done a little better if I'd applied myself more, I applied myself to most of the social skills and excelled in those you know, and that's just what I did. But, yeah, there was a Doc Bolton. He was a football coach and he was one of the coaches and Dick Barr. He was a basketball coach. I had him for health class.
Jen Weidner 9:25: It used to be all the coaches teach health class.
Rick Elliott 9:28: Yeah, and he would come, probably, from gym class, to the health class because he taught gym. And that's what they did. And all we talked about was looking, we looked at film from the basketball game, and helped him with statistics. And that was so much fun. And you know everybody in the health in the class got a B.
Jen Weidner 9:50: He was teaching you math and you didn't realize it!
Rick Elliott 9:52: Didn't realize it. Yes.
Jen Weidner 9:54: Do you remember like how many buildings there were. I know a lot of it's been torn down.
Rick Elliot 9:59: Yeah, I there was a, there was a Quonset hut-like building on Meigs Avenue that housed metal and auto shop and all that. It was a Quonset hut metal round building from a military style.
Jen Weidner 10:15: Oh, that's interesting.
Rick Elliott 10:16: Yeah, it was right on. It was right on Franklin. Just before you get to that the new section of the school that they built which was for the band and all that. Now right in there. And then there was another building. There was a building on the corner which was a fine arts and band building which is new and it's still there. Back behind the school, that was where the cafeteria was. There was a building, and the cafeteria was on the bottom floor, and all the science classes were up top, you know, biology, chemistry, you know might have been typing and stuff like that I can't remember. I did have a couple of classes, two, three, maybe in that but I never did go to the cafeteria.
Jen Weidner 11:10: Yeah, I was going to ask. Where did you go for lunch? I've heard a lot of different stories where people would go for lunch.
Rick Elliott 11:16: Well, three places that we went were O'Neill's, which was at 7th and Mechanic. It was just a little dive where you get a burger, fries and a drink, sat on little stools, in and out. Go to Field House Luncheonette, which was more like for the. oh, rough crowd greasers. Yeah, that was that Mechanic and Court Ave of right across from the Field House.
Jen Weidner 11:58: Okay.
Rick Elliott 11:58: That's what I called the Field House Luncheonette And then there was a little Italian place down almost to Meigs Avenue. There's a hairdresser there now in the corner. It would be right behind them in an alley called Greckos Pizza.
Jen Weidner 12:14: Okay.
Rick Elliott 12:15: And they would sell pizza by the slice and good size, I mean probably, probably a quarter of a pizza.
Jen Weidner 12:26: Oh wow!
Rick Elliott 12:27: Yes!
Jen Weidner 12:27: That's a good lunch portion.
Rick Elliott 12:28: It, it was good. And it was, it wasn't real expensive. And then if you were really healthy. You wanted to be healthy, you [would] go down to Marra's Meat Market, and they [would] make you a sandwich.
Jen Weidner 12:44: Okay.
Rick Elliott 12:45: And you could get a healthy sandwich.
Jen Weidner 12:46: Yeah. You never snuck down to the Trolley?
Rick Elliott 12:49: No, I never went that far. I had some friends that would go to McDonald's, because McDonald's had opened
Jen Weidner 12:59: There on 10th Street?
Rick Elliott 13:00: Yes, [It had] just opened and boy, that was a. That was a dash and dangerous!
Jen Weidner 13:05? How long did you have for lunch?
Rick Elliott 13:08: I think thirty minutes.
Jen Weidner 13:09: Oh wow, that's not a lot of time to go anywhere.
Rick Elliott 13:12: No, because you had to drive about 90 miles [per hour]. It was dangerous.Yes, but it was, I seemed to go to Greckos Pizza and O'Neill's more than anything. It was just convenient. It wasn't expensive. That Greckos might have been a little bit more than the cafeteria. Yes, but I don't think O'Neill's was about the same. Only thing is their menu didn't change. Hamburger.
Jen Weidner 13:45: Same thing every day,
Rick Elliott 13:46: Fries and a drink, Yeah
Jen Weidner 13:50: Who'd you hang around with in high school?
Rick Elliott 13:57: Oh about forty people.
Jen Weidner 13:59: You had a big group.
Rick Elliott 14:00: I had a, I didn't have any best friends. Well I have one. Frank Ballad. He was a neighborhood friend.
Jen Weidner 14:09: Yes, his mom and dad lived down the street for me. Yes.
Rick Elliott 14:11: Mm, Frank and.. He was one of my better friends because we were close in the neighborhood. But man, I just had so many. I had people that were in classes ahead of me. You know 68, there was people in 69, class of 69. I had. Ronnie McAfee was a good fried, He's passed. Harvey Stackhouse.
Jen Weidner 14:33: I know that name. Yeah.
Rick Elliott 14:51: Pretty close. You lived down on Martha.
Jen Weidner 14:53: Yes, I know his daughter.
Rick Elliott 14:55: Yeah,Yeah. He was a good guy. I'm not saying all of my friends hung around with were good guys. Excuse me, I got trouble with my allergies, there's not anything that you have to worry about
Jen Weidner 15:10: It's not the coronavirus. [Not on the recording but this interview was conducted during the 2020 global Covid-19 pandemic.]
Rick Elliott 15:12: Hmm. Huh. It comes and goes.
Jen Weidner 15:15: So you're saying that you didn't have just one group of people that you, you can't hang out with everybody.
Rick Elliott 15:24: If I went out on a weekend. Which was it wasn't much. It would be to go hang out in Ewing Lane. No. That was a little bit later. Now we'd hang out at the Ranch House [restaurant].
Jen Weidner 15:36: Oh that comes up a lot in these interviews.
Rick Elliott 15:38: Frisch's in Clarksville versus in Albany. I would hang around long time with older people because they had cars. Duffy Dylan had a car. He was a several years older than me. Tim Osbourn. These are older guys, but they had cars and they knew me and I can always go with them.
Jen Weidner 16:00: You would just jump in the car with them and go wherever they went.
Rick Elliott 16:03: When I was a senior people had cars. We had Jerry Clapp who always had a car. His dad owned Oldsmobile dealership.
Jen Weidner 16:16: Oh, yeah!
Rick Elliott 16:17: So he always had a brand new 442 or something.
Jen Weidner 16:20: Must be nice.
Rick Elliott 16:20: Yes. There was a few Pat Hoehn was another good friend of mine. Still is. From high school. We, we knew each other when we was babies early. I’m trying to think of any others. So many of them.
Je Weidner 16:43: Yes.
Rick Elliott 16:44: I didn't. And I didn't go away to college. So I'm really didn't develop any friendships there, other than IUS (Indiana University Southeast).
Jen Weidner 16:54: Yes, around here. Yeah. So you didn't go to the Ewing Lane dances?
Rick Elliott 16:59: I did but it seems like those are more like junior high.
Jen Weidner 17:02: Okay.
Rick Elliott 17:03: Maybe freshmen?
Jen Weidner 17:04: More like the younger kids.
Rick Elliott 17:05: I don't think I went much after freshman year. I did go quite a bit when I was eighth grade, probably freshmen. Those two years.
Jen Weidner 17:19: Where did you go to elementary, middle school?
Rick Elliott 17:22: Sacred Heart [Catholic K-7].
Jen Weidner 17:23: Okay, of course you lived right there.
Rick Elliott 17:24: Yeah, eight years. Yeah. Yeah. I did and I had a good time there and I knew a lot of people there. One of the, one of the guys that went to school with me. I also went to high school with David Gotbraith and he, he was a farmer and his mother was a schoolteacher. And I know he's still around. I run to these people every once in a while that I know. But I'm not, and don't hang on.
Jen Weidner 18:01: Right, yes after high school. Yes. Did you have a favorite subject in school?
Rick Elliott 18:07: History.
Jen Weidner 18:08: History. Okay what made it your favorite?
Rick Elliott 18:09: I don't know I just loved it,
Jen Weidner 18:11: Who was the teachers? Do you remember?
Rick Elliott 18:12: No.
Jen Weidner 18:16: It's like me, I don't remember.
Rick Elliott 18:17: I'm not really sure I liked geography, I liked history, I mean,
Jen Weidner 18:22: Was this like World History, American history or all of it?
Rick Elliott 18:25: All of it. To me, it was, a hit you remember dates, and remember, instances and conflicts and stuff like that. A lot of art. Times you know.You had this period of the Renaissance and all these things that goes way back. I remember that I really enjoyed that because it was to me, it was easy. People that were experts and I shouldn't say experts, were really good at algebra, would have a hard time with that and I didn’t.
Jen Weidner 19:02: It was just different concepts.
Rick Elliott 19:05:That said. I have a hard time with algebra. But how could you, but it was just something that I've gained that was in grade school. And it was just, you know it seems like I read some books about it and there was always something historical on TV. There wasn't much.
Jen Weidner 19:25: Right, you'd have all the hundreds of channels we have now and, you had about three and you only got to watch what your parents wanted. You only had one TV. Right? Right.
Rick Elliott 19:37: But remember there's historical stuff. I like that. And I still get, I still enjoy reading about that now. I do. I mean I'll watch the History Channel. I'll watch that. Like, people my age or watch the Weather Channel. I watch the History Channel. So that was one of my favorite subjects. I didn't really have a favorite teacher in it because, really, they were all good. Nobody kept me back. This goes all the way back to grade school.
Jen Weidner 20:13: Nobody harassed you or anything?
Rick Elliott 20:16: Nobody says I’m a historical genius either, but I did, I did enjoy that. (Laughing)
Jen Weidner 20:23: What are some of your fondest memories of school?
Rick Elliott 20:28: It's all social stuff.
Jen Weidner 20:30: That's fine, we want to hear all this stuff.
Rick Elliott 20:32: It was going to the ball games at the field house. It was going to the football games at New Albany and trying to not say the wrong things to not get beat up.
Jen Weidner 20:46: Did you all have a football field at Jeff High?
Rick Elliott 20:49: Yes, it was over here. Right behind Parkview [Middle School].
Jen Weidner 20:57: Oh, okay, what is now the baseball fields.
Rick Elliott 21:02: It used to be, was always baseball, football and track was there.
Jen Weidner 21:07: So that's where all the stuff was.
Rick Elliott 21:08: Shannon Park is what they called it. Yes, it was really a big nice field. And we would go there on always on a Friday night. Seemed like I don't remember, there was probably a Saturday here and there. And then we would go to Providence. I don't think we traveled. When I was in high school I can't remember going to Seymour.
Jen Weidner 21:36: Any place yes, not super local.
Rick Elliott 21:38: And Floyd Central wasn't there.
Jen Weidner 21:36: Oh yes. Right. Yes, they came in later. One of the newer schools.
Rick Elliott 21:46: It was all New Albany, Providence. Jeff never played Clarksville. I don't think. But, yes, we do that and then afterwards we'd always hit the Ranch House, Root Beer stand or someplace.
Jen Weidner 22:03: Was that the A&W that was. They are on 10th Street.
Rick Elliott 22:05: Yes. We'd go to those places and hang out until they ran us away. And most everybody had a curfew of some type. I didn't hang out with anyone that had unlimited, that didn't have a curfew.
Jen Weidner 22:21: Right.
Rick Elliott 22:22: Now some had an hour longer than me.
Jen Weidner 22:24: Yeah.
Rick Elliott 22:25: Some had an hour earlier,
Jen Weidner 22:29: What was your curfew?
Rick Elliott 22:30: I think my curfew was around 11.
Jen Weidner 22:32: Okay.
Rick Elliott 22:32: When I was a senior, it was 12. But one of the juniors was like 11 and you know I hung out with some older people.
Jen Weidner 22:41: Right and they probably had later ones.
Rick Elliott 22:42: Sometimes I break the rule. There's not being able to get home in time, but not, not intentionally. But, yeah, and we just kind of hung out, and you'd ride around to drive-in the car and see if you could, if there's anybody new or anybody and blow your horn at them, that's about it,
Jen Weidner 23:09: Did you go to the prom, or anything like that, dances, or homecoming.
Rick Elliott 23:15: I did go to prom when I was a junior. I'd like to tell you I remember my date
Jen Weidner 23:29: I was gonna ask you if you remembered her name but you don't know. That's okay.
Rick Elliott 23:30: No. I do remember Marquita Dean wanted to. She asked me to take her one year, and I might have been a junior and she was a friend. She was really nice and had good penmanship so you could write good notes. Yeah. You can give her your parents signature.
Jen Weidner 23:59: Oh, she could?
Rick Elliott 24:01: She was excellent. She was excellent. She's gone now and her husband, ex-husband, her, her widowed husband is still alive, I don't want to get him upset, but she was a good person. And I, but I didn't go with her because I think she started dating him at the time or something. So I didn't go with her. I didn't, I didn't go to any of the, I didn't go like. They had like sock hops.
Jen Weidner 24:28: Yeah.
Rick Elliott 24:28: I did go to those they had some. Man, they had some big time that would come to the, the old gym which was a junior high school gym for concerts. You know some good bands.
Jen Weidner 24:56: Like local talent?
Rick Elliott 24:57: Some were out of town that we're good. The Shangri-La’s. You know people like that.
Jen Weidner 25:02: WOW!
Rick Elliott 25:03: Yeah. Back in the day they were just making it.
Jen Weidner 25:05: Yeah.
Rick Elliott 25:07: And, you know, The Birds and people like that.
Jen Weidner 25:10: Just playing wherever they could.
Rick Elliott 25:13: They traveled the circuit and go through Louisville around here in Cincinnati, Indianapolis. That we'd go there.
Jen Weidner 25:21: Now did you have any siblings?
Rick Elliott 25:23: Got a younger sister, Patty.
Jen Weidner 25:25: Okay, yeah,.
Rick Elliott 25:26: She is three years younger.
Jen Weidner 25:27: Did she go to Jeff High?
Rick Elliott 25:29: Yeah, she excelled.
Jen Weidner 25:31: Okay.
Rick Elliott 25:32: She, She was a good student, and she did well.
Jen Weidner 25:38: Is she the one that's a nurse?
Rick Elliott 25:39: She was a nurse, and she retired couple, three years ago. She was a nurse for 40 years. Yeah.
Jen Weidner 25:46: That's pretty impressive.
Rick Elliott 25:47: And it is, and she was an ER nurse.
Jen Weidner 25:52: Anything else you'd like to talk about or tell me here.
Rick Elliott 25:55: I can't tell you that. I would go to jail.
Jen Weidner 25:58: (laughing)
Rick Elliott 25:59: No. I had, I say I had really good experience at high school. I had, I had a lot of fun. I didn't want to miss. I want to go every day.
Jen Weidner 26:11: Yeah
Rick Elliott 26:12: I'll tell you one more story. I did skip school once. Now my mother worked in the Dean's Office. I did it when I was a junior. Tell you how smart I was. So I said, I'm going to try and skip out in the morning. I can skip out and get back and nobody will know. Well, of course they're going to know because I had to have a note signed by a parent to get back in class after lunch. Well, I thought I did a pretty good job and somebody forged it for me, Of course I went right to my mother. She looked at me and laughed.
Jen Weidner 27:01: Like I don’t remember signing that
Rick Elliott 27:04: was all I got. No, I got enough trouble where I got. I did get a paddling.
Jen Weidner 27:10: At school or at home?
Rick Elliott 27:11: School.
Jen Weidner 27:12: Oh wow!
Rick Elliott 27:12: Yeah they did. I got one lick from Jack Brogan, and it was, it scared me to death. I thought I was gonna die, and it didn't really hurt that bad but the anticipation. I'm getting it up to five minutes before I would have jumped out of the window on third floor. I just had to go.
Jen Weidner 27:36: So you never tried to skip again, I guess?
Rick Elliott 27:38: Never did. Never did. Matter of fact I was going to, but I thought how stupid.
Jen Weidner 27:41: But your mom's right there.
Rick Elliott 27:44: She gets the note.
Jen Weidner 27:45: Literally your mom's right there. Yes.
Rick Elliott 27:47: Yeah, but as. I'll try it and see.
Jen Weidner 27:50: Do you remember any of, like, the clothes people wore back then. This was what? [19]67, is that right?
Rick Elliott 27:56: Yeah. We mostly wore polish cotton pants. Which straight leg polish cotton and weejuns, which is, you know, penny loafers.
Jen Weidner 28:11: Okay.
Rick Elliott 28:13: Indian Madras shirts, collar-buttoned down was the key, was the name of this. And we wore little belts around. They had a name for the belts, too, but they were all brown. And you could buy all that down-town at [J. C.] Penney [Department Store]. There was a [J. C.] Penney [Department Store]. down-town Jeff. And we would go there and you could get a mostly tan, maybe a black, and I had a pair of kind of a green-color polish cotton that was I call it the wild pants. Everything I usually wore was pretty tame. But the Madras shirts are really like that was pretty cool.
Jen Weidner 29:03: So was there any like hippie clothes going on then?
Rick Elliott 29:06: Actually that happened after I left. It would have been
Jen Weidner 29:10: Somewhere like in the early 1970s.
Rick Elliott 29:15: That would have been 1969, 1970, 1971, when that. Actually the difference between my, the kids in my class, and the kids in 1968 and 1969, there was probably no marijuana. And then it started to pick up.
Jen Weidner 29:30: Yeah. With that, the hippie generation came in.
Rick Elliott 29:33: Yes, so I didn't know, but I didn't even know that stuff. And, but that was, there was a little bit. I guess innocent time. Getting more just going right. It just, it was really started going. Matter of fact, after I graduated in [19]67 and [19]68. I was part of the draft.
Jen Weidner 29:59: Oh, right. Yeah, you had to register for the draft.
Rick Elliott 30:02: I got drafted, but I was at IUS. But I still got drafted and I tried to join the Air Force. And my recruiter died.
Jen Weidner 30:16: Oh!
Rick Elliott 30:17: It was really nice. It's kind of like. Me. Right in the middle of ...
Jen Weidner 30:20: You are like, okay.
Rick Elliott 30:21: Yes. And. Anyway. I just waited in until they called me to go and I got to Nicholls Field in Louisville, thinking that I'm going. I'm leaving. And I had a packet with about three papers from myhistory, health history. People bring in suitcases full of stuff, you know, and they said that it looked at my stuff and said you're over in that room there and I was going.
Jen Weidner 30:26: You're going.
Rick Elliott 30:28: Yes. I'm going to be a Marine or something, you know, and what it was is. I had been diagnosed with asthma. When I was a child, but never it never was cured and the doctors never said that. You know, I was cured of it or whatever and I never had it, I don't think. And they wouldn't take me.
Jen Weidner 31:18: That kept you from going.
Rick Elliott 31:20: The asthma was something they would not deal with because of the jungle.
Jen Weidner 31:24: Right.
Rick Elliott 31:25: And a cough in the jungle.
Jen Weidner 31:27: It would have been so wet and horrible.
Rick Elliott 31:29: Right. So, I remember I was ready to go, but didn't go, man. So many of my friends went. A lot of them didn't come back. I know a lot of them I went to school with didn't come back. But, that's kind of the story. My high school, it was, it was actually a fun time. I'd like to go back and just think about things through high school. We'd go, We'd go up to Clifty Falls [State Park] for a day, just hanging out, you know, walk around, watch. There's a pool up there. We would go swimming pool. We probably snuck in a beer or two.
Jen Weidner 32:24: That's probably expected.
Rick Elliott 32:25: Yes, all the expected stuff. But it was pretty tame compared to...
Jen Weidner 32:34: Compared to today. Yeah, exactly. So what did you study it IUS?
Rick Elliott 32:40: Business. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I know I didn't want teach at the time. And then after I got through it, I said I could have taught. What was I thinking? I still wasn't really good at math but I could have got through it. But I wouldn't. I'll just take business courses. And anyway, I ended up going two years, and dropped out. I dropped out after I realized I wasn't going to go into service. And I thought I'm going to get a job. Tried to get on at Colgate, Ford. Two big ones. Well, Colgates, I had had a real good inside track. I had got inside but I wasn't related to anybody and that kind of hurt me a little bit. And then Ford. I wouldn't I just winged it. And then, when I was 20. I had odd jobs. I worked at Kellers hardware in Youngstown [Shopping Center].
Jen Weidner 33:49: Oh, yeah.
Rick Elliott 33:50: What a life. I've learned so my skill and learned how to mix paint and cut glass. Use a tape measure.
Jen Weidner 33:57: A little bit of everything.
Rick Elliott 33:58: Nails screws. You know.
Jen Weidner 34:01: So what did you ultimately end up doing with your career?
Rick Elliott 34:05: Well, I ended up going. It's funny. I'm back. My next door neighbor behind me to the... On my back door to the left was the Chief of Police.
Jen Weidner 34:17: And what was his name?
Rick Elliott 34:20: Marian Decker.
Jen Weidner 34:21: Okay
Rick Elliott 34:22: And Marian had asked. He was looking for about, five people to hire, and he asked me about it. And I said, Now you have to be kidding. No, no. Think about it. Think about it. So I thought about it. Talked to my parents. My dad said, you could always try. So, I said I might do that, I wasn't getting any work at Colgates. I wasn't getting any work at Ford part-time jobs were okay but sooner or later I had to do something.
Jen Weidner 35:00: Full-time.
Rick Elliott 35:01: Yes. I needed something serious. So I, I told Chief Deckard, that's it. I'll give it a try. And that was in 197_ when I was hired. December. And I stayed there 22 years, 22 and a half years. And back then, I could retire after 20 with a good pension. So it was a good deal. glad I did it.
Jen Weidner 35:37: Well, maybe one day I'll do an oral history project about the police evolution at the police department.
Rick Elliott 35:43: You've got one right now. You did talk to Jerry. He's got more stories than I could ever...
Jen Weidner 35:48: Yes, yes.
Rick Elliott 35:50: Some of them were with me, but he'll remember them and I'll deny them. No, he's, he's, he's old school, him and Parker, Buddy Parker’s old school. Only two, Roger Singer. He's still alive, he's 90. Most all the other ones are gone.
Jen Weidner 36:12: Yeah.
Rick Elliott 36:13: Yeah.
Jen Weidner 36:13: Okay. Was there anything else you'd like to add?
Rick Elliott 36:15: Oh I don't know what else. I got my foot in my mouth.
Jen Weidner 36:18: Well, I thank you so much for coming out.
Rick Elliott 36:21: I enjoyed it.
Jen Weidner 36:21: Amid the, you know, the pandemic we have going on.
Rick Elliott 36:24: Well, I had. I'm glad I think this would be neat. You doing that.
Jen Weidner 36:29 Well, I will be sure to get you a copy of it and let you know where we house it so you can let all your family and friends know about it.
Rick Elliott 36:36: Well, won't let my friends know about it and family. I don't Facebook (laughing)
Jen Weidner 36:45: Okay, we're done recording.
This was recorded on August 12, 2020 at the Jeffersonville Township Public Library.
Jeffersonville High School 1950 through 1970 oral history
Interview with Richard Elliott, 1965-1967
Jen Weidner 0:04 This is Jen Weidner of the Jeffersonville Township Public Library, I'm conducting interviews for Remember Those Days Jeffersonville High School 1950 through 1970 oral history project with a grant from the Indiana Genealogical Society. I'm here today with Rick Elliott. Rick, who were your parents?
Rick Elliott 0:23 Richard and Marjorie Elliott,
Jen Weidner 0:25: And didn't your mom work at the high school?
Rick Elliott 0:27: She was the secretary to the Dean of Boys. It was of Dean of Boys? It might have been the Dean of everybody. I can't remember. But it was a dean.
Jen Weidner 0:39: And she stayed there while you were there?
Rick Elliott 0:41: Oh yeah! Yeah!
Jen Weidner 0:44: (Laughing) And where did you live growing up?
Rick Elliott 0:47: 724 Roma [Jeffersonville, Indiana].
Jen Weidner 0:48: Okay, And did you marry someone that went to Jeff[ersonville] High?
Rick Elliott 0:53: I did marry Drucilla Levertt. And she was four years behind me, or four years younger than me. Maybe going on five.
Jen Weidner 1:04: What years were you at Jeff High?
Rick Elliott 1:07: I was actually at Jeff[ersonville] High 1965 and through 1967, 1966 and 1967, 1965, 1966, 1967. The first two years of high school I went to Providence [Catholic High School].
Jen Weidner 1:21: Okay,
Rick Elliott 1:21: Yeah.
Jen Weidner 1:22: Yeah, okay.
Rick Elliott 1:23: I did so. And then I transferred to Jeff[ersonville High].
Jen Weidner 1:28: And Providence is our local Catholic school.
Rick Elliott 1:30: Yeah. My mother, since she worked at Jeff[ersonville High], thought it would be a good if I went to another school. And you know my friends were there and I went there and gave it a try and it wasn't for me. It was too much like the Catholic grade school.
Jen Weidner 1:45: Right, right!
Rick Elliott 1:46: And I want some change so, luckily, I was able to go Jeff.
Jen Weidner 1:51: Happens a lot of, yeah, Catholic school kids end up going to..
Rick Elliott 1:54: And enjoyed my time there. [I] really had a ball.
Jen Weidner 1:57: Okay. Um, how many students were in your graduating class? An estimate?
Rick Elliott 2:04: Oh, 350. Maybe,
Jen Weidner 2:06: Oh. Wow! That's pretty big for back then.
Rick Elliott 2:09: I don't know. I can't remember, seemed like there was quite a few.
Jen Weidner 2:16: Okay
Rick Elliott 2:16: Yes.
Jen Weidner 2:17: Some of the earlier years there was like 100, 150.
Rick Elliott 2:19: Yeah, I'm thinking more like 300.
Jen Weidner 2:21: Okay. Did you participate in any sports or any clubs?
Rick Elliott 2:25: I did, I did clubs at Jeff, I remember what's called Octagon Club, which was part of the Optimist organization and it was a social club. I guess it was kind of like the Key Club.
Jen Weidner 2:44: Okay
Rick Elliott 2:44: You know, something like that.
Jen Weidner 2:47: Did you all do like community service projects?
Rick Elliott 2:49: We actually raised money to donate. A little bit of community service. We were, we did a few things I can't remember exactly. They weren't big by any means. We didn't have funds, you know whatever we had, whatever we got we donated ourselves or got donated but...
Jen Weidner 3:12: How did you raise those funds?
Rick Elliott 3:14: Begging (laughing) just asked, We didn't do anything.
Jn Weidner 3:19: Okay, have like a bake sale or anything like that?
Rick Elliott 3:22: No, no just ask people for donation.
Jen Weidner 3:24: Okay.
Rick Elliott 3:27: And most people were nice enough to give you $5 and those added up
Jen Weidner 3:32: Back in the day $5 was a lot. Yeah.
Rick Elliott 3:35: That was like getting fifty dollars now.
Jen Weidner 3:37: Yeah. What do you remember about the school classrooms teachers, school grounds?
Rick Elliott 3:43: The school, mostly I remember, the second floor, of the old high school 220 study hall. They called it the 220 study hall because that's really what it was a study hall. It was huge. And I spent a lot of time in there, or outside of in the hallways.
Jen Weidner 4:08: Okay.
Rick Elliott 4:10: It was also real close to the, all the principals and hierarchy at school, their offices, so it was kind of like, if there was gonna be trouble it's gonna be right in there and they could all get there in a hurry. And back in the day, there was a lot of fights, you know, this fights.
Jen Weidner 4:33: Right, right,
Rick Elliott 4:35: Or pushing fights.
Jen Weidner 4:37: Nothing like today we have to be concerned about weapons and all that kind of
Rick Elliott 4:40: No, I don't think I ever saw a weapon. The whole time I was in school I never saw anything other than once in a while or somebody throw a shoe. But I remember that and you spent a lot of time in there, in that study [hall]. A lot of times just, that'd be your first plan for the day. And it would just be a study period. And it was a social time. And then they also had they had TV monitors in there and I think they had what they called TV English. Oh they talked about, television, one of the first,
Jen Weidner 5:19: Like precursor to remote learning now.
Rick Elliott 5:23: We did some of that. Teachers I had two or three that really I, I really liked. Mr. Kennedy was one of them. He was my algebra, chemistry.
Jen Weidner 5:42: That was Mr. Kennedy?
Rick Elliott 5:43: Mr. Kennedy. Yes. Jim Kennedy, and then one, the guy that I thought was a hoot was an older gentleman named Bob Detamore.
Jen Weidner 5:55: Somebody else mentioned him in their interview.
Rick Elliott 5:58: Oh yeah he was a psychology, sociology guy, and just, oh he had, he just had a lot of knowledge. So he didn't have notes. It all came from his head and he would tell stories, they may not have been true but they were interesting,
Jen Weidner 6:18: They kept your attention.
Rick Elliott 6:21: And I do remember Miss Hoehn. Because back in the day you took typing class. There was no such thing as computers or keyboarding it was all typing. And I've never been involved in anything like that my whole life I mean, she was like a conductor of a symphony. Yes, she had you. Had to put your...You had to have your hands a certain way and not look and all that, and stone serious about it, you know, and I never did get it.
Jen Weidner 6:58: I was going to ask did you learn to type?
Rick Elliott 7:00: I learned. I learned a little bit, but not to the point where I was gonna make a career out of typing. But I remember those two especially. There was so many of them I had, I had a Spanish teacher named, and I'm looking for her in a book. I didn't see her Miss Kill K-I-L-L. And, and I reason I thought about her is everybody else was so old, and she was like just a kid she's like one of us
Jen Weidner 7:31: She probably just finished teachers school.
Rick Elliott 7:34: Just got out of college. I said, “how did she get here”. You know, and she was real down to earth, you know, and basically talked our language,
Jen Weidner 7:46: Right, no one understood what it was like to be...
Rick Elliott 7:49: Teachers were, they were actually good people, and they were sincere what they were doing. I wasn't the smartest student in the class. But I did understand that if you sat next to somebody who was a National Honor Society, you got a little help. Yeah, and I did figure that out early. I looked up who was National Honor Society people. That's what I sat by.
Jen Weidner 8:18: So you have to sit in alphabetical order or anything? You got to choose?
Rick Elliott 8:22: Choose a little bit. And most people that were smart, real smart, were kind of geeky, so nobody wanted to sit by them.
Jen Weidner 8:32: You didn't care. You wanted help with your schoolwork.
Rick Elliott 8:34: I just wanted to say, hey, what do you think about that question?
Jen Weidner 8:38: Just want your opinion on... Yeah.
Rick Elliott 8:41: And a couple of them were really good about it and they helped and. But I was, I was average basically, and maybe could have done a little better if I'd applied myself more, I applied myself to most of the social skills and excelled in those you know, and that's just what I did. But, yeah, there was a Doc Bolton. He was a football coach and he was one of the coaches and Dick Barr. He was a basketball coach. I had him for health class.
Jen Weidner 9:25: It used to be all the coaches teach health class.
Rick Elliott 9:28: Yeah, and he would come, probably, from gym class, to the health class because he taught gym. And that's what they did. And all we talked about was looking, we looked at film from the basketball game, and helped him with statistics. And that was so much fun. And you know everybody in the health in the class got a B.
Jen Weidner 9:50: He was teaching you math and you didn't realize it!
Rick Elliott 9:52: Didn't realize it. Yes.
Jen Weidner 9:54: Do you remember like how many buildings there were. I know a lot of it's been torn down.
Rick Elliot 9:59: Yeah, I there was a, there was a Quonset hut-like building on Meigs Avenue that housed metal and auto shop and all that. It was a Quonset hut metal round building from a military style.
Jen Weidner 10:15: Oh, that's interesting.
Rick Elliott 10:16: Yeah, it was right on. It was right on Franklin. Just before you get to that the new section of the school that they built which was for the band and all that. Now right in there. And then there was another building. There was a building on the corner which was a fine arts and band building which is new and it's still there. Back behind the school, that was where the cafeteria was. There was a building, and the cafeteria was on the bottom floor, and all the science classes were up top, you know, biology, chemistry, you know might have been typing and stuff like that I can't remember. I did have a couple of classes, two, three, maybe in that but I never did go to the cafeteria.
Jen Weidner 11:10: Yeah, I was going to ask. Where did you go for lunch? I've heard a lot of different stories where people would go for lunch.
Rick Elliott 11:16: Well, three places that we went were O'Neill's, which was at 7th and Mechanic. It was just a little dive where you get a burger, fries and a drink, sat on little stools, in and out. Go to Field House Luncheonette, which was more like for the. oh, rough crowd greasers. Yeah, that was that Mechanic and Court Ave of right across from the Field House.
Jen Weidner 11:58: Okay.
Rick Elliott 11:58: That's what I called the Field House Luncheonette And then there was a little Italian place down almost to Meigs Avenue. There's a hairdresser there now in the corner. It would be right behind them in an alley called Greckos Pizza.
Jen Weidner 12:14: Okay.
Rick Elliott 12:15: And they would sell pizza by the slice and good size, I mean probably, probably a quarter of a pizza.
Jen Weidner 12:26: Oh wow!
Rick Elliott 12:27: Yes!
Jen Weidner 12:27: That's a good lunch portion.
Rick Elliott 12:28: It, it was good. And it was, it wasn't real expensive. And then if you were really healthy. You wanted to be healthy, you [would] go down to Marra's Meat Market, and they [would] make you a sandwich.
Jen Weidner 12:44: Okay.
Rick Elliott 12:45: And you could get a healthy sandwich.
Jen Weidner 12:46: Yeah. You never snuck down to the Trolley?
Rick Elliott 12:49: No, I never went that far. I had some friends that would go to McDonald's, because McDonald's had opened
Jen Weidner 12:59: There on 10th Street?
Rick Elliott 13:00: Yes, [It had] just opened and boy, that was a. That was a dash and dangerous!
Jen Weidner 13:05? How long did you have for lunch?
Rick Elliott 13:08: I think thirty minutes.
Jen Weidner 13:09: Oh wow, that's not a lot of time to go anywhere.
Rick Elliott 13:12: No, because you had to drive about 90 miles [per hour]. It was dangerous.Yes, but it was, I seemed to go to Greckos Pizza and O'Neill's more than anything. It was just convenient. It wasn't expensive. That Greckos might have been a little bit more than the cafeteria. Yes, but I don't think O'Neill's was about the same. Only thing is their menu didn't change. Hamburger.
Jen Weidner 13:45: Same thing every day,
Rick Elliott 13:46: Fries and a drink, Yeah
Jen Weidner 13:50: Who'd you hang around with in high school?
Rick Elliott 13:57: Oh about forty people.
Jen Weidner 13:59: You had a big group.
Rick Elliott 14:00: I had a, I didn't have any best friends. Well I have one. Frank Ballad. He was a neighborhood friend.
Jen Weidner 14:09: Yes, his mom and dad lived down the street for me. Yes.
Rick Elliott 14:11: Mm, Frank and.. He was one of my better friends because we were close in the neighborhood. But man, I just had so many. I had people that were in classes ahead of me. You know 68, there was people in 69, class of 69. I had. Ronnie McAfee was a good fried, He's passed. Harvey Stackhouse.
Jen Weidner 14:33: I know that name. Yeah.
Rick Elliott 14:51: Pretty close. You lived down on Martha.
Jen Weidner 14:53: Yes, I know his daughter.
Rick Elliott 14:55: Yeah,Yeah. He was a good guy. I'm not saying all of my friends hung around with were good guys. Excuse me, I got trouble with my allergies, there's not anything that you have to worry about
Jen Weidner 15:10: It's not the coronavirus. [Not on the recording but this interview was conducted during the 2020 global Covid-19 pandemic.]
Rick Elliott 15:12: Hmm. Huh. It comes and goes.
Jen Weidner 15:15: So you're saying that you didn't have just one group of people that you, you can't hang out with everybody.
Rick Elliott 15:24: If I went out on a weekend. Which was it wasn't much. It would be to go hang out in Ewing Lane. No. That was a little bit later. Now we'd hang out at the Ranch House [restaurant].
Jen Weidner 15:36: Oh that comes up a lot in these interviews.
Rick Elliott 15:38: Frisch's in Clarksville versus in Albany. I would hang around long time with older people because they had cars. Duffy Dylan had a car. He was a several years older than me. Tim Osbourn. These are older guys, but they had cars and they knew me and I can always go with them.
Jen Weidner 16:00: You would just jump in the car with them and go wherever they went.
Rick Elliott 16:03: When I was a senior people had cars. We had Jerry Clapp who always had a car. His dad owned Oldsmobile dealership.
Jen Weidner 16:16: Oh, yeah!
Rick Elliott 16:17: So he always had a brand new 442 or something.
Jen Weidner 16:20: Must be nice.
Rick Elliott 16:20: Yes. There was a few Pat Hoehn was another good friend of mine. Still is. From high school. We, we knew each other when we was babies early. I’m trying to think of any others. So many of them.
Je Weidner 16:43: Yes.
Rick Elliott 16:44: I didn't. And I didn't go away to college. So I'm really didn't develop any friendships there, other than IUS (Indiana University Southeast).
Jen Weidner 16:54: Yes, around here. Yeah. So you didn't go to the Ewing Lane dances?
Rick Elliott 16:59: I did but it seems like those are more like junior high.
Jen Weidner 17:02: Okay.
Rick Elliott 17:03: Maybe freshmen?
Jen Weidner 17:04: More like the younger kids.
Rick Elliott 17:05: I don't think I went much after freshman year. I did go quite a bit when I was eighth grade, probably freshmen. Those two years.
Jen Weidner 17:19: Where did you go to elementary, middle school?
Rick Elliott 17:22: Sacred Heart [Catholic K-7].
Jen Weidner 17:23: Okay, of course you lived right there.
Rick Elliott 17:24: Yeah, eight years. Yeah. Yeah. I did and I had a good time there and I knew a lot of people there. One of the, one of the guys that went to school with me. I also went to high school with David Gotbraith and he, he was a farmer and his mother was a schoolteacher. And I know he's still around. I run to these people every once in a while that I know. But I'm not, and don't hang on.
Jen Weidner 18:01: Right, yes after high school. Yes. Did you have a favorite subject in school?
Rick Elliott 18:07: History.
Jen Weidner 18:08: History. Okay what made it your favorite?
Rick Elliott 18:09: I don't know I just loved it,
Jen Weidner 18:11: Who was the teachers? Do you remember?
Rick Elliott 18:12: No.
Jen Weidner 18:16: It's like me, I don't remember.
Rick Elliott 18:17: I'm not really sure I liked geography, I liked history, I mean,
Jen Weidner 18:22: Was this like World History, American history or all of it?
Rick Elliott 18:25: All of it. To me, it was, a hit you remember dates, and remember, instances and conflicts and stuff like that. A lot of art. Times you know.You had this period of the Renaissance and all these things that goes way back. I remember that I really enjoyed that because it was to me, it was easy. People that were experts and I shouldn't say experts, were really good at algebra, would have a hard time with that and I didn’t.
Jen Weidner 19:02: It was just different concepts.
Rick Elliott 19:05:That said. I have a hard time with algebra. But how could you, but it was just something that I've gained that was in grade school. And it was just, you know it seems like I read some books about it and there was always something historical on TV. There wasn't much.
Jen Weidner 19:25: Right, you'd have all the hundreds of channels we have now and, you had about three and you only got to watch what your parents wanted. You only had one TV. Right? Right.
Rick Elliott 19:37: But remember there's historical stuff. I like that. And I still get, I still enjoy reading about that now. I do. I mean I'll watch the History Channel. I'll watch that. Like, people my age or watch the Weather Channel. I watch the History Channel. So that was one of my favorite subjects. I didn't really have a favorite teacher in it because, really, they were all good. Nobody kept me back. This goes all the way back to grade school.
Jen Weidner 20:13: Nobody harassed you or anything?
Rick Elliott 20:16: Nobody says I’m a historical genius either, but I did, I did enjoy that. (Laughing)
Jen Weidner 20:23: What are some of your fondest memories of school?
Rick Elliott 20:28: It's all social stuff.
Jen Weidner 20:30: That's fine, we want to hear all this stuff.
Rick Elliott 20:32: It was going to the ball games at the field house. It was going to the football games at New Albany and trying to not say the wrong things to not get beat up.
Jen Weidner 20:46: Did you all have a football field at Jeff High?
Rick Elliott 20:49: Yes, it was over here. Right behind Parkview [Middle School].
Jen Weidner 20:57: Oh, okay, what is now the baseball fields.
Rick Elliott 21:02: It used to be, was always baseball, football and track was there.
Jen Weidner 21:07: So that's where all the stuff was.
Rick Elliott 21:08: Shannon Park is what they called it. Yes, it was really a big nice field. And we would go there on always on a Friday night. Seemed like I don't remember, there was probably a Saturday here and there. And then we would go to Providence. I don't think we traveled. When I was in high school I can't remember going to Seymour.
Jen Weidner 21:36: Any place yes, not super local.
Rick Elliott 21:38: And Floyd Central wasn't there.
Jen Weidner 21:36: Oh yes. Right. Yes, they came in later. One of the newer schools.
Rick Elliott 21:46: It was all New Albany, Providence. Jeff never played Clarksville. I don't think. But, yes, we do that and then afterwards we'd always hit the Ranch House, Root Beer stand or someplace.
Jen Weidner 22:03: Was that the A&W that was. They are on 10th Street.
Rick Elliott 22:05: Yes. We'd go to those places and hang out until they ran us away. And most everybody had a curfew of some type. I didn't hang out with anyone that had unlimited, that didn't have a curfew.
Jen Weidner 22:21: Right.
Rick Elliott 22:22: Now some had an hour longer than me.
Jen Weidner 22:24: Yeah.
Rick Elliott 22:25: Some had an hour earlier,
Jen Weidner 22:29: What was your curfew?
Rick Elliott 22:30: I think my curfew was around 11.
Jen Weidner 22:32: Okay.
Rick Elliott 22:32: When I was a senior, it was 12. But one of the juniors was like 11 and you know I hung out with some older people.
Jen Weidner 22:41: Right and they probably had later ones.
Rick Elliott 22:42: Sometimes I break the rule. There's not being able to get home in time, but not, not intentionally. But, yeah, and we just kind of hung out, and you'd ride around to drive-in the car and see if you could, if there's anybody new or anybody and blow your horn at them, that's about it,
Jen Weidner 23:09: Did you go to the prom, or anything like that, dances, or homecoming.
Rick Elliott 23:15: I did go to prom when I was a junior. I'd like to tell you I remember my date
Jen Weidner 23:29: I was gonna ask you if you remembered her name but you don't know. That's okay.
Rick Elliott 23:30: No. I do remember Marquita Dean wanted to. She asked me to take her one year, and I might have been a junior and she was a friend. She was really nice and had good penmanship so you could write good notes. Yeah. You can give her your parents signature.
Jen Weidner 23:59: Oh, she could?
Rick Elliott 24:01: She was excellent. She was excellent. She's gone now and her husband, ex-husband, her, her widowed husband is still alive, I don't want to get him upset, but she was a good person. And I, but I didn't go with her because I think she started dating him at the time or something. So I didn't go with her. I didn't, I didn't go to any of the, I didn't go like. They had like sock hops.
Jen Weidner 24:28: Yeah.
Rick Elliott 24:28: I did go to those they had some. Man, they had some big time that would come to the, the old gym which was a junior high school gym for concerts. You know some good bands.
Jen Weidner 24:56: Like local talent?
Rick Elliott 24:57: Some were out of town that we're good. The Shangri-La’s. You know people like that.
Jen Weidner 25:02: WOW!
Rick Elliott 25:03: Yeah. Back in the day they were just making it.
Jen Weidner 25:05: Yeah.
Rick Elliott 25:07: And, you know, The Birds and people like that.
Jen Weidner 25:10: Just playing wherever they could.
Rick Elliott 25:13: They traveled the circuit and go through Louisville around here in Cincinnati, Indianapolis. That we'd go there.
Jen Weidner 25:21: Now did you have any siblings?
Rick Elliott 25:23: Got a younger sister, Patty.
Jen Weidner 25:25: Okay, yeah,.
Rick Elliott 25:26: She is three years younger.
Jen Weidner 25:27: Did she go to Jeff High?
Rick Elliott 25:29: Yeah, she excelled.
Jen Weidner 25:31: Okay.
Rick Elliott 25:32: She, She was a good student, and she did well.
Jen Weidner 25:38: Is she the one that's a nurse?
Rick Elliott 25:39: She was a nurse, and she retired couple, three years ago. She was a nurse for 40 years. Yeah.
Jen Weidner 25:46: That's pretty impressive.
Rick Elliott 25:47: And it is, and she was an ER nurse.
Jen Weidner 25:52: Anything else you'd like to talk about or tell me here.
Rick Elliott 25:55: I can't tell you that. I would go to jail.
Jen Weidner 25:58: (laughing)
Rick Elliott 25:59: No. I had, I say I had really good experience at high school. I had, I had a lot of fun. I didn't want to miss. I want to go every day.
Jen Weidner 26:11: Yeah
Rick Elliott 26:12: I'll tell you one more story. I did skip school once. Now my mother worked in the Dean's Office. I did it when I was a junior. Tell you how smart I was. So I said, I'm going to try and skip out in the morning. I can skip out and get back and nobody will know. Well, of course they're going to know because I had to have a note signed by a parent to get back in class after lunch. Well, I thought I did a pretty good job and somebody forged it for me, Of course I went right to my mother. She looked at me and laughed.
Jen Weidner 27:01: Like I don’t remember signing that
Rick Elliott 27:04: was all I got. No, I got enough trouble where I got. I did get a paddling.
Jen Weidner 27:10: At school or at home?
Rick Elliott 27:11: School.
Jen Weidner 27:12: Oh wow!
Rick Elliott 27:12: Yeah they did. I got one lick from Jack Brogan, and it was, it scared me to death. I thought I was gonna die, and it didn't really hurt that bad but the anticipation. I'm getting it up to five minutes before I would have jumped out of the window on third floor. I just had to go.
Jen Weidner 27:36: So you never tried to skip again, I guess?
Rick Elliott 27:38: Never did. Never did. Matter of fact I was going to, but I thought how stupid.
Jen Weidner 27:41: But your mom's right there.
Rick Elliott 27:44: She gets the note.
Jen Weidner 27:45: Literally your mom's right there. Yes.
Rick Elliott 27:47: Yeah, but as. I'll try it and see.
Jen Weidner 27:50: Do you remember any of, like, the clothes people wore back then. This was what? [19]67, is that right?
Rick Elliott 27:56: Yeah. We mostly wore polish cotton pants. Which straight leg polish cotton and weejuns, which is, you know, penny loafers.
Jen Weidner 28:11: Okay.
Rick Elliott 28:13: Indian Madras shirts, collar-buttoned down was the key, was the name of this. And we wore little belts around. They had a name for the belts, too, but they were all brown. And you could buy all that down-town at [J. C.] Penney [Department Store]. There was a [J. C.] Penney [Department Store]. down-town Jeff. And we would go there and you could get a mostly tan, maybe a black, and I had a pair of kind of a green-color polish cotton that was I call it the wild pants. Everything I usually wore was pretty tame. But the Madras shirts are really like that was pretty cool.
Jen Weidner 29:03: So was there any like hippie clothes going on then?
Rick Elliott 29:06: Actually that happened after I left. It would have been
Jen Weidner 29:10: Somewhere like in the early 1970s.
Rick Elliott 29:15: That would have been 1969, 1970, 1971, when that. Actually the difference between my, the kids in my class, and the kids in 1968 and 1969, there was probably no marijuana. And then it started to pick up.
Jen Weidner 29:30: Yeah. With that, the hippie generation came in.
Rick Elliott 29:33: Yes, so I didn't know, but I didn't even know that stuff. And, but that was, there was a little bit. I guess innocent time. Getting more just going right. It just, it was really started going. Matter of fact, after I graduated in [19]67 and [19]68. I was part of the draft.
Jen Weidner 29:59: Oh, right. Yeah, you had to register for the draft.
Rick Elliott 30:02: I got drafted, but I was at IUS. But I still got drafted and I tried to join the Air Force. And my recruiter died.
Jen Weidner 30:16: Oh!
Rick Elliott 30:17: It was really nice. It's kind of like. Me. Right in the middle of ...
Jen Weidner 30:20: You are like, okay.
Rick Elliott 30:21: Yes. And. Anyway. I just waited in until they called me to go and I got to Nicholls Field in Louisville, thinking that I'm going. I'm leaving. And I had a packet with about three papers from myhistory, health history. People bring in suitcases full of stuff, you know, and they said that it looked at my stuff and said you're over in that room there and I was going.
Jen Weidner 30:26: You're going.
Rick Elliott 30:28: Yes. I'm going to be a Marine or something, you know, and what it was is. I had been diagnosed with asthma. When I was a child, but never it never was cured and the doctors never said that. You know, I was cured of it or whatever and I never had it, I don't think. And they wouldn't take me.
Jen Weidner 31:18: That kept you from going.
Rick Elliott 31:20: The asthma was something they would not deal with because of the jungle.
Jen Weidner 31:24: Right.
Rick Elliott 31:25: And a cough in the jungle.
Jen Weidner 31:27: It would have been so wet and horrible.
Rick Elliott 31:29: Right. So, I remember I was ready to go, but didn't go, man. So many of my friends went. A lot of them didn't come back. I know a lot of them I went to school with didn't come back. But, that's kind of the story. My high school, it was, it was actually a fun time. I'd like to go back and just think about things through high school. We'd go, We'd go up to Clifty Falls [State Park] for a day, just hanging out, you know, walk around, watch. There's a pool up there. We would go swimming pool. We probably snuck in a beer or two.
Jen Weidner 32:24: That's probably expected.
Rick Elliott 32:25: Yes, all the expected stuff. But it was pretty tame compared to...
Jen Weidner 32:34: Compared to today. Yeah, exactly. So what did you study it IUS?
Rick Elliott 32:40: Business. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I know I didn't want teach at the time. And then after I got through it, I said I could have taught. What was I thinking? I still wasn't really good at math but I could have got through it. But I wouldn't. I'll just take business courses. And anyway, I ended up going two years, and dropped out. I dropped out after I realized I wasn't going to go into service. And I thought I'm going to get a job. Tried to get on at Colgate, Ford. Two big ones. Well, Colgates, I had had a real good inside track. I had got inside but I wasn't related to anybody and that kind of hurt me a little bit. And then Ford. I wouldn't I just winged it. And then, when I was 20. I had odd jobs. I worked at Kellers hardware in Youngstown [Shopping Center].
Jen Weidner 33:49: Oh, yeah.
Rick Elliott 33:50: What a life. I've learned so my skill and learned how to mix paint and cut glass. Use a tape measure.
Jen Weidner 33:57: A little bit of everything.
Rick Elliott 33:58: Nails screws. You know.
Jen Weidner 34:01: So what did you ultimately end up doing with your career?
Rick Elliott 34:05: Well, I ended up going. It's funny. I'm back. My next door neighbor behind me to the... On my back door to the left was the Chief of Police.
Jen Weidner 34:17: And what was his name?
Rick Elliott 34:20: Marian Decker.
Jen Weidner 34:21: Okay
Rick Elliott 34:22: And Marian had asked. He was looking for about, five people to hire, and he asked me about it. And I said, Now you have to be kidding. No, no. Think about it. Think about it. So I thought about it. Talked to my parents. My dad said, you could always try. So, I said I might do that, I wasn't getting any work at Colgates. I wasn't getting any work at Ford part-time jobs were okay but sooner or later I had to do something.
Jen Weidner 35:00: Full-time.
Rick Elliott 35:01: Yes. I needed something serious. So I, I told Chief Deckard, that's it. I'll give it a try. And that was in 197_ when I was hired. December. And I stayed there 22 years, 22 and a half years. And back then, I could retire after 20 with a good pension. So it was a good deal. glad I did it.
Jen Weidner 35:37: Well, maybe one day I'll do an oral history project about the police evolution at the police department.
Rick Elliott 35:43: You've got one right now. You did talk to Jerry. He's got more stories than I could ever...
Jen Weidner 35:48: Yes, yes.
Rick Elliott 35:50: Some of them were with me, but he'll remember them and I'll deny them. No, he's, he's, he's old school, him and Parker, Buddy Parker’s old school. Only two, Roger Singer. He's still alive, he's 90. Most all the other ones are gone.
Jen Weidner 36:12: Yeah.
Rick Elliott 36:13: Yeah.
Jen Weidner 36:13: Okay. Was there anything else you'd like to add?
Rick Elliott 36:15: Oh I don't know what else. I got my foot in my mouth.
Jen Weidner 36:18: Well, I thank you so much for coming out.
Rick Elliott 36:21: I enjoyed it.
Jen Weidner 36:21: Amid the, you know, the pandemic we have going on.
Rick Elliott 36:24: Well, I had. I'm glad I think this would be neat. You doing that.
Jen Weidner 36:29 Well, I will be sure to get you a copy of it and let you know where we house it so you can let all your family and friends know about it.
Rick Elliott 36:36: Well, won't let my friends know about it and family. I don't Facebook (laughing)
Jen Weidner 36:45: Okay, we're done recording.
This was recorded on August 12, 2020 at the Jeffersonville Township Public Library.