The Year: 1967
The Moment: The first time I set eyes on Bill Shimon
The Location: DMT gym
At the end of this post: The Rolfe RAM 1967 yearbook
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In an earlier post I wrote about Rolfe girls’basketball and DMT. I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that it was at DMT where, as an 11-year-old in 1967, I first set eyes on Bill. We were married in 1975.
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Bill in 8th grade (Fall 1966)
Me in 6th grade (Fall 1966)
It was awards assembly time at the end of the 1966-67 school year…Bill’s 8th-grade year, my sixth-grade year. The DMT gym had three rows of bleachers (along just one side of the gym?). The junior high student body, actually grades 6 through 8, was sitting on those bleachers.
Our beloved principal, Lyle Foster, was standing in the middle of the gym floor announcing the names of award recipients. It came time for him to announce what I recall as the “good guy” award (because I can’t remember the exact name Mr. Foster gave to it). Lyle described the award and then announced that the recipient of this award “is Bill Shimon.”
I remember Bill’s butch haircut and husky frame as he stepped onto the gym floor to receive the award. To this day, each and every day I think of Bill as still deserving a “good guy” award. Sigh.
1967 Rolfe RAM Yearbook
Click once on any of the following to enlarge. Twice for even more magnification.** A heads-up for anyone unaware is that in the yearbook some of the names are misspelled.
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*”DMT” was the rural Des Moines Township school building ~5 miles northeast of Rolfe, Iowa.
**I have these files saved in larger sizes. If you have a need for any of them, please feel free to let me know. mariongundersonart@gmail.com
(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)
Marion Gunderson Art (and the Farmer's Daughter) 
May 23, 2011 at 5:19 pm |
It took me forever to put this post together. I ended up scanning the yearbook 1 1/2 times before I figured out a format that would provide decent images once uploaded. I first tried pdf multi-page files, but so much quality was lost during the upload process.
Time will tell if I include other yearbooks at this blog. If they become available somewhere else I’ll be glad to enjoy them at whatever other site picks them up!
May 23, 2011 at 7:33 pm |
Bill – such a good guy!
May 23, 2011 at 8:05 pm |
I love the story. And you both are so cute. Does that mean that Bill never grew up cause he’s still a good guy?!?
May 23, 2011 at 9:07 pm |
Do you think he noticed you then, too? Or had he already noticed you? And was it more than just noticing?
Actually, I remember Bill from much earlier. On a rare occasion I rode on his bus route when I stayed overnight with Olerich’s or with classmates who lived south of the six mile corner. I remember when John and Bonnie and the little boys lived across from Clara Shimon’s. Little Billy Shimon must have been in kindergarten or first grade when I first saw him. And I knew he was Jackie Flaherty’s (my classmate) nephew.
May 23, 2011 at 9:31 pm |
First to Clara’s response: I just asked Bill when he remembers that he first knew me. He said “Five months ago!” What a stinker! A good-guy stinker! Then I asked him if it was when he was in high school and he said probably so. (Hmmm…we didn’t start dating until he was a senior, so “high school” leaves a lot of room for when he first knew me.)
And, Clara, Marti and Jeff: Thanks for your fun comments. Everyone likes warm fuzzies, and I enjoy yours. Marti, you’ve got something there that Bill definitely is young at heart (as are all of the outlaws!), so I guess he did stay in the youthful stage! At restaurants it seems like they more often think he hasn’t grown up, as opposed to me, for until about five years ago servers were still IDing him, but not IDing me.
Clara: Some of the stories that I hear little Billy Shimon and his brothers tell about living on Highway 44 (15 now) when they had babysitters…I’m sure glad I didn’t babysit for five boys!