Below are thumbnails representing pictures that I took during June of 2000 while I was in the area. There are captions describing each picture with a link to a larger version should you want a better look. This is Gowrie, Iowa. I went to Junior High and High School here from the fall of 1976 to the spring 1983 when I graduated. At the time is was Prairie Junior High and High school. The school housed grades 7-12. At times we had approximately 250 to 300 students there. That is small town Iowa. Prairie was a consolidated school district. The towns represented were Moorland, Callender, Gowrie and Lanyon. (At least these were the incorporated towns. Gowrie is a town of about 1200 people. The school district is now Prairie Valley. It combined its resources with the Cedar Valley school district. Now at this school are the just the high school kids. It has changed dramatically. These pictures were taken on a personally guided tour by my vocal teacher Mary Egger. She started teaching in the school district in 1968, the same year my father started in the school district. Mary retired this year. It was great to see her! You may check out the current Prairie Valley web site at Prairie Valley School
I did this to record where I came from. It was something that I felt I needed to do. I doubt anyone will enjoy them as much as I will. However, please feel free to contact me should you have any comments and/or questions. Thank you.
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This is the school entrance. Inside to the left is the school gym. I walked through these doors many, many times. |
This is a view looking west at the school. |
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Here's a plaque commemorating the Gowrie school addition in 1953. |
Here's the trophy case. It is next to the gym. This is probably a case of me being a shutterbug. Oh well! |
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This is what used to be the Junior High hallway. Our classrooms are on the left. The first door on the left was our eighth grade English classroom. Mrs. Hagen (now retired) taught this. She was clearly one of my favorite teachers. She had a reputation for being strict and made you understand grammar. To this day I could recite all of the helping verbs from memory because of this class. The last classroom on the left is Mary Egger's classroom. I once practiced for a solo with my dad in that room. He played the piano while I sang. I was rehearsing to try out for a part in a musical. To this day, I don't think that I could sing that well. At least I tried. |
This hallway is was the lunchroom and classroom hallway that was partially underground. To the right was a hallway to the "old gym". This is where we ate and had junior high dances. I can remember hanging out in this hallway during the dances talking with my friends. I even have a vivid memory of being in the lunch line in my freshman year being jabbed at by my friends about being "Little Jake" in the Irving Berlin musical "Annie Get Your Gun". |
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This is the second floor hallway. I am in the picture. Mary Egger politely took this picture. It seems so much smaller. There are many memories from roaming this hallway as a high school student. I had American history in the classroom on the right, typing down the hall on the left with Mr. Sam Tvrdik (who is still teaching there.) The 9th, 10th and some 11th graders locker rooms were on this floor. It was a popular meeting place between classes. |
This is the English classroom on the third floor. I took 9th grade English there as well as English composition in the 12th grade. It is amazing how small the room looks now as compared to when I was there many years ago. |
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This is a picture of the current chemistry and physics classroom. The room has been altered since I graduated. From the camera's viewpoint there would be a wall and a chalkboard where I took the picture. We used to kid with Mr. Sorenson about the Sputnik equipment that we had. He was a good natured teacher and is still with the school. We used all the equipment you see there for our chemistry and physics classes. |
This was my American History classroom. Mr. Dean Bastow taught this class and quite a good teacher. I learned in this class how to take better notes and outline chapters. I found that I liked American History a lot. I'm guessing that this came from my father who taught American History early in his teaching career before focusing on music. |
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This is a shot of Mary Egger's music library. It does not begin to show how much music is archived here. She finally got a separate room for this apparently after I graduated. I remember these boxes vividly. |
All the articles on this wall represent mementos from all of the musicals that Mary Egger worked on in her tenure at Prairie. I would point out ones that I was in but they are hard to find. If you have time, they are Annie Get Your Gun, South Pacific, Anything Goes, and Li'l Abner. |
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This is my dad's former office. It was not quite as big. The knocked out a wall behind the desk to make for more room. To former students, they removed the tunnel between the old gym and new gym. I can remember many times talking to my dad in this very office. |
This is a plaque commemorating the building being built in 1923. |
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This is the concession stand. Yeah, so what you say. Well, I have memories of getting a lot of hot chocolate here to keep warm during football games and the like. |
Here's the entrance to the grandstand looking from the concession stand. |
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This is a view of the grandstand from the field. As a band member and a football team manager, this view is very, very familiar. |
This is a view looking north from the football field. As you may see it is quite flat out there. There's a yellow spec just to the right of center of the picture that represents the Callender water tower six miles away. |
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This is a picture one of the Gowrie parks. It is adjacent to the pool. We had our 5 year reunion here in 1988. |
This is a picture of the swimming pool as seen from the football field looking west. I can remember taking swimming lessons here and freezing my tail off. I still cannot swim. I'm sure it is not the result of the lessons but rather my lack of coordination. |
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