Gordon Country School

The front row shows four boys. On the left is my lifetime best friend, Dwight Ressler, then me, Abe Lincoln, and next is George Mowry and the kid with hands on both legs in Gene Ary. I believe this photograph was taken by Janice Sensenbaugh who walked home at Noon that day and picked up her camera and took this picture—that's the only reason she is not shown in the picture. There are 22 kids in this picture and my 1944 school picture only shows 23 but Janice had already moved on to high school at Arcanum and in the back row, second from the right end is Delores Flory who had gone on to high school in Verona.

This was a photograph taken by a traveling photographer who took the picture and then brought back prints to give students who had paid to get a copy. I think the cost was around $2.00 but in those days, my mother had to scrimp and save to come up with an extra couple of dollars for the picture.

Most kids have photographs taken of themselves at school. Back in the day, before traveling photographers visited schools for the purpose of taking student pictures, for yearbooks and nice 8x10s to hang on the walls at home, a rich kid would come to school armed with a Hawkeye Brownie or some such marvel and snap pictures. This is one of the latter and it shows a casual side of picture taking seldom seen in 8x10s hanging on walls. An "official" school photo is shown below.