The first thing you see when you walk [...]]]>

When I stopped by the new Central High School to pick up a copy of the Centennial book, I couldn’t believe I was in a high school library. It felt more like a coffee shop than Mrs. Wilcox’s study hall that served as my freshman homeroom.

The first thing you see when you walk into the library is a small lobby with a catalpa and sycamore sculpture by art instructor Robert C. Friedrich III. The work, “Mind, Body & Soul,” was commissioned by librarian Julia Howes Jorgensen “To Honor Her Family’s Three Generations of Central Graduates.”

She said that the “experts” would consider the small alcove wasted space, but she thinks it’s important to have a place where students can scrape off teenage angst and “decompress” before entering the library. “You remember all the drama, with the cat fights between boyfriends and girlfriends…”

Bright, airy, inviting

Julia said she was given extraordinary latitude in designing the space. She figured it was because she was “Old Cape;” a Class of 1969 graduate “along with Rush Limbaugh” (and, Koran-burner Terry Jones, I added), and had been librarian since 1985. “I live here. I know Cape and our students. I’ve taught here. I knew what we needed.”

It is clearly a non-shushing library. There’s enough space that students can collaborate on projects or talk quietly without interfering with their neighbors. The facility is open from 7 a.m. to 3:30. Julia says students are frequently waiting for her to swing the doors open in the morning.

Craig Thomas murals and art

She brought in local artist Craig Thomas to do paintings and murals. It was a great learning experience for the art students to see him set up his scaffolding and create his work. He was able to communicate to them that “it’s great work, but you really need a spouse with life insurance, too.”

The fireman’s pole in the corner of the room came from the Pacific campus.

The Bookend raises money for books

The coffee shop feeling is enhanced by The Bookend, a self-serve, honor system counter where students can buy popcorn, hot chocolate or cappuccino for 50 cents. The money goes to buy “extra” books. “The district buys the first copy of a book, but I use the proceeds from The Bookend to purchase the second, third or fourth copy of books that are ‘hot.’”

She also tries to stock bestsellers, when appropriate, so that students and faculty members have an opportunity to read a book by an author they saw on a late-night talk show .

Scrounging 101

Julia is an expert at scrounging useful items. Some of the tables in the library came from a Barnes & Noble bookstore that was moving. They were destined for the dumpster when she stepped up to take them.

Links to the past

She’s also rescued key items from the Pacific Street and Caruthers high schools. This artwork and books came from “our” Central. There are patriotic posters and a room directory taken from what is now Schultz Senior Apartments.

There’s a whole shelf of Girardot yearbooks. “That’s how you can tell I’m not a real librarian,” she said, “because I make them available to the students. It’s their school. If they want to look up what grandpa or an aunt or an uncle looked like, they shouldn’t have to beg my permission. They’re always available.”

Students can look into library

There are small windows set high in the room that allow students in the second-floor classrooms around it to look down into the library.

Her father’s uniform

One of the items on display is Julia’s dad’s uniform from World War II. When students remark about how small he was, she tells them that “when you walk the length of Italy, you get that way.”

Cape Central High through the years

If you want to see how the high school and the students have changed – and remained much the same – over the past 100 years, you can order the Cape Central High School Centennial book from a link on this page. Or, you can stop by to see Julia and her showcase library. That, alone, is worth the $50 book price.

Photos of Central’s library in the ’60s

• Photos in and around the Central library and other libraries
• Central snapshots, including the library / study hall

Photo gallery of new library

Here are additional photos of the new library. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery.

Several of the high school newsletters had mentioned that Central’s librarian, Julia Howes Jogensen, had put together a book, Cape Central High School Centennial to celebrate [...]]]>

Cape Central High School, in all its forms, will be 100 years old in 2012. Despite what some people may think, I was NOT in the inaugural class.

Several of the high school newsletters had mentioned that Central’s librarian, Julia Howes Jogensen, had put together a book, Cape Central High School Centennial to celebrate the occasion. One of my first stops when I got to Cape this fall was the CHS library to see if they had sold out of the books. Fortunately, they hadn’t.

It’s a very nice, yearbook-style book with 120 pages of photos and stories about Central High School, from the very first days right up to the present time. The 1950-1960s eras are well-documented. In fact, I saw three or four of my yearbook shots in it.

How do I get a Centennial book?

How can you get a copy of the book? If you see a photo of cheerleaders, the Alma Mater or the Centennial logo at the top of this page, click on it to go to the merchandise website.

Otherwise, send a check for $50 made out to Cape Central High School (memo line: Centennial book)

 Cape Central High School

1000 South Silver Springs Road

Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63703

Attn: Julia Jorgensen

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed looking through my copy. I noticed on the merchandise webpage that limited numbers of old high school yearbooks were available. I’m not sure if there are any left.

Photo gallery from the book

This is just a sample of some of the photos that are in the Centennial book. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery. I’ll be bringing you current pictures of Julia’s new Central High School library in the next day or so. It’s nothing like the sterile, shushing study hall we remember.

Julia Howes Jorgensen, Central High School librarian, and I met to talk about running an advertisement for the Cape Central High [...]]]>

What’s a fire pole doing in the new Central High School library? (I wonder how long the Pacific Street Central High students called our high school on Caruthers the “new” Central High School?)

Julia Howes Jorgensen, Central High School librarian, and I met to talk about running an advertisement for the Cape Central High School Centennial book. We’ll go into more detail about that, probably when I get back to Florida. With luck, I’ll be wheels-up Sunday and home by Monday night.

Anyway, there was this fire pole with some bunker gear on top of it over in the corner, so I assumed that had something to do with career day or the like.

Mrs. Jorgensen, Class of 1969, pointed to a plaque to its left: “Thousands of Central Students used this Fireman’s Pole to go from classrooms to the gym floor at Central High on Pacific Street from 1917 to 1963. Donated by the Class of ’54..”

She said that Coach Lou Muegge was known to stand at the base of the pole with his “Character Builder,” taking swats at students who lolly-gagged coming down the pole, who didn’t display the proper take-no-prisoners attitude or who just happened to be the last to slide down.

Bench from girls’ locker room

Outside the library, she had scrounged desks and other memorabilia, including this wooden bench from Central’s girls’ locker room. Even if the statute of limitations hadn’t run out, I wouldn’t admit to having ever seen it before today.

Here’s what’s happened to the Central High School on Pacific. It’s been turned into some of the nicest senior apartments I’ve seen anywhere.

One of my photos illustrated a an April 7, 1967, Margaret Randol feature on “Bye, Bye, Birdie” on The Missourian’s Youth Page.

The caption read, Bruce Huebel, Gary Sides, Richard Harter and Charles Holt, who are playing Shriners in Central’s “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” look up in confusion at Rosie (Miss Barbara [...]]]>

One of my photos illustrated a an April 7, 1967, Margaret Randol feature on “Bye, Bye, Birdie” on The Missourian’s Youth Page.

The caption read, Bruce Huebel, Gary Sides, Richard Harter and Charles Holt, who are playing Shriners in Central’s “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” look up in confusion at Rosie (Miss Barbara Nunnelly), who broke into their meeting room and started dancing on their table. Bruce is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Huebel, 1109 North Main; Gary is the son of Mr. and Mrs. W.E. Side, Jr., 221 East Cape Rock Drive; Richard is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Austin G. Harter, 2526 Jonquil; Charles is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Grant T. Holt, 1835 Lacey, and Miss Nunnelly is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Gordon M. Nunnelly, 1432 Themis.

How do you serve a “Birdie?”

Miss Randol posed that as a question. Her answer:

Like any other delicacy you would prepare, a successful and appealing “Birdie” begins with the fixin’s.

The recipe calls for these ingredients:

• 3 fresh young directors
• 1 prepared orchestra
• 2 cups of talent
• 1 cup of patience
• 70 assorted (interested) pupils

Blend these ingredients for three months and add the support of the whole school to make the spirits rise.

Place this combination in a large, well-filled auditorium and serve.

Most successful musical ever produced

The directors, Mrs. Judy Williams, Mrs. Madeline DeJournett, and Bill Ewing, along with 70 members of the “Birdie” cast, have sacrificed leisure and work time – plus hours of sleep – to make “Bye, Bye, Birdie” the must successful musical ever produced at Central High School.

Rehearsals far from uneventful

The rehearsals have been far from uneventful, testifies Miss June Siemers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. R. Siemers, 1635 Brookwood. She said she was supposed to run the length of the stage into the arms of her waiting partner.

The running went fine, she explained. The flying through the air part was all right…it was when she missed her waiting (??) partner’s arms and landed on the opposite end of the stage that presented the difficulty, Miss Siemers related.

Production threatened by measles

The entire production was threatened when one of the cast came down with a case of measles. (But not everyone saw red and things have apparently turned out all right.)