Difference between revisions of "Robin Young Interview"

Latest revision as of 07:48, 21 July 2011

From: Robin Young (R.Y) Medium: Flip Camera (film and audio) Date: May 10, 2011 Place: Home of Robin Young, 709 Macalan Dr., Marion, Indiana 46952 Collected by: Megan Young (M.Y)

M.Y- Today’s date is May 10, 2011. The interview is taking place at 709 Macalan Dr. I am interviewing Robin Young and his birthday is February 2, 1961. The people present at the interview include Robin Young and myself Megan Young. Do I have permission to interview you?

R.Y- Yes you do

M.Y- Um how many years did you attend Marion High School?

R.Y-Three years 1977 ’78,’79

M.Y- Um where were you living at the time?

R.Y-2322 Home Ave. here in Marion, In.

M.Y- Describe your family and siblings.

R.Y- I lived with my mother and my father. My dads name was Jim; my mom’s name was Ruth. I had one sister and her name was Michelle.

M.Y-Do you remember your classes, teachers, or classmates.

R.Y-Yes I do

M.Y-Um can you tell me little more about that?

R.Y-Yeah I can remember um my math teacher Mr. uh Albridge. I can remember English Mrs. Daywall. Which was actually one of my favorite classes. Um I had etymology and I was always good at spelling but she really helped me out when I went to college.

M.Y-Alright um what was your most important experience while at MHS?

R.Y- Learning to do research papers, um and getting a good education that prepared me for college.

M.Y-Um what sports did you play at Marion High School?

R.Y- I played baseball, I started baseball for three years ’77,’78 and ’79.

M.Y-Um what was the greatest difficulty at Marion High School?

R.Y- The greatest difficulty at Marion High School would have been back then the class sizes and uh getting from one class to another. We were the second largest school in the state in ’78 an ’79 and that was with only three grades 10th, 11th, and 12th, very crowded.

M.Y- Is there any other teachers or classes you remember?

R.Y- Yeah I remember psychology with Mr. Crouch. Um I had uh I think two classes with him in psychology. I really enjoyed that. He had um a very wonderful personality he was really witty and funny. Um I remember him telling a lot of stories and it seemed he related um the stories to the um the lesson plan where it was easier to remember what he was talking about. Um I just very much enjoyed that class; it was one of my favorite classes. I also remember um Mr. Andrews who has passed away a few years ago. Mr. Andrews not only was a really good coach as far as football and wrestling, but Mr. Andrews really did a great a job of teaching science classes and I had mum classes with animals and stuff like that. Where um we had, he would bring foxes and other kind of animals in. It was really interesting. I don’t believe I would of ever took a class if I hadn’t known him and liked him. Once I got in there the class was very interesting. Um there was other other classes that I remember. I had a um business class with Mr. Paige who is also diseased. Um but these guys really um made the classes interesting and I enjoyed taking classes from them. Um one of the other classes I remember I really enjoyed was um American government by Mr.Philbert with Mr.Philbert um Mr.Philbert had served in Vietnam in the United States Army. And a lot of his stories that he would tell in class were related to his experiences in Vietnam and other and um other soldiers. Um it was very interesting. I learned a lot in that class and enjoyed it. I mean I had heard a lot of people um talk about not liking American government or some of those classes but again it was one of my favorite classes and I enjoyed it um one of the other classes that I um took was uh Mrs.Owensby, its Owensby now. Her name was Bobbie Smith at the time when I had her. Now it’s Mrs. Owensby. Um it was a modern kind of a modern news news class. I can’t remember the name of the class but we gathered news and current news and events I believe was the name of it. Um… we read articles and um did research on modern problems or modern events, current events. It was very interesting it kept us up on the um things that were going on daily such as at that point and time when I had that class, Jimmy Carter, I believe it was my sophomore year, Jimmy Carter was running for president. Um and she also got us… and he got elected and she also got us down there that class. I don’t remember if it was sophomore it may have been later um but she got us interested in the politics. And then I’ve voted every year since high school and I haven’t missed any elections.

M. Y- What was school like for you?

R.Y – I loved high school. It was a good time for me. I enjoyed my classes and enjoyed being with my friends and um it was a great experience.

M.Y – Tell me about your most memorable experience at MHS.

R.Y – One of the most memorable experiences when I was at MHS was when I was a junior we knocked off one of the top rated teams around here in the sectional. That would probably be one of the most memorable experiences I had at Marion High School.

M.Y – Um tell me more about you’re um what you did for fun.

R.Y – What I did for fun…um I liked to, I used to fish quite a bit. I would hunt. Um I …we would went to watch movies and stuff. I did golf. I took up golf also.

M.Y – What was Marion like then?

R.Y – Marion was bigger than it is now. There were a lot more people. The, obviously, the school was bigger than it is now, but it just seemed like there was a lot more people. Um things did seem a little different. People seemed friendlier in the city than they do now.

M.Y – What did um…? Can you tell me anything about the prices of differently than they are now?

R. Y – Yea. I can remember when I first started driving gas was I believe it was 65cents a gallon. Um compared to right now on my way home it was $4.18 a gallon so that’s one of the biggest things. Uh I think milk was probably right around a dollar a gallon so not only have food prices changed gas prices have went up more than four times.

M. Y – Um what favorite musical group did you like back then?

R.Y – My favorite musical group when I was in school would have been Kansas.

M.Y – What do you did, you do after high school?

R. Y – After high school I went to Indiana Wesleyan University um and majored in business and I also played baseball there for four years.

M.Y – Um where do you work now?

R.Y – I am a detective with the Marion Police Department. Detective sergeant with the Marion Police Department.

M.Y – Where did you hang out with friends back then?

R.Y – We went to McDonalds north uh and Matter Park. It was both a big a big place to hang out with your friends.

M.Y – Um. Did you have a part time job or some sort of job back then?

R.Y – Yes I did. I worked at McDonalds part time. Um when I wasn’t playing ball I did. In the spring time I didn’t work but in the other times I worked at McDonalds part time.

M.Y – How much did that pay compared to now?

R. Y – Um I made a little over minimum wage when I was at McDonalds. Uh they started out they were pretty good about starting over minimum wage. I believe it was a little over three dollars an hour.

M.Y – What was the school spirit like back then?

R.Y – It was very high. There was, uh, when you would go to a basketball game back in those days you would in the late 70’s you would um there would be sold out crowds. There was about 7400 people.

M.Y – Um was there M Club back then or not?

R.Y – Yes there was a very big M Club

M.Y – Um Can you tell me about the T.V. shows back then?

R.Y – Um yea there, there’s a, actually there’s a remake now of Hawaii 5 – 0. Hawaii 5-0 was one of the big shows. Walton’s were big. Little House on the Prairie, I believe was in that time frame. There were several …Starsky and Hutch some of the shows like that were on.

M.Y – Um what was your favorite T.V show?

R.Y – My favorite T.V show would have been Hawaii 5-0.

M.Y – Um could you tell me about the telephones back then?

R.Y- Yea they were land lines. You didn’t have there was no such things as a cell phone when I was in school. All you had was a house phone.

M.Y – If you did have a cell phone back then what were they like?

R.Y – We didn’t have cell phones. I never saw a cell phone until after I was married. That was in my late 20’s.

M.Y – Um, What was the computer like back then?

R. Y – Computers would have been the size of you, a room. It would have been like a small room. They were huge. We didn’t have computers at the high school while I was there and as a matter of fact the first computer I would have worked on would have been in college.

M.Y – Um were there any electronical like devices like did they have IPODS or any kind of listening devices back then?

R.Y – No the only, you played your music. You had uh cassette tapes were big, you had records. We still had vinyl records. Um and you listened to the radio. We didn’t have IPODS.

M.Y – What awards did you get in baseball?

R.Y – During baseball I got um I got 3 awards. One my sophomore year, one my junior year, and one my senior year. Uh one of those was I believe it was co-most valuable player. Um then I also got uh three mental attitude award. Um the coaches always had said that I had good mental attitude and had a good attitude when I was playing.

M.Y – Um Tell me about your coaches.

R.Y – Uh the first coach I had as a sophomore who also who was also one of my coaches in Babe Ruth League at Lincoln Elementary or Lincoln School when we played at at that time was Mel Wysong. Uh Mr. Wysong actually I had him as a teacher at McCullough Junior High um in my 7th and 8th grade year. Uh then when I went to the high school he was the reserve coach when I first came up and uh and Mr. Wysong was a um really good coach uh he was actually a good friend to me. He was actually fairly young at the time, and hadn’t been out of school that long and um he would take us and we would go to the hotdog stand after the game and he really showed us a lot of of interest and a lot of one on one time as far as coaching abilities as far as coaching us. He also taught us a lot of valuable lessons. He was a good coach. Um my coaches once I got to high school at the varsity level was uh Mr. Art Caldwell who the baseball field at Marion High School was named after Mr. Caldwell. Um he was he had been around quite a while many years coaching at that time. He was an excellent person. He was a very kind man; he was a very moral man. He did things the right way. Um he… a lot of life lessons I learned was how to treat people how to treat players. I actually went on coaching myself some and my coaching resembled a lot of what he did. Um the assistant coach at the time on varsity was Mr. John Bradley who was an ex military man. And Mr. Bradley was one of my favorite all time people. Um I loved all three of those coaches to death and uh Mr. Bradley was one that I learned a lot of things from. Uh how to treat people. I learned a lot of life stories and how to be successful and how to do things. Those guys really in my line of work in being a police officer really helped develop a lot of my character when I was playing ball.

M.Y – Can you tell me about your normal day at high school?

R.Y – We started around 7:00 in the morning. Um we had lunch around 11:30, 12:00 somewhere around there and we got out about 2:30. I believe it was around 2 -2:30. I can’t remember the exact time. Um the lunchroom at that time we were the second largest school in the state of Indiana so our lunchroom was very crowded. Uh again there was only three grades, 10th, 11th, and 12th. Um but lunch was really crowded. Um it was hard to get a seat and it was very crowded.

M.Y- Um were the hallways very crowded during the day or was it hard to get to class?

R.Y – Yes. It was it was very hard especially when you got to building two where the stairwell was at. On either side you know on the southwest corner or the northwest corner of building 2 where the stairs are um it really became crowded. It was hard to move. It took every bit of your passing period to get from one class to another especially if you were in building 1 and had to go all the way to building 6 from building 2.

M.Y – Um Do you remember how long your passing periods were?

R.Y- I believe they were 7 minutes.

M.Y – Can you tell me about what happened when you had snow days or anything that caused you to miss school?

R.Y – Yea when we had snow days back when I was in school uh through high school. Uh we didn’t make those snow days up though. I can remember particularly a couple of years where we got out a week before Christmas break so we actually got out 3 weeks of Christmas break instead of 2. Um I can also remember uh getting more snow uh what same year after we got back from Christmas break, missing maybe another week of school but we didn’t have to make any of them up. So unlike you guys today where you have to make them snow days up, we didn’t never have to make anything up. Um I remember when I was in junior high even um at McCullough the lunch room was not completely done so they couldn’t have lunch so we went a half a day for the whole year when I was in 7th grade.

M.Y – Um could you tell me when school started like the time of year? R. Y – Yea, the school started uh after uh after Labor Day. Uh which was usually the first of September and we always got out right at Memorial Day depending on how it fell during the week but we went up to Memorial Day and we got out then.

M.Y – Um Do you um the strike can you tell me about the strike when you were in school?

R.Y – Yea, I can’t remember the exact year but when I was in high school uh the Marion teachers from in the community was on strike and I don’t remember which school year I was in, which year in high school but they had a strike and there was uh big articles in the newspapers um and it was quite the thing at the time.

M.Y – How long did it last?

R. Y – Um, it lasted a few weeks. I can’t remember I believe it was a few weeks. I know it was right… we didn’t start school on time because of it. Um I do remember that um most of the kids including myself supported the teachers because we felt that they were not being treated fairly. We all felt like that the um and I still do to this day feel like that they did the right thing and and uh I believe that the teachers now are benefitting from those teachers who went out on strike and did what they felt was right.

M.Y – What car did you drive in high school?

R.Y – Um, I drove a 1970 Buick La Sabre.

M.Y – Um what car would you have liked to have drove back then?

R.Y- I would have liked to have drove, had a 65 Mustang/

M.Y – Um, can you tell me what kids wore to school back then?

R. Y – We wore tennis shoes, blue jeans, and either wore you dress shirts or something out or t-shirts.

M.Y - Um, also were the rules stricter back then or do you think they were not as strict?

R.Y – I don’t think they’re any stricter. We didn’t have a dress code or the dress code is probably more lax then it is now.

M.Y – Um, thank you for the interview.

R.Y – You’re welcome.