Uncovering History with the FISD Schools Museum

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 2 of Friendswood ISD’s The Podcast with Kelsey Golz and Sofia Armintor! We're kicking off the season with a fascinating dive into the history of our district. For this episode, we’re joined by Friendswood Schools Museum volunteers Mark Parmenter and Judy Connors. They’ll share the inspiration behind the museum, the process of curating its unique artifacts, and some of the most surprising stories hidden within its walls. With FISD celebrating 85 years, we’ll also uncover lesser-known pieces of district history and discuss how the community can help preserve this legacy for future generations. Don’t miss this epic journey through time!

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1 Went in there and I heard people talking about it and it seemed like a great response. 2 Some place said probably came in and said we could spend more time. 3 Yes, that's exactly what I thought. You know, I went in and there was so much right there in the entrance. Yes. I went and I had to walk down the hallway and it was like, I guess I'm going to do my job now. 2 Seriously, after ten years, I see something different every time I go in the museum. Something new, Something different. Yeah, well, people. 4 Are always bringing us stuff. Yeah, that's new. 1 We just got an email. I know. I think we're maybe a part of that where I forwarded it, I think. Well, maybe it was Pat. Yes. Where someone was reaching out with something. They had something to donate. 4 So that was Cheryl's husband? Yes. And he she had a bunch of her paperwork at her house. 1 Oh, okay. I thought it was a woman who had, like, a old cut out thing. Anyway, there was a there was a woman who who reached out recently. 2 And while in the time capsule was just also posted. Pat posted that recently. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't I haven't heard about that. But that is what we're finding is the alumni, friends of the alumni before this got started and those old people older people are dying and their kids are going through their stuff and as they go through their stuff, they're going, Oh my gosh, look at this, Look at this. 2 Look. We can't how can what we can do with this? And then they contact us and they bring us this treasure, these treasures of things that were like, oh, gosh, something we've never had before. 1 Yeah. 2 So that's kind of how we get things. Just kind of give. 4 You an example. Each letter jacket is unique to each each one of them, so there's not one that's better than this one or that one. They're all unique the year, the patches that are on them, you know, every single one of them is unique. And so we may not be able to put them all out, but we do. 4 We do have them and we do like to, you know, display them. And if we have a special event, we may pull some pull everything we've got out, like. 2 There's a 50 year reunion coming up this year. So we'll gather all the mementos and memorabilia and artifacts that we have from that that class. 4 Of 75. 2 Yes, exactly. 4 And so first, my sister was in. 2 Yes. And I think I think we will either do a display or they may use it at the reunion. They're planning one right now. 1 Okay. Well, great. Well, you know what? I think that that rolls this right into a welcome to Season four episode two of the podcast with Kelsey. 3 Gold and Sophia Armenta. 1 We're excited to have you join us today as we dive into all things feisty share updates, stories and insights from around our district. Whether you're a student, parent, teacher or community member, we are so glad you're tuning in. And today we're extra excited because we're joined by two awesome people, two of our Friendswood Schools Museum's volunteers, Mark Parmenter and Judy Ballard, Connors Yay! 1 Welcome. We're excited to have you all. 4 I thank you for having me. 2 Thank you. Happy to hear. 1 You. So I guess let's start off with just tell us a little bit like what is the Friendswood School's museum? How did it get started for people who don't know anything about it? 2 This got started. Patricia, thanks. So big shout out to her. Trish had visited other school districts. I'd heard about other school districts having a museum, so she went and visited several of them. She pitched that idea to the Fire Safety Board. They approved the use of this old junior high school building for the museum, and Sheryl's name came up as a person very interested in history. 2 That might be a person to she could speak with about getting this thing started. Sure was a 1962 French of high school graduate class valedictorian and Trisha. She believed that both the best people to be involved in the building would be alumni. So Cheryl gathered those people that she went to school with. And I was fortunate to be one of those and the others are. 2 And I'd like to mention those names are Laurie Abbott, Laurie Shannon Bearcat, Pam Weaver, Rogers, Carolyn Bikers, Simms, Terry biker by Digger and a Phelps and Marilyn and Ed Beacon, Pat, terrific as a school librarian was also a part of our team and because of the original boxes of other artifacts and treasures that we had for our friend Dr. Kennedy, who had stored them for over 56 years during her tenure here in Friendswood, so that she was a coach, she was a teacher, she was a principal, and she had assistant superintendent. 2 So the treasures that we uncovered were unbelievably remarkable. And we reached out to began to reach out to the community, to donate the yearbooks, the school jackets, and the school museum was born. 1 That is. So it's not a small undertaking what y'all have accomplished. Right. So what what drove this group to say, this is important. We want to we want to do this? 2 Well, I'll have to give Cheryl credit for that. She Trish had the vision. Cheryl took it from there. We spent 9 to 12 months just sorting boxes by date, by decades. And once we had the sorting done, the boxes were all moved over to the high school. And then once they had, they were moved over to the junior high school. 2 Then we dedicated rooms. So but Cheryl really had a deep passion for history and the Friendswood school history and the community history. Joy Sonia Baker, we brought her on board. She was our historian expert. We would go to her to make sure we were on track and everything, and it was just a passion. We were all just having so much fun. 2 It was so much fun to relive our life because we all went through school in that school since 1950. And so it was really a passion. We all had. And each year again, Trish and Thad Raw were gracious with all of our requests and funded the repairs and the updates to the building. And then a huge thanks to Dr. Kennedy, who preserved 56 years of banquet programs, for example, on purple paper. 2 So the artifacts have been stored in the building and they were sent to the museum. And we have done our best to do the best job we possibly could to make them come. A lot for other people. 4 And really, that building is a natural for that. I mean, that building is 85 years old now. It was built in 1939 for $100,000. I think it was. That was the bond for that building. Wow. And it was eight classrooms and a gymnasium auditorium. So like I said, it's the perfect place to house that. 2 And it has held series one through 12. Yes. And it was I understanding historically, he said at the time was a state of the art structure built. I can't remember the name of the architect, but he's built several other very amazing buildings in this area during our lifetime. So it was it was really something that this little bitty community of 500 people put together. 2 And that was where the vision really started for Sam. 1 It's pretty amazing. And you mentioned Cheryl, and we unfortunately lost Cheryl recently, but she was oh, my gosh, such a such a powerhouse in this community and with the school's museum. And and Mark, you've you've kind of stepped in and kind of taken over some of that lead. What made you want to do that? 4 Well, quite honestly, I got laid off in 2019 and retired in 2021, and I just kind of showed up and they kind of said, dive in. And, you know, and my first assignment was before yearbooks went digital and each page was an envelope, which with a with four carbons on the front of it that did the layout of the page and the pictures went in the envelope and Dr. Kennedy signed off on every single page. 4 Oh. 1 My God. 4 Okay. Many of those were part of what was kept. And so I sorted them. I sorted them by year and by page number some yearbooks. We have almost all the pages, some yearbooks, we may have ten or 12. So it's a real hit and miss as to what survived over the years. But to a large degree those items are cataloged and being is the pictures are originals. 4 If someone needed a quality picture and we had that, we could give them a quality picture for that kind of thing. 1 Now, you said you went through all the pages. If you had to guess, how many pages did you go through? 4 Well, let's see the I have pictures from the mid-fifties to the late seventies, 75. I have the most it was like 200 and something odd pages we have of that, 62 is like ten pages. 1 So you're saying somewhere in the ballpark of about 17 million pages, you don't know. Just take extra credit for. 3 Giving you that. 4 Well, and it's not done yet. I still have more to do. 2 So Dr. Kennedy was also taught journalism. So that was where, you know, it started with her and her record keeping with that. So that's probably where you saw that. 4 And she had her camera with her every time something was happening. And it was a it was a Rolex format camera. So the negatives are quite large, which means if you have a negative, you can make a very high quality picture with it. 1 Well, and it sounds like Dr. Kennedy really provided a lot of at least the initial pieces to the museum. But now we kind of talked about it earlier. You said people reach out with things. So what's what's your process of of gathering and curating those items that come into the museum? 4 Well, we've just made a decision to do it a little different in that we're going to empty one of the display cases in the hallway. And as people bring stuff in, we're going to put them in the display case so that we can say, see, here's what people are bringing. And then after about 30 or 60 days, we'll move it to our storage area to put into other exhibits kind of things. 4 But we're trying to to give the public an idea of what's coming through the door. 1 Very nice. Well, that's pretty cool. 3 I had the pleasure of going to the museum early year just the other day. We were talking about it earlier and I adored how each room has kind of its own theme for the different clubs and stuff, especially the mock classroom that you guys have. I think that's probably my favorite room. 1 And she loves the fine arts room because she saw that one obviously first. And I said when we were opening the door to the old classroom, he said, Just wait. I think this one's going to beat it for you because it's just too cute not to end it. 3 And it did. It definitely did. Even though Fine Arts was pretty close up there. Yeah. So I'm curious of some of the items that are in the museum. Are there any interesting stories connected to some of maybe your favorites? 4 Well. 2 Go ahead. 4 I we have a picture book for every musical that was done, but we were short a few. And in my picture search, I stumbled across some negatives, which were not the primary pictures that went in the yearbook and on the wall, if you remember, the the auditorium where we had the pictures on the wall, they were the seconds, but I scanned those and put those into a picture book so that we would have one for those musicals that we didn't have on the shelf kind of thing. 4 Oh, you know, and quite honestly, the sky's the limit. You know, my grandson, who went to Friendswood High School, graduated friends with high school. He was getting a mom and my wife was getting in the middle of all that. And so I decided I had pictures of hers that I had given her. So I took it by one of the local grocery stores and the flower lady there built one just like the one that I gave her. 4 Oh, wow. So and, and, and that's now on the wall with a picture of us next to it. 2 So if I could go back to the room, just a little note there. We attended schools, the elementary schools. There were two classes in each room. So when you saw that one room, a half the desk for first grade, half a dozen for second grade, and there's one teacher for both grades. And we had no air conditioning in those days. 2 Were big fans at the back of the room and that you know what? We just they just made it work. They just and we did, too. And we and we got promoted to the higher grade, which is sometimes just moved to the next room side of the room. Some funny stories, if you really want to know about things that really actually happened and are kind of meaningful is because we didn't have air conditioning and windows were always open. 2 And at lunch time it was not unusual to see the high school boys jumping out the windows and running to the cafeteria to see who could get there first for lunch. That happened. That happened. That happened a lot. You know, they just didn't get trouble for it or anything. So it was great. It was a great thing. And and the them, the school, the school district, when it began, it was really a vision of those founders of this community. 2 Yeah. Education was very, very important. And they wanted a top notch education for the young people that lived here then and the whole community. There were only 500 people. And so my class was 14, there were 14 in my class. Cheryl had seven and hers. And one of the interesting things that people always come in and Mark, I think you mentioned it as well as are the class pictures that are on the wall. 2 And some classes have two people there are, but they they were the first graduates and. 1 I'm not exactly so. 2 Somebody who has absolutely so few teachers, few students, you know, there was it was it was a remarkable, amazing time to attend school. 4 Yeah, I always have thought those pictures were unique and underused because before this museum, they were stored in a closet and pulled out in homecoming. That's the only time you saw them. And now we've got them on down the hallway the whole way. And people come in and go, That's me, that's my mom. You know that? That's so and so. 4 And that's a lot of fun. 3 Definitely, because I feel like you can you have the museum, you know, for like, the bigger city and people can go there any time, but sometimes they don't really resonate that much with the things that are in the museum, especially if they're super young and don't know any any history or anything. But, you know, in Friendswood, so much history happens in these small towns and there's nothing to kind of commemorate that. 3 So I think that it's really special that you guys have put it together because in my small town where I grew up, I even looked after the fact I Googled it and I said, does Galena Park have a have a museum? And it does not. And I was very disappointed because that's something I would have loved to see. 3 You know, my because I'm like a fourth generation at that same high school. And it would be really cool to see like my parents picture up on the hallway like that. 4 And everything has a story. You know, one of the stories I love to tell is the P.O. Box bank that we have. And the Friendswood community did. 3 See that with the combination, right? Yeah. 4 What people don't realize is there was no mail delivery in Friendswood until the mid sixties. When I got here in 63, you had to get a P.O. box. My P.O. box was 523, and you had to go to the post office to pick up your mail out of the P.O. box. Oh, so it was a place where everyone in the community went through the door at one time or another, and many time ran into each other and had conversations. 4 And, you know, it was a hub of the community. But with the Nassar expansion, they started the delivery and the and the I mean, they maintained a P.O. box, but people had the option of delivering it their house. 2 Then I can name you several people that have been in Friendswood for 70 years who still go to the post office and pick up their mail. But you're right, and it's so fun to be in there when an older person that attended went to school here. When we had those, they come in and they see the bank and there are names on it and they go choose their box. 1 Oh my. 2 And it's just the most wonderful moment you can ever imagine. And also the organ that we have. Yes, that was we got here, it was donated. And Marjorie Glines Browne and Carol Klein Von or the two organist that played that organ at their friend's church for many, many, many years. And they were gifted artists. We had a lot of pianists in town at the time. 2 In fact, the Noodles Ice Cream Scoop Shop, Mildred Gonzales top piano in that front room, and that was gift shop. Well, I wasn't. I just walked down to her house to take our little lessons from her. She was that wonderful, wonderful, wonderful family. 4 One lady that was a teacher for many years in the fifties, maybe even the forties and barely the sixties. Her name was Marie Boyle. Oh, she was my voice teacher. She had retired and all that kind of stuff. And and I was in musicals here. And so I got a little bit of training from her. And so, you know, I'd pick up things from her. 2 So did I. So did I. And she directed the choir. She taught Hobin economics and she was a call director of the French church, and she was Kenton Harris's football coach there in London. ALL Yeah. So everything was incredibly connected. 1 So connect. I think that's something I've, I've noticed from the very beginning is I grew up right down the road, but I grew up in Alvin. And when I started working here, like, one of the things that just struck me was like the first football game, like the whole community was coming out to that football game. I just thought it was so neat. 1 And then the more people you meet and talk to, it's like it's generations of people who have lived in this town and continued to come back. And even a lot of our teachers, they graduated from here. Most people, they don't want to go work back at the school they graduated from, but it's not that way here. People want to come and work here. 1 So it's just such a neat just there's a lot of charm to Friendswood and. 3 It kind of sounds like the museum isn't the only place that you can get a lot of Friendswood history, you know, like the scoop shop, the post office, or even just talking to some of the residents that have been here for a while that have talked and mingled with the entire community throughout the years, or maybe held certain positions that through the school, through the city kind of stuff like that. 2 At the museum, there are we do have some recordings of very like zoo bales. Yeah, we have recordings not of her, but of people who knew her and worked with her said that are very, very special. And so we have those at the museum available. But I wanted to mention as well that social media is how we really reach out to people. 2 But we love to have school groups come in and Melissa Victor, who does the Powells program at the high school, is one of those teachers that brings her panels every year for the visit and has them tour the building, She said. I want them to understand the connected part of this building and the history. So that they have the passion necessary as we move them out into their schools to work with kids that they know how this all really started. 2 And so she comes and we love to have the school groups. We also have small community like nursing home groups, senior center sitter groups that can contact the school, the the museum people and set up a private tour. We've had families who have grown up in Friendswood who've left and have family reunions and come back, and we have special tours for families to come and open the museum, to come back and revisit their young years. 2 And they absolutely love it. They absolutely love. 1 It. And that's something I think I've noticed just over time. I think maybe the transition center was a group who came over at one point anyway, I just I know that y'all are so willing to work with people because this is your passion. You love all of this history. And so if anyone's interested, even if you can't make it on those special days, they're open. 1 It's always such a great, just great idea to reach out and schedule some time to come see the museum. 4 Well, and once again, every single item has a story. 1 Yep. 4 I'm not a good photographer. I fix pictures after the fact, but I got one of the superintended explaining something that was on the wall to a group of about 12 students, and every face has a different reaction to what he's explaining to. And you know that just so unique. And so the stuff's there, but you got to have people to explain what they are. 1 Oh, yeah. And we did a so our district leadership team, we kicked off our our retreat, our retreat that was at the boardroom. 4 I don't. 1 Know. But we started off actually taking everyone over to the museum. Not everyone, even on our district leadership team, had been there. And it is our 85th anniversary, right, of friends, what I see. So we wanted to say like this is this is the foundation that we're building upon. So the we have such a strong legacy and we're we need to honor those who came before us and what we do moving forward. 1 So it was it was really neat to be able to to hear some of those stories and those connections. People seeing familiar faces on the walls and even talking about Burl Cline and how that's what led him to Friendswood through a connection his dad made. And anyway, it's just there's there's so many stories, like you said, and I think maybe with it being the 85th year, we might need to capture some of those. 4 And so years is one of the plans. I haven't done it yet, so don't ask me to do it tomorrow. But I want to get recording devices and people who attended the school to take it with them as they go through and and say their memory of this, that or the other. And we can kind of correlate that. 4 And, you know, I want as much input as we possibly can. 3 I think that's a great idea because it's the one room where you can go in, where you can bring a group of people in like everyone might resonate in a different way or have a different memory. And that would be really cool to see underneath an artifact maybe. 4 Well, it's very generational and quite honestly, of the emphasis has been in the sixties and seventies because that's the group to put it together. I really want to get something from the eighties and nineties in there. Unfortunately, people that graduated then are still working, so it's hard to volunteer and work at the same time. But yes, I want to extend the history as far out as we possibly can. 2 Yeah, when we initially started, we, we, we set the goal too because we were most familiar with the sixties and we were sixties and the seventies, so we felt a close connectedness there. Then we thought, we can't do any more than that. We've got to focus on these two decades. So that was the initial plan. And now I think we're ready to to move on and start bringing other other things. 2 And so it's come it's coming together and you'll begin to hear some of those names, like the clan name Con Canyon Elementary is named for Burl Kline. He was he was a veterinarian in Alvin, and that's his that was his brother. Okay. And so that is it's it's a lot of connectedness been and you just don't know that until you've lived here and come to the museum. 2 You know, it helps you connect all that absolutely. 3 Exactly. Well I know that we did talk about a lot of the artifacts already, but I was just curious myself, were there any that were particularly hard to come by or really hard to acquire? 4 Oh, well. 3 Do you have a story? Yes. 4 We have some life size of pictures of football. 3 I did see that. I did see that. 4 Okay. And that was done by Dickie Warren and Cesar Galli and maybe one or two others that I can't come to mind. So don't don't get mad at me for not saying the name. They adhere these pictures to sheet rock. All right. Sheet rock doesn't handle the time well, if it's not painted. And so they're deteriorating a little bit. 4 And and so but one of them was found in a antique shop in I think, Arkansas, and someone threw it out on social page. Hey, I saw so-and-so, you know, And his class said, we want it. And so they found a way. One of their class members was a truck driver. So she went up there and picked it up, paid for it, picked it up, brought it back, and the maintenance department put the frame around it and put it on the wall. 3 Wow. So this really is a huge collaborative effort. 4 Oh, yeah. Well, and your maintenance department is phenomenal about helping us not give them enough credit. They have responded quickly. They have done the things we needed to do. They've done it in a classy way. Okay. There's nothing chip shot about the work that they've been doing. The French church was nice enough to give us a cross cut of the oak tree they recently had to take down and the mains department turned it into a table. 3 Oh, wow. Oh, is that the one that's in the front room with this couch? Okay. Right. That's the. 4 Main this department did that. 3 Shout out to the maintenance department? 2 Shout out big show what they do. They're wonderful. 1 They are. 4 One of the things I would like to really find is lost items in other words, I came across of a little book, a little handbook, you know, just stapled soft back book called Impressions. And it was a collaboration between the Creative Writers Club and the art club, and the creative writers wrote poetry and short story and short essays and the art department wrote pictures to go with it. 4 As far as I know, I only have published editions from 73, 74 and 75. I would like to know when it really stopped and if there are any other years that we can get our hands on. Sure. 3 Especially eighties or nineties. 4 Right, Exactly. Exactly. Another example I'd throw out there is girl softball. They had a girl softball team in the sixties, but they don't now. So I would be curious about, you know, now the yearbooks are going to tell us what years and they're going to have some pictures about it. But you know I'm sure their stories to go with that. 4 But things that that happened before but aren't happening now. I just recently picked up on on a another thing that apparently the senior class does today. It's called Sunrise on the first day of school and sunset on the last night. 1 So senior sunrise. 2 Yep. 4 Yes. I'd like to know how long that's been going on and and because it wouldn't happen with me, to the best of my knowledge. So, you know, current traditions, what were their origins and old traditions? You know, why did they fade out? You know, who knows? Sure. But that's some of the. 2 Athletic and extracurricular rooms are the two are really favorite because large groups of kids participated and they really loved the old, old things. And and that's what we have. We have the 1960s and seventies, but we haven't more current. But but it's just a fascinating room, Lynn. I mean, this is still living is over 100 years old. He was the first voice of the Mustangs and we have his memorabilia on display in that room. 2 And it's just a treasure, so treasure that we no one can even imagine, and especially for those of us who grew up during that time. And so that that's a very, very popular room with a Wrangler arts. We'd love to have more of there. The Wrangler at our cheerleading things. We got some, but kind of we haven't gotten any in the last couple of years. 2 We'll have to have some more current ones, whether it's pictures or whatever. So we're just so happy to have anything anybody has that they would love to donate and have on display. 1 And how how would they what's the best way for them to contact you if they do have things to donate? 2 I think the best way is to contact the central office and the central office and contacts either Mark or Pat Pat at this time. And then we make arrangements for drop off or pick up. 4 We also have a Facebook page. I know that's passé for young people. 1 Oh, no, our Facebook is my number one. 4 Okay. All right. But, you know. 1 You know, you. 4 Can definitely get a hold of us that way. 1 Okay. And I will I will just note this, too. So on our on our website, my advice to you dot com, if you go under departments, there is a museum web page with some contact information as well. And their hours and days, they're open. So it's. 2 Great. Yes, that's wonderful. Yeah. We have our special we have a special events through the year which is under the Oaks and then upcoming would be Christmas. The Christmas tree Light lighting. Yes. 4 And and homecoming. 2 And homecoming. And the Christmas tree lighting is one of those traditions that we had before. When we were in school, in the cafeteria. There was a large just a large enough space. But the whole school could get there. And Mrs. Boyle, who was the choir director, would lead us all. And every morning we would all go down there and we would all have we've seen Christmas songs. 2 So Christmas carols as a group every morning before we started school. And so that that's a tradition that has always been a big Christmas tree was set up. And so that's part of the tradition. The museum is carrying on. 1 A love it. Yeah. And we actually the last couple of years have had student groups come out to and sing some carols. 2 Yes. 1 Which is an awesome crowd came. 2 Yeah. I mean, very, very wonderful. Yes. 1 Kids there, the parents grandparents are going to be there to air. 2 To you that that's exactly what that's how it works. 1 Yes. It's always such a nice tradition, Sophia. You'll get to be a part of that this year. 3 And I'm really excited for it. 1 Yeah, they have some great cookies. We'll give the cookies a shout out as well. Well, so with this being our 85th year, can you share some things about maybe some lesser known pieces of history from the districts that you've maybe learned while building out this museum? 2 Oh, well, lesser known saying, I mean, I don't know if it's history, but I can only tell you about a day in the life of a student at Friendswood in the 1960s when I started school here in 1951. So it was just kind of cute and the sun happened anymore. But at midmorning in the cafeteria, workers would come to each classroom with milk and a snack for us around 10:00 for the children in elementary school and that was super, super special. 2 Homemade. Everything was homemade, but everything in that cafeteria was homemade. The food was wonderful and it was such a rite of passage for us as children. As we went through school, we were an elementary and we just moved classroom to classroom to classroom. And there was there was a thick double line on the way. And on the other side of that line were the high school. 2 It was a high school lockers, and we didn't pass through cross and they didn't cross over. But that rite of passage is when you went from eighth grade and ninth grade and you got to cross over to that double line and you were in high school then, even though the lockers were side by side, it was just it kind of gives me chills right now. 2 Kind of a really big deal. 3 Yeah. 2 And so it was a and we were all very close with each other, but that was a big, big deal to go there. And like I said, grades K through 12 for the all in one building together. And during that time we had started the days a lot different than they do now. We had a very there were things we could do in school that we don't do now, like prayer the morning with the pledge. 2 It was a daily, daily and even scripture reading. So that was it's just was so different and it was so special for all of us. 4 One caveat I'll throw out there, the original 39 building had eight classrooms. They added four more on in 49 and the gymnasium. So technically the building, as we see it now, was its 1949 configuration. 1 Okay. 3 Yeah. When we were in there the other day, I had no clue that it was K through 12 in this, you know, small little building. And now, you know, looking at the new high school with all the renovations that just happened, it's just massive. And I think it's shown just how much friends it has really grown as a community in the last 50 years. 1 I think, you know, just you talking, it's like there there are so many charming things about just how things used to be. But then, you know, we also walk into classrooms today and it's just also incredible what the kids are being able to do and get their hands on. So it's like there's beauty. And in both in the simplicity and then also in the advancements. 1 And I think that's that's something that, like we need to celebrate. We need to celebrate both sides of those things. 2 So two one of the other things that came to mind as I was thinking about all of this is it wasn't unusual that boys came back or were barefoot. Two came to school without shoes and their two early are on. There's actually a place for people to put their horses. They would ride the horses to school and and leave them out outside during the day while they were there and tie them up. 2 So it was it was. 3 Such a different time and. 2 Indeed unique. 1 I have seen Mustangs at the high school, but I think it's a different kind of Mustang. 4 You know, she's talking about the cafeteria. I remember, you know, Thursdays were hamburger days, Fridays were fish days. I forget what the other two or. 2 Three ice cream or ice cream cones. I don't know if they did that, but we were able to have scooped ice cream with ice cream cones in the cafeteria. 3 They should bring that back. 1 I think it's Wednesdays is chicken fried steak day now that everyone goes crazy for. I've heard my husband graduated from Friendswood and he mentioned it whenever he like we first met and I hear it all the time. So I think that's the big thing now. 4 Oh, see, I was I was the first class that did all four grades in the current high school campus. Oh, but it was much smaller in 1970 when we came in our freshman year, it had one mall. All right. And two years after I was there, they put the second mall and the two stories on the side of that. 4 And of course, the mall kinds kept was was new and different. We didn't have a cafeteria. We had a little snack bar over next to the doors where the auditorium was. And we had round tables who could put eight people at it and squeeze 12 in if you wanted to. And, you know, your groups would get together and just do lunch together kind of thing out there in the in the mall. 1 Hmm. Well, I'm Emily. Also. There may not have been a need for the cafeteria if all the boys were jumping on the windows, the train, you. 2 True, huh? 1 Well, if you have not been in the newly renovated facilities at the high school, that's something I would definitely encourage. 4 Oh, I'm definitely going to it. 1 Yeah. We have September 26. There's going to be a grand facility showcase for the open to the community 7 p.m.. I'll give that a little shout out. It is spectacular. I mean, it's unbelievable these spaces we've we've been going in, we're actually getting some drone footage right now for our State of the district event on September 5th. And I mean, it's just it's unbelievable what they've been able to to make from it just like brighter like one of the first time I was in the high school, I remember saying it was kind of dungeon like it was dark and, you know, and just just the difference in those new spaces, just the light coming in 1 alone is like it's it's amazing. 3 And for some of those extracurriculars, like, I know the culinary arts has a whole cafe, and then the A.V group has a whole studio. My personal favorite where you guys checked it out, but I think that it's really cool to see how many resources these. 1 Kids can now use. And that's a testament to our I will say that is a testament to our community going back to that foundation, education being such a huge part of Friendswood and a value of this community, because we would not have been able to build these facilities for our students without the passage of the 2020 bond. So thank you voters for that. 1 It's incredible. And I think you're going to see that we've been able to do some great things with it. 4 Well. 2 I can hardly wait. 4 Yeah, having participate rated in musicals three, four or five and six, I can tell you that the stage work we did back then is nothing like what it is now. And now that you have the new facility, you can actually drop sets in and out instead of roll them in and out. Big difference. 1 You big different be blown away by that performing arts center. I mean, it is unbelievable. It's it's so impressive. I mean, all the spaces are impressive, but I think the fine arts and the musicals in general here are so popular with the community that that is going to be like the breathtaking moment. I think the. 2 It's like the parents early on when the musical started and Dr. Kennedy started doing those, and I think the first one is 71. I'm not absolutely sure. 4 The first 70, 68. 2 68. Okay. Cindy, I'm 61. 4 Yeah. Sixties, 69. I'm sorry. 2 69. Okay. 69. Yeah. You know, the parents built all the sets, The mothers made all of the all of all the costumes. Everything was handmade hand done. There was nothing. So it's like we can do anything attitude. And they had to. And the community came together. And I'd like to mention four people that came to mind. Yeah. Who are that invisible thread that kind of have tied this together for years. 2 And the first one I thought of a smart Gryphon. Yeah, I'm friends with high school principal. You know, Mark grew up in Friendswood, he attended Friendswood High School. He became a teacher, a coach, and. And the principal Assistant principal Principal. He has been a consistent person of space, a Friendswood high school. His consistency on his leadership has worked to preserve the traditions that Friendswood families and founders established and held for many years. 2 Thad Rau, our process superintendent, again, student teacher, coach and then into the administration, also preserves the long heritage that was established by the founders. Consistency and students come in first and every decision that's made and then Dr. Kennedy, who served the district for 56 years and which is just unheard of, practically teacher coach, shifts a girls basketball team to state. 2 In 1962 and 1963, we brought home a third place trophy in 63. Speaking of the town, this entire little town, everybody came to those games at Austin and it was just chilling, exciting a moment in our lives. It was so much fun. Yearbook sponsors are the musicals are supporting musicals by giving a she does a musical scholarship in memory of her mother Standard of excellence, excellence, excellence, excellence. 2 You have to do it. It has to be done. The best coordinated. All the homecoming activities served on a variety of local state boards. A huge, huge influence. A cornerstone of what friends where it is today wasn't born and raised here, but came here and bought into it. And then the final is Henry Winston, who was a chemistry teacher, outstanding football coach, winning many district championships, taking his team to regional and state playoffs games and winning the state title in 1973. 2 He's not. He was not only a teacher and a coach, but he grew his players into young man. One story about Henry is he was a he ran he ran track himself at Rice University, and when he had his boys running, Henry ran with them. So that tells you the kind of people that have touched the hearts and souls of these young people for all these years. 2 And I do think that that consistency of belief in the system and the traditions is really what keeps it an excellent institution today and allows us to build these beautiful new buildings. 1 Yeah. 4 And I think it also cultivates good teachers. 1 Oh, yes, we have amazing teachers. Well, we can't forget them. 4 And, you know, Bob Camp was one of my favorites. I only had him my senior year, but I can just see students standing on a desk go and kept my cap and, you know, he would he was a neat teacher. 1 Yeah. I definitely you can feel the hearts that everyone here I think possesses for kids. And if you have a if you have a student or you're thinking about coming to Friendswood, that is one thing I can guarantee is your kid will come to school and they will be loved. 3 Yes, I Mean just stepping into friends with this year. I've I've felt that and not even just from the teachers, but from the entire community. And before that, I didn't I didn't really even know what Friendswood was about or anybody here. But, you know, now I'm like, you know, thinking about settling down and putting my kids through the school system because the teachers and the principals and everyone involved, the administration is just they you can tell they really care from every event, from every theatrical performance. 3 Everything that they put into this school system is just like to the next level. 4 And I would make the statement you are not getting the most out of Friendswood High School unless you're doing something beyond the classwork, whether that be robotics, sports, theater, arts, speech, whatever. 2 Journalism has a long. 4 Yeah, the academy just sounds like if you aren't doing some of those things, you aren't getting everything there is to attain. And I always remember the freshman speech that Dr. Kennedy gave when my daughter when my son started here, you know, we're going to give you all the tools, but it's up to you to do the work. It's up to you to make it happen. 4 And I really believe that, you know, unfortunately, some people just go to class and they just miss out. They miss out so much. They miss out the richness. 1 I think. So At least this was a few years ago. The statistic was we had 90% of our students at the high school involved in extracurricular activities. 90%. That is a that's amazing. That's amazing. So and I don't know if that stands true today. I don't know how COVID affected, you know, some of that, because I know I know it has affected some. 1 But you're right. And I think, you know, we were at the first day of school freshman pep rally and the entire pep rally was pretty much centered around get involved. So they had every group who performed. They would go they would take the mic, pass down, introduce themselves and share all of the things they were involved in. And it was not just the activity they were performed. 1 The group they were performing with. 3 The kids doubled, tripled, quadrupled up on everything they were involved in. 1 And I think that was great just to kind of set that that tone for those freshmen coming in. It's like we're we're a community who is highly involved. It's cool to be involved and just stay connected. That's the way you're going to get connected to the school. So I totally agree. Now, I think looking ahead, yeah. 3 Questions for looking ahead. How can the community stay involved and support the museum and its mission to continue to preserve the history of Friendswood of donations? 4 Okay. That that's a big part of it. And donations will frequently stir up ideas. We do. Quite honestly, some of our exhibits are a little stale. We need some new exhibits. We've kind of drawn up a little list of new exhibits. And, you know, and I'm hoping that individuals will say, Oh, I like that idea. I want to do that. 4 And, you know, would you believe that at one time they had donkey basketball? 3 Not at all. 1 Wow. 3 Okay. These are places. 4 Yes, they were. But we need they were riding donkeys on the gym. Yes. Yes, they're in the yearbooks. 1 So donkeys donate them to the friends of a no, no, no, no. 4 I am not prepared for that. 2 Steve, if you. 4 Wanted to do an exhibit on the years that it was here and some pictures from that and, you know, I would be open to an exhibit along those lines now. 1 Sure. Sure. You mentioned you have other exhibits in mind. Can you share what some of those are? 4 Sure. Believe it or not, we have some unique architecture in some of the schools, the gym entrance, which is no longer there. Unfortunately, was by that architect that Judy was talking about, the round building. Of course, you know, there's no students at that campus anymore, but that round building was considered a ground breaking kind of design, believe it or not. 4 It was also a bomb shelter. So that's the only reason there's little tiny windows in it. The high school mall concept that I talked about earlier, that was an architectural thing. So these seem like mundane ideas, but you could turn them into an exhibit total the evolution of the campus of the of the old campus and the current campuses. 4 You know, how they've changed what their origins were, lost activity. So I mentioned two of them, the impressions printings and the girl softball. You highlight state qualifier course historically we've had a a whole bunch of people at state level. 1 Oh yes. 4 Representing the school. Mr. Bacon He taught drafting for years and years and years. He's going to do an exhibit about what drafting was like and I don't know if they do CAD drafting now or not. I don't know what they, you know, is available. Let's see, shop class. You know, there's lots of pictures, the homemaking cottage. You know, we there's a little building off to the side. 4 It's used for storage now but it was okay let's date things real well here. Forties and fifties, forties and fifties. The cottage was used to train young ladies how to be homemakers. Okay. And I think Julio back me up on that. 2 I was part of that. 4 And. 2 And young Man two could take Miss Boyle taught that too. 4 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 3 Skills everyone needs to learn now. 2 So it's it's a life. It's a life skill. We had so much fun. And then the shop that was the man, the shop. And then there was a band hall back here, too. And back in those days, in order to have a band, everybody in high school had to be in band. In order to have a choir. Everyone in school, high school had to be in the choir. 2 We didn't have enough people. If we didn't have everyone participating. So football games, there were cheerleaders on the sidelines and the football players playing and the halftime. The football players would get their instruments and get in line and the cheerleaders would go out and get their instruments in order to have enough people to form a band and they would perform and then hustle off to the guys would have to hustle back on the halftime talk. 2 But I mean, that was normal. And in the very early days, there were no lights at the football field and on the nights when it got dark, people would park their cars around the football field and turn on their headlights, and that's how they could play out the games. Wow. Homemade food and concession stands all home prepared, brought up pieces of homemade pecan pie, homemade chili and Fritos. 2 It was wonderful. 3 It was even a collaborative effort back then. 2 It was teamwork. 4 So of the items I have on the list, cafeterias over time now they've changed. 2 Yes. 4 You know how they're different football fields. There are at least three, maybe four different football fields over time. And so someone to to, you know, do an exhibit on that. I mean, it sounds trivial, but it's unique history. 2 I can tell you about how the fields were prepared. The man in town who had tractors and they would all take their tractors to ever the location was and they would literally and their graters on the back of their tractors because my dad was one of those. And they would go down and greet the fields to get them ready for the grass that they would eventually have to plant. 2 But they were they it was just like, We can get this done and we get it done as a community of. People and mainly the parents and everybody pitched in and got it done. It was a total team effort and I think that I really do believe that that is something that has stuck. It's stuck in the Friendswood community. 2 We can get whatever we want to get done. We can get it done if we do it together. It's all about teamwork. 3 I agree. I agree with that. 1 Well, awesome. Well, so tell us a little bit for people listening, when is the museum open to the public? 4 It's open the first Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Also, the Frank J. Brown Museum and the Perry House Museum are open the same times we did that after COVID to try and, you know, give people more options. So if you want to do a museum tour on a Saturday, you can hit all three places. 1 Very cool. And then you already mentioned your special events you have throughout the year, right? So 4th of July was that one? 4th of July. 2 We do open on the 4th of July. Yes. 4 Video homecoming. 1 And learning. Okay. So again, there's there's many opportunities for you to come check out the Friendswood schools history in our beautiful museum run by beautiful people. And we're just so, so grateful that we have amazing hearts like yours who care so much about our history and our schools that you've dedicated so much of your time to doing this. 2 If there are alumni out there that would love to have volunteer, please contact us. We are needing extra people or building them. We're growing and opening new rooms and that takes more people and we'd love to have some new faces. So call the administration building, get touch with us through Facebook and let us know we're happy and bring you on board. 1 So you heard it. Get involved whether you're just coming to visit or you're going to be a volunteer to get involved with the Friendswood Schools Museum. 3 And even if you don't think you're interested in anything that they have at the museum, I promise you, you walk in, you'll find something that's quite interesting. 2 Yes, you could grab onto your heritage as well. 1 Thank you both so much for coming on the podcast today. We appreciate your time and we hope you have a great day. 4 All right. 2 Thank you for inviting us.