THE WAY I REMEMBER IT
High School is an interesting time of life. I enjoyed, well, most of it. At that time there were seven grades of elementary school, and four of high school. I had completed my elementary education at Immanuel Lutheran School, a one room school about five miles out in the country near Copperas Cove. When I got to the High School in town, some of the students seemed to consider us the country kids from the German community. It was not a real comfortable feeling. Besides that, I was a lowly freshman.
My first year and a half of high school I attended Copperas Cove High. The second half of my sophomore year was spent in Lipan, Texas. My dad was working with the WPA, a depression program of the Federal Government, helping to build a gymnasium at the school. Although conditions and living comforts were not at their best, I enjoyed my stay there.
Since Dad was moving from place to place working on gymnasiums, we decided that I should stay with my Aunt Wanda (Teinert) and Uncle Warren Taliaferro in Lampasas, and attend school there. They lived in a large house, so I enjoyed my own room. Uncle Warren's parents also lived there. Mr. Taliaferro was an interesting story-teller, and I enjoyed listening to his tales of his life in Oklahoma among the Indians and early settlers.
Once I got acquainted in Lampasas, I enjoyed the school and the people. As in Lipan, I was accepted simply for what I was. It really pleased me that the school had a gymnasium, since no other school I had attended had one. Since I loved basketball, I asked about the basketball team. I was informed that they had none. After thinking it over, I decided to go to the Superintendent and ask if I could organize a team and use the gym. He said it would be OK if we did it after classes, and we kept the place clean. So I got a "team" together. We did quite well and got within one game of going to the state tournament both my junior and senior years. And I got to play in a gymnasium!
In 1943 I graduated from good old Lampasas High and left the community, so I lost contact with my friends there. When I returned for the fiftieth anniversary reunion of my class and told the first person I met who I was, their response was, "Oh, you're the basketball guy." I took it as a compliment.
Vic Mathias - July 19, 2001
