Class of 1941 returns to Franklin school in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - When George Ross was a student at Franklin High School in the 1940s, he rarely ate lunch in the school cafeteria.

Instead, he remembers hopping on his bike and racing the mile home for a meal, then eating with his radio tuned to a music program called 'Rhythm Rambles.”

Seventy-five years later, Ross, 93, returned Wednesday to his alma mater in Cedar Rapids - now a middle school - to have lunch with Franklin's current students. He and two other 1941 graduates - Dick Talbott, 92, and Rollis Deetz, 93 - filed through the lunch line, filling their blue trays with fruit, salad and hamburgers.

As they ate, students asked the visitors about their memories from Franklin, 300 20th St. NE.

'This is your chance to learn something about Franklin that you probably didn't know before,” Activities Coordinator Kathy Dvorak said as she fielded questions from students.

The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students raised their hands: How were the classrooms different then? Is Franklin haunted? Who was the meanest teacher?

The worst, the alumni all agreed, was the woodworking teacher who would chuck lumber at students if they weren't paying attention.

The school no longer offers woodworking - one of many changes to Franklin since the early 1940s. Ross, Talbott and Deetz recalled dress codes used to be more conservative, classroom temperatures changed with the weather and the only way to the second floor was by taking the stairs.

As members of the eighth-grade Student Council guided them through the halls, the group of alumni noticed kids in T-shirts and shorts, air-conditioned classrooms and the school's shiny elevators.

'I think it's important for them to see how we've moved forward in education since they've been here,” said Andrew Paoli, 14, one of the group's guides. 'It's interesting to see how we do school in our age versus how they did school in their age.”

The returning group - which included 1943 graduate Frank Kinney, 90, and Elinor Day, 88, as well as George Ross' wife, Jean, and Rollis Deetz's wife, Shirley - agreed the school is much different from how it was when they were students.

But the changes are a welcome sight.

'It's only better,” George Ross said. 'It's really the best it's ever been.”

For the children leading the tour, the alumni's visit came on their second-to-last day at Franklin Middle School. After Thursday, they'll be Franklin alumni too.

Principal Lucas Ptacek said he hopes the visit helped students see 'the big picture” of Franklin.

'I want (students) to understand just how much this building means to a lot of people,” Ptacek said. 'At their age, they still want to come and be a part of this building and this community.”