http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/Sloigo/13301 At ArvinHigh School in the 1960’s everyone was expected to participate in the Physical Education program which was chaired by Mr. Frank Barley, Department Head. Mr. Klinger, Mr. Dameon and Mr. Cameron also had assisted him. Each teacher had PE classes and were also coaches for various sport teams.    I was a very lanky 6’2” 130 pound kid back in those days and was very active in the sports programs. I even lettered Varsity in Swimming and Wrestling during the years I participated.    Each year a big part of your PE grade was the 500 yard dash where every student from all classes was compared against each other and was ranked by speed against all of the other students. This was before the metric system was adopted which made the 500 meter dash around 550 yards long. While I was rated the second fastest student in the school in all of the PE classes, I never went out for track/cross country since the season conflicted with Wrestling and the Swimming season.    On the day of our big race, Mr. Barley lined us all up of the west 50 yard line of the track that surrounded the football field. With a starter’s pistol, Mr. Barley fired a single shot into the air, and the race was on!!! George McElhoe, Arvin’s ace track star immediately jumped to the lead. I was right on his heels, but simply could not pass him. A third runner was sprinting close behind me.      I thought, “I might not be in the lead, but I was not going to let him pass me!”   The rest of the class was slowly jogging in a herd, surrounding James Gregory who probably weighed over 350 pounds. No matter how hard I tried, each time I challenged George, he sped up and pulled away from me. The third runner was now about two or three strides behind me.    As we rounded the North end of the football field track, we all began to sprint to the finish, when suddenly the third runner grabbed the back of his upper leg and started screaming “Oww!, Oww!, Oww!!! George and I left him in the dust as he fell back and we finished the race.    We figured that he had gotten a cramp in his hamstring muscle. George, as usual finished number one and I number two. George and I were bent over trying to regain our breaths with Mr. Barley barking to keep moving and to “Walk it off!!”    The number three guy finally limped past us and ran on into the Gymnasium Locker Room still crying , Oww, Oww, Oww as he passed. We wondered why he did not stop when he got to the finish line if he had such a bad cramp, but we had out own problems to worry about as we cooled down.    When George and I were finishing, “the pack” was just at the 50 yard line on the East side of the field slowly proceeding around the track. Finally they reached the North end of the track.    The guy in the front of the pack suddenly screamed “TURD!!!!!” and began back peddling, trying to get away from it. Being in front of a lumbering herd that is not paying attention to anything in particular is not the ideal place to try to stop. He got pushed forward and bodies started falling left and right, complete with James Gregory landing on top of the heap.    As the dust started settling and bodies began emerging for the pile, limping off to the side with sprained ankles and wrists, we finally figured out what had happened. Now, I am not sure what happened to the fore mentioned item, but we were all encouraged to take our gym clothes home to be washed at the end of the class.                                                                THE END At ArvinHigh School in the 1960’s everyone was expected to participate in the Physical Education program which was chaired by Mr. Frank Barley, Department Head. Mr. Klinger, Mr. Dameon and Mr. Cameron also had assisted him. Each teacher had PE classes and were also coaches for various sport teams.    I was a very lanky 6’2” 130 pound kid back in those days and was very active in the sports programs. I even lettered Varsity in Swimming and Wrestling during the years I participated.    Each year a big part of your PE grade was the 500 yard dash where every student from all classes was compared against each other and was ranked by speed against all of the other students. This was before the metric system was adopted which made the 500 meter dash around 550 yards long. While I was rated the second fastest student in the school in all of the PE classes, I never went out for track/cross country since the season conflicted with Wrestling and the Swimming season.    On the day of our big race, Mr. Barley lined us all up of the west 50 yard line of the track that surrounded the football field. With a starter’s pistol, Mr. Barley fired a single shot into the air, and the race was on!!! George McElhoe, Arvin’s ace track star immediately jumped to the lead. I was right on his heels, but simply could not pass him. A third runner was sprinting close behind me.      I thought, “I might not be in the lead, but I was not going to let him pass me!”   The rest of the class was slowly jogging in a herd, surrounding James Gregory who probably weighed over 350 pounds. No matter how hard I tried, each time I challenged George, he sped up and pulled away from me. The third runner was now about two or three strides behind me.    As we rounded the North end of the football field track, we all began to sprint to the finish, when suddenly the third runner grabbed the back of his upper leg and started screaming “Oww!, Oww!, Oww!!! George and I left him in the dust as he fell back and we finished the race.    We figured that he had gotten a cramp in his hamstring muscle. George, as usual finished number one and I number two. George and I were bent over trying to regain our breaths with Mr. Barley barking to keep moving and to “Walk it off!!”    The number three guy finally limped past us and ran on into the Gymnasium Locker Room still crying , Oww, Oww, Oww as he passed. We wondered why he did not stop when he got to the finish line if he had such a bad cramp, but we had out own problems to worry about as we cooled down.    When George and I were finishing, “the pack” was just at the 50 yard line on the East side of the field slowly proceeding around the track. Finally they reached the North end of the track.    The guy in the front of the pack suddenly screamed “TURD!!!!!” and began back peddling, trying to get away from it. Being in front of a lumbering herd that is not paying attention to anything in particular is not the ideal place to try to stop. He got pushed forward and bodies started falling left and right, complete with James Gregory landing on top of the heap.    As the dust started settling and bodies began emerging for the pile, limping off to the side with sprained ankles and wrists, we finally figured out what had happened. Now, I am not sure what happened to the fore mentioned item, but we were all encouraged to take our gym clothes home to be washed at the end of the class.                                                                THE END en-us Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:49:13 PDT