Safety Patrol Gym Session on Fridays

Every Friday afternoon at Wildwood elementary school the members of the safety patrol were treated to a meeting and Gym session from 1:30 PM until 3:00 PM. As students were dismissed at 3:15 PM this meant not much was accomplished after lunch on Fridays since there were quite a few members of the safety patrol. As I joined the safety patrol as soon as I was eligible, I have no idea what the students who didn't attend this Gym session actually did, but I suspect it was probably art work, read quietly, do homework (though we had very little) etc...

The meeting and Gym was lead by our PE teacher Jack Cronin. After everyone was seated on the gym floor, the officers would stand or sit on the stage floor that the students would face. The officers were always 8th grade boys (and later girls) as they were the most experienced members. The safety patrol officers: a Captain and several Lieutenants (the patrol was divided up regionally into squads each headed by a Lieutenant) would each give a brief report mentioning any incidents and if anyone had done anything above and beyond the call of duty or had messed up and received a demerit. In theory if you received numerous demerits you got kicked off the safety patrol but that was rare. After the reports were given the rest of the time was available as a Gym class to play Dodgeball, basketball and soccer for the girls once girls were added to the safety patrol.

I am not sure exactly when it happened but girls were added to the safety patrol around 1966 or so, prior to that it was boys only. In the winter girls were required to wear pants on duty so their legs would not become to cold from standing out in the cold weather. They would change by taking their pants off at their lockers as they usually wore the pants along with a dress. In those days girls were discouraged from wearing pants all the time, though I am not sure if it was a punishable dress code violation, its just what people were told to do and they did it.
All members of the safety patrol wore bright orange crossing guard belts. Officers received pins, lieutenant a silver shield and captain a silver star. You also received a small pin for service and could add a bar for each additional year of service. I may still have my Captain's star and 4 year service pin some where. May seem odd but at the time I was quite proud of having earned these.

The Gym session was usually indoors except in late spring when we went outside and played softball and sometimes in early fall when we played football, which Jack Cronin enjoyed to some extent because he could actually quarter back as many of the students had little idea of what they were doing. Anyone who was clueless was called a yahoo or yah for short by Mr. Cronin.

Indoors dodgeball was the favorite sport, though we also did basketball. When girls were added, it was common to play basketball and soccer which were alternated so the girls didn't have to always play dodgeball as dodgeball was a sport that favored the 8th grade boys who were big and could whip the ball and clobber the more Innocent girls and small boys who ducked, dodged and rolled forward into a ball on the ground, like turtles curled up in their shell, to protect their face and genitalia from possible obliteration. I remember my first dodgeball session and how I prayed I wouldn't be killed and how happy I was in having survived the afternoon in one piece.
It was a real rush not being pounded into obilivion by the older more skilled players.

The advantage of dodgeball was everyone was playing until you were eliminated by being hit by the ball and which case you sat on a sideline until one side or the other lost due to their final player being eliminated. People who hated Dodgeball go themself quickly, either by getting hit or lobbing a ball to the other side where it was caught. Then they could sit on the side line and relax and watch the carnage. Before play began, Jack Cronin selected two team captains who then selected team members in a round robin fashion with everyone being selected.

Basketball and soccer meant only two teams were on the floor at a time which meant a lot of people were sitting waiting. Boys didn't play soccer though occasionally just to spice things up an 8th grade boy would be assigned to each team. The boys would then bulldoze their way around though their lack of skill was apparent their aggression often made up for it. I was selected on several occasions and I don't think the girls were at all happy about having to try and avoid being kicked in the shins by my big clumsy feet.

Since Friday afternoon was not going to be much work for Mr. Cronin it was widely held that he would often get together with the janitor (Mr. Meyers and later Mr. Synder) for a belt or two in his office. Certainly the smell of alcohol would support this as being common practice.

An interesting note is that to ensure the safety patrol was doing their job, Mr. Cronin would occasionally set up clandestine stake outs to see what was going on, if corners were being properly covered, children were being monitored when crossing and whether safety patrol members were throwing snow balls at each other (which was common practice and resulted in a demerit being issued if caught). This actually worked to some extent to avoid too much goofing off. Often the safety patrol officers would be among the later walking or biking home to make sure corners remained covered until all students had crossed. They often filled in at corners when patrol members were absent, though they received no notification, they'd check and if no one was present they would man the corner.

I would have to say that dodgeball was almost some kind of right of passage. I started out just hoping to avoid injury and embarrasement. As I got older and bigger I would try and throw people out and catch balls that were thrown directly at me. Eventually I became one of the feared 8th grade boys and Captain of the safety patrol. I wanted to reach that place in the heirarchy but since I know I started out at the absolute bottom, I really empathsized with the little guys. Officers were elected so being selected was actually a great honor though I am not sure how much I realized that at the time. I suspect I got selected because I tried to be nice to people for the most part.

I don't think dodgeball lasted more than a year or so after I graduated. My 8th Grade class had a new Principal Violet Milner who replaced Mrs. Smith who was quite obesce. She eventually forced Jack Cronin out. She wanted to move things into the 1970's and did away with a lot of the old tradition. I wonder if things really improved. Some how I am skeptical, as bad as things were at Wildwood it forced kids to be responsible to some extent, at least for those who wanted to try.
I am not sure if Milner eliminated the safety patrol but it wouldn't surprise me.

You have to realize that back in the day, virtually every student went home for lunch. This was a true neighborhood school. The farthest anyone had to walk was about 10 or 11 blocks and in good weather they could ride bikes. Students walked to school in the morning, went home for lunch and returned for the afternoon and then walked home after school. We had an hour for lunch but if took you 20-25 minutes to walk you didn't have very long to eat. They would let students in the building 5 minutes or so before the hour so they had time to put coats in lockers and get to their desks. Once in a while a Mom would drive to school to pick up kids but this was rare.

So the safety patrol actually was useful and it was amazing that a bunch of children with only
an occasional kick in the pants from Jack Cronin actually kept the other kids safe.

I remember in 5th grade being summoned by the 8th grade teacher because an 8th grade girl was having cramps (they told me that meant she had a belly ache) and had to be walked home. The older students were all testing so I was selected to walk her home since I was rather tall for my age. The staff actually trusted us and we knew it and we took the job rather seriously, or at least as seriously as kids can take any job. I was really proud to be asked to help out and I still remember this almost 40 years later.

Clearly these were different times.