Early Years

I will not go so far as to say I have great memories of my childhood and growing up; but I do have a good memory. In fact, I may remember people who have long forgotten me. I often remember miniscule events that shaped my education and ultimately my grown-up life. My mother and father […]

When asked to remember her life in Grand Junction after moving here in seventh grade Shauna Burke (Jackson) spoke easily and a little wistfully about coming to a new town at age 12. Her family lived on North First Street on a property that had a pasture in the front where they kept Shauna’s horse.  “Probably my

Benton Britt on an incident in the 2nd grade at Tope School: The classroom was an overflow class in a small building away from the main building, out of the main school flow. The teacher was Mrs. M. (we won’t use her name here although everyone in that room remembers her), a short, chunky woman,

“The year I was a 7th grader, our school burned. We got bussed to Bookcliff Jr. High for the whole year. And we had to go in the afternoon stint because the Bookcliff kids went in the morning. You know I grew up on a ranch, and Dad loved it because in the spring, we

Ben (Benton) Britt was mindful of threats of punishment in junior high and he has succinct memory snapshots of them to this day. One involved a teacher named Mr. Smith (Ben adds he was a very good teacher) who had a red paddle with holes drilled in it hanging next to the chalk board. On

Katy Kupecz describes her some of her time at St. Joseph’s then Immaculate Heart of Mary as (expletive) horrible. In a health class, when the girls and boys were separated, one of the nuns said told the girls that French kissing could lead to pregnancy. While Katy was clueless on this, she saw older girls who

Junior High was not a great time for me. I remember hating the system where we put ourselves in class categories according to what we thought our abilities were. How degrading to have to make such a public judgement about yourself. I don’t believe any schools do that anymore. I hope not. I also remember