My Mom, Beatrice
Chavez, had attended John Marshall School, which was across the street from her
home at 1500 High Street. She was looking forward to attending Lincoln Junior
High, where her cousins went to school and bragged about the dances and good
times. But her Dad had made up his mind. They were moving to a new subdivision
and a new home at 6804 5th Street N.W.
The Village of
Los Ranchos wasn’t your typical “suburb.” Its roots were as deep as other
Spanish villages in the middle Rio Grande valley, including the Villa de
Albuquerque, that were settled in the 17th and 18th
centuries. In fact, my mom wouldn’t be moving to a shiny, new school, either.
She would attend 6th grade at Ranchos Elementary, which at the time
was about 34 years old. My Grandma Lola worked for a time in the cafeteria at
Ranchos.
Two decades
after that, my brother Jon and I would also attend Ranchos in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. While we were there, my Mom worked as a teacher’s assistant in
Sue Haine’s kindergarten class. A few decades after that, in the late 1990s and
early 2000s, my nephews, Alek, Derrick and Tanner would attend the school that
was renamed Los Ranchos, after the original village name.
This year, 2014,
Los Ranchos Elementary School is celebrating its Centennial – 100 years since
it opened in 1914 in District 4 of the Bernalillo County school system. I’m
proud that four generations of my Chavez and Gallegos family are part of the
rich history of Los Ranchos Elementary.
I was shocked to
learn that the school was celebrating its Centennial. It seems like just
yesterday that a family friend, Kathleen Yarbrough, was knee-deep in
preparations for the 75th Anniversary. I remembered two large
leather photo albums from that celebration – one from the 50th
Anniversary and a new one that Kata put together for the 75th. A generation later, we have a new friend,
Toni Jenkins, who is a teacher at Los Ranchos. She kindly invited me back to
the school to see those leather albums again as the current staff and students
are planning for the Centennial celebration in May.
Just walking
into the school brought back a flood of memories, like the smell from the old
popcorn machine that filled the hallways one day a week (Fridays?); all of my
teachers, including Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Thomassen and Mrs. Means; the Halloween
carnivals we had each year in the cafeteria and the parade around the
playground in our homemade costumes (I was Dr. Spock with the pointy Vulcan
ears one year); the ribbons we got for track competitions; riding my bike early
in the morning along Guadalupe Trail so my buddies (Marty Chavez, Craig Sparks,
Charles Palacios and others) and I could get in a game of football, baseball,
or kickball before the first bell. For most of my time at Ranchos, I took the
school bus. I would climb up on the dining room chair in our house each morning
so I could see over the back fence and look out for the school bus. When I saw
the bus pick up the kids on the east side of 4th Street, my brother
and I would dart out the front door to the bus stop at the corner of 5th
Street and Green Valley Road. I still remember our bus driver, a real character
who went by “Harry Jerry.” We used to love it when hot air balloons landed in
the playground. I remember one balloon crashing into a power line near the
school. I learned to play the trumpet while at Ranchos. And the best day of all was the last day of school when we had a play
day – at Taylor Middle School, I think – with water fights and other fun games.
Unfortunately,
one bad memory has also stuck with me all of these years – for better or for
worse. As a first-grader, I was paddled by the principal after I misbehaved on
the school bus one afternoon. Without getting in the debate over corporal
punishment n school, I would argue that I was more influenced by Mrs. Means in
the fifth-grade. She was strict – if you didn’t eat your green beans, you
couldn’t go to recess. But she taught us table manners, and respect for authority
and for our classmates. She also used academic competition in the classroom
that encouraged teamwork. I remember being on the winning team once, and
getting the opportunity to have breakfast with Mrs. Means and her husband at
their home. I can’t imagine that happening these days, but it meant a lot to us
back then.
Obviously, I
have my memories of Ranchos. It was fascinating to read the memories of many
other alumni of the school – some dating back to the 1920s. Several students
who attended the original four-room schoolhouse in the mid-1920s wrote about
the long, black school bus, with roll-up curtains and drawn by two horses. Like
me, one student from that era remembered the name of her bus driver, Primitivo
Lucero. Eventually, they were fortunate to get an orange and black school bus
with an engine.
Other students
who attended Ranchos in the 1940 wrote about the pride they felt during the
Pledge of Allegiance while American soldiers were fighting in Europe. They
recalled gathering scrap metal for the war effort – 3,311 pounds of metal in
two days. And they remembered the baseball games against Alameda and marble
tournaments.
There were two
“Ranchos” schools built in1914. Photos of schools in Ranchos de Albuquerque and
Ranchos de Atrisco were published in the newspaper in September 1914, along
with stories that heralded Bernalillo County Superintendent Atancio Montoya for
the building spree.
“They are modern
in every particular, well ventilated and well lighted, and are equipped in
accordance with the very latest and approved educational ideas,” the article
stated. “When it is remembered that these schools take the place of old adobe
structures that were poorly ventilated and lighted and furnished sadly cramped
quarters for the children, some idea can be gained of the great strides that
have been taken under Mr. Montoya’s administration of the schools of the
county.”
For the 50-year
reunion, a Ranchos PTA historian by the name of Mrs. Tucker, compiled a history
of the school from its “humble beginnings” to that date – about 1964.
The land for the
school was purchased for $300 from Mr. and Mrs. Megetita Garcia. In 1917, the
principal was paid $80 a month for nine months; teachers were paid $75 a month
for nine months. No dancing was allowed in 1919. In 1927, three rooms were
added at a cost of $2,197. Many improvements were made in the 1930s, but the
school was still burning coal. The first PTA was created in 1936. Ranchos was
consolidated into District 3 in the 1940s along with Alameda and Griegos
schools. Mr. Robertson was named as principal in 1946. He was the
longest-serving principal, and more than 30 years later, he would teach me not
to misbehave on the bus. A lunchroom was built by the PTA in 1947, and Ranchos
would become the third school in the city to have a lunch program. My Grandma
Lola would work in that lunchroom more than a decade after that. In 1949-50,
Ranchos would finally get gas heat, as it was moved into the city school
district.
I’m looking
forward to attending the Centennial Anniversary celebration in May. According
to the records from the 75th Anniversary, several items were put
into a time capsule, to be opened at the 100th. It will be fun to
see those items, which include memory books and photos. I just hope somebody
has a working tape cassette player that will play the cassettes that are in
that time capsule.