Is there anyone who could share some comments about the time when the school was segregated? I found this photo on the web of the old dining hall behind and an old dorm at Live Oak School. I had upholstery shop in the right downstairs dormitory in that building. Most of the guards who were there back during that time did not want to talk about how bad the African American boys were treated. Was Riverside all an black school as well or were the names Live Oak and Riverside given after the school was expanded? I heard that Riverside was used to raise hogs.
My Papa used to talk about that place. He was there in the 50's. He was a orfin that did not deserve that kind of punishment by those white devels. It was like slavery he said. Nobody gave a shit about us niggas he would say. There some still burried out ther in unmarked graves he use to say to. He wouldva loved to see Oboma. man I'm glad I never went there and wish he was still alive today to come to the reunion. I work for TYC and we are still messed up. Good Luck
ReplyDeleteI was at Terrace and HillTop in 1969 thats the year our blue jeans and white shirts were change to pastel colors. At Hill top this kid woud climb the water tower and sit sit up there for days,He did this often.
ReplyDeleteI was put in a sewer to find a teachers car keys after I flushed them down a toilet in Terrace (we were going to escape). I have hepititus for it now. A used punishment was for a gaurd to take your finger and bend it backwards till you dropped to your knees. Also squating on your tip toes while buffing the floors with rags in both hands, another gaurd like to hit us on the top of our head with his cigerett ligher. We also had a count system that that we used to keep us clean.I was sent there for skipping school and running away from home.All except the hepititus I didnt turn out too bad never got in any other trouble. Married 34yrs and have children and grandchildren work in comericial construction management.
MAN THAT SOUNDS LIKE MR. DUDDLEY,ANOTHER COLORED GUY VERY CALM BUT HE WAS ABOUT 6FT AND SOLID , HE'D SMOKE HIS CIGAR . AND MOSTLY TWURILLED THAT CIGAR IN HIS BIG LIPPED MOUTH AND TALK SHIT ,AND MAKE US CLEAN UP THE DORM IN THE MORNIG ALL IN A RUSH, IF YOU DID SOMETHING HE DIDNT LIKE ABOUT YOU , HE'D PUT YOU ON THE BOX ! THE BOX WAS AN ELECTRICAL SUBPANLE THAT HAD A METAL DOOR ON IT HE'D MKEYOU STAND NEXT TO THE BOX AND HE GRAB YOU BY THE EARS , AND SMASH THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD ON THE BOX , OTHER COLORED BOYS KNEW HIM FOR THIS AND WOULD LAUGH ABOUT IT AFTER YOU GOT THE TREATMENT. HE PUT ME ON THE FUCKIN BOX ONCE , AND MAN THAT RANG THE BACCK OF MY HEAD FOR A FEW HOURS , THAT WAS IN DORM 2 OF THE TERRACE UNIT BACK IN 1969 WHEN IWAS FIRST TRANSFERED TO THAT UNIT , I HATED TERRACE AND ALL THE SCREWED UP COLORED BOYS , THEY HAD SO MUCH RACIAL HATRED FOR WHITE PEOPLE . SO YOU MIGHT IMAGINE WHAT I WENT THROUGH THAT YEAR ...
DeleteI remember Mr. Duddley and Mr. Tillman too. I was in Terrace Dorm six . I don't recall my bunk number... I do recall Mr. Orr and Mr. Sparks...I even remember you. John Pergola Dallas,Texas
DeleteMICHAEL SCHWINN A- 36525 I GUESS I DID NT TURN OUT TOO BAD ETHER , WHEN I GOT OUT OF GATESVILLE THE 2 ND TIME IN 1970 I MADE SURE ID NEVER RETURN AGAIN, I SOME HOW GOT MY P.O. TO LET ME JOIN THE U.S. ARMY , IN 1970. OUT OF DALLAS , I NOW LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS AND GLAD I DONT LIVE IN TEXAS. AMEN.
ReplyDeleteI was thrown out of my mother's house at 14 forever. She slapped me. I slapped her back and I was out. I hit the streets and ran with bikers twice my age. BUT also became a musician which has carried me thru my entire life and I am now almost 60. I was arrested for fighting and truancy and on juvenile probation. An idiot I met came by and said 'let's go get beer'. On the way to 'get beer' he sideswiped three or four cars. While cutting donuts in the local park the cops busted us. Then this F says 'oh yeah I stole the car'. As luck would have it, I had major surgery on my knee right after that when they let me after 3 months in Juvie pending the (stolen car case) that I caught too.
ReplyDeleteI finally went to Sycamore at Gatesville in '68. They sent the car thief the same place. Even though my knee was shot, every time I saw that MF I tried to kick his ass.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I will say about the experience, there were Counters, which meant that they were SUPPOSED to be the elite boys and the rest were lower. During my 2 week stay at Reception Center I was told that if someone said something bad about my mother I had to defend her. I knew she was a bitch but figured I'd go along with it. In lunchroom that day I sat across from this huge kid. He grabbed my lard soaked chicken. I stabbed my fork into the back of his hand and held it down on the tray. The guy was a bad ass because he didn't yell, he just stetched his fingers out as I jerked the fork out of his hand enough to let him go. They never said shit to me about it even though he got his ass kicked by the dorm man.
I have not heard the word counters in a long time,,but still recall what it was all about. I left Texas and have never been back and never will... John Pergola TD6.......
DeleteLater I got a note on my immaculate bunk that I could bounce a quarter off the sheets.
ReplyDeleteIt said- you passed. I thought so but was ready to do it again if needed.
Punishments:
We had to kneel about ten inches back from the concrete wall and lean our foreheads against the wall for hours. My knee being bad already made me a real asshole. They had to restrain me a few times when my leg when numb and I stood up to relieve it. We also cut the football field by leaning over at the waist like toe touches then pulling Johnson grass and other weeds a handful at a time. 50-100 boys sometimes more. For hours. Every morning we hit the parking lot for BOOT CAMP calisthentics. I give credit to that and all the work for getting my knee and leg back into reasonable and usable condition. I helped build the swimming pool between Terrace and Hilltop (I think that where it is. It's been a long time). That gave me a trade as well. But it was up hiil to get there so we double timed it up and back after working all day. It was killer. Being of mixed race meaning white and other things including Asian I was friends of all races. My spanish friend Juan and black friend MCkinley (6' 3" already at 16) became good allies. My other buddy that I cannot find is James Means from San Antonio. No we were and are not gay or any of that shit. We took a stand to throw the state crazy and forget that BS so we could eventually get out. I stayed until almost draft age because no one wanted me. My knee made me 4F and Huntsville didn't want me either. (Holy shit am I happy about that)
I was virtually homeless without the state. I learned their huge list of rules that I recited all the time wondering WTF was I going to do. The day they put me on the bus I sat there a while and we never left. Finally dorm man R E Parrish came on and told me to get off. He said no one came for you.
HEY BUD ,DID YOU EVER HAVE GET IN THE (EASYCHAIR) POSTION AND HAVE TO STAY THAT WAY FOR OVER 30 MINUETS , THIS IS TRULY A TORTURE HAVIN TO PRETEND THAT YOU HAD SIT IN AN IMAGINARY CHAIR WITH YOUR ARMS STREACHED OUT IN FRONT OF YOU . COLORED BOYS HATED THIS ONE . BUT I LOVE TO WATCH THEM WHEN IT WAS THEIR TURN TO RECIEVE THIS USE LESS PUNISHMENT
DeleteA good friend rode up from Houston on a new Harley and picked me up. As I rode out of the driveway I gave them all the finger. I never went to jail again except for once as an adult for disturbing the peace. But I had a very long music career as a professional guitarist and toured with my own band until retiring in '99 to become a screenwriter. One of my Indie films is about to be released. We shot this movie with a 3000 dollar budget but found amazing actors and actors who volunteered to hel because they had been victims of bullies. Our dramatic film is about teen violence in the public school system. The story tells both sides of the equation from victim and bully persepective and what they are dealing with in their personal lives.
ReplyDeleteOh yes-- dogs. Our food had starch in it. The same starch was put in the dogs food so they could track us if we ran. I left once as a diversion for friends headed the opposite direction. I have been around mean and bad canines that don't F with me.
ReplyDeleteSo I ran through throughly plowed turn rows that were supposed to slow us down, made it to the woods and heard the dogs coming fast. I was tired, leg was killing me. The dogs showed up ten minutes before the men looking for us did. I called the dogs, took the collar bells off, tied them together at the collar with my belt, tied them to a tree. I almost got to town. But the horses were too fast for me. On the way back, limping and dragging my leg they tried to trample me with the horses. Ha ha. Horses like me too and reused to do it. Crazy huh? I helped them find their dogs. They took me in the horse barn and beat me senseless. I was in charge of shovleing horseshit and feeding the dogs. Which was perfect for me. Gatesville was run by a bunch of illiterate hogs farmers. I am glad I never went back to do what I wanted to, for what they did to me and us.
YOU ARE ABSOLUTY RIGHT , EX CORRECTIONAL AND FUCKIN STUPID AND REALLY PREJUDICE HOG FARMERS , WHEN IN THE ADJUCTMENT CENTER , I ONCE SHOVELED HORSE SHIT THAT WAS ABOUT 18 TO 24 INCHES HIGH , INTO A 5 TON TRUCK WITH ABUNCH OF COLORED BOYS MOSTLY , I WAS ONE OF THE VERY FEW WHITE BOYS TOY HAVE TO GO THOUGHT THIS SHIT,
DeleteWhen I was there (68-69) it was segregated by race (sort of), age (sort of), and grade level. Riverside was exclusively the very young black kids. All the rest were only segregated by age and grade level. Sycamore was the high school. Terrace was jr. high. Hackberry was transitional grade school/jr. high.Hilltop was older boys who were not too smart. Mountainview, of course, was for ax-murders.
ReplyDeleteI DID KNOW A KID WHO WAS SENT TO THE MOUNTAIN VIEW, HE WAS ABUSED A LOT , BUT ON A TRIP HE WAS SENT TO THE LOCK UP FOR MAYBE THE 10 TH TIME , HE GOT A LITTLE MOUTHY WITH ONE OF THE NICER BLACK GAURDS THAT HAD A SHIFT ON THE MORNING , HE GOT ON THIS KID NAMED JACKIE HOPKINS , AND HOPKINS GOT MOUTHY HE SAW THAT MR. MOSES JOHNSON WHO WAS IN CHARGE OF US THAT MORING AFTER WE CAME BACK FOR THE AFTERNOON MEAL . MR. MO AS SOME OF US CALLED HIM , HAD A LITTLE DIABITES AND HAD CLOSED HIS EYE BREFLY , HOPKIN REFERED TO MR MO , THAT HE WAS JUST AN OLD NIGGER AND NEEDED SLEEP . MAN THE HOLE LOCKUP WAS STUNNED . AND MAD AT HOPKINS , THE NEXT DAY , MR. WORTINGTON WAS ON THE AFTERNOON SHIFT AND TOLD US IN A GROUP THE FOR SAYING WHAT HE SAID , SET HIS ASS TO THE SCHOOL OF THE (MOUTAIN VIEW ) THAT WAS A GARANTIED A TWO YEAR TOUR , AND JACKIE HOPKINS WAS ON HIS WAY JUST OVER THE SCHOOL OF HILL TOP. AND THATS JUST ANOTHER LIFE THAT WAS FUCKED UP BUY THE TEXAS YOUTH COUNCIL OR TYC . IN 1967 . I WAS THERE , MICHAEL ANDREW SCHWINN A - 36525. I GOT OUT AND WAS SENT BACK 2 TIMER. AND IN 69 -70 GOT OUT WAS ALLOWED TO ENLIST , U.S. ARMY AND THATS JUST A NUMBER OF TRUE STORIES I LIVED THROUGH IN 1967 -70. THEY THREW MY RECORD IN THE TRASH JUST SO L COULD SERVE , AMEN !
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