Defining Moments

 Please tell us about events or people that affected you strongly
 either positively or negatively, while you were at WRHS.

 please submit your entry to
 time4dance@aol.com

Lydia Hubbard Pourier, when JFK was shot:

I remember walking in the East Hall going to class when they announced it over the intercom. I remember starting to cry immediately. I also remember vividly sitting in front of the television for the funeral. Bummer.

Christine Pitts-McDonald, JFK - AVEY @ Graduation Day 1985 

First I agree with Lydia on remembering where you were when Kennedy was shot. That event will always remain clear in our minds just like September 11th. I also remember when I first heard about Coach Avey. I had spent the summer with my grandparents in Kansas and my mom told me about it when she picked me up at the train station in Gallup. And last but not least, graduation (Class of '65), the all night party, the tears, the laughter, losing touch with everyone, and now finding everyone again. Gotta love it!

Mitch Battese, when JFK was shot:

I would have to say the assassination of Kennedy would be one of the things I will always remember. I was walking down the hall – I was in Jr. High and everyone was saying something about the president being shot. I didn’t believe it at first and I didn’t know what to think. Teachers were visibly upset and this was a powerful thing. I think back and I can still see my friends and teachers – just like it happened this morning. I remember Earl being the first one to tell me.

But there were so many things that still cross my mind – like the Beatles. Riding the bus from Window Rock to Ft. Defiance and listening to the excitement of the girls as everyone talked about the Beatles. We had just gotten at TV and on the set there was a lot of snow (static on the TV), and the screen would flip with those annoying lines that wouldn't stop. In my family we would run outside to turn the antenna so that Ed Sullivan would come in more clearly and we could watch the Beatles.

I remember the 64 Mustang. Someone in high School had one and I watched with awe and envy as it rolled past me. Then a red Mustang Fastback was parked at the Window Rock Lodge and my friends and me would stare in amazement.

My family left Window Rock in 1965 and I never got to graduate with my friends. We moved to South Dakota and I completely lost touch with the world that had made such on impact on my life.

Window Rock and Ft. Defiance was a beautiful place to grow up.

Mitch Battese
Class of 1969

I spent my Junior and Senior years at WRHS during a time when things were a lot like the old TV. series "Happy Days." We didn't have a big sense of world affairs and we saw things through our own rose colored glasses. Dances at the Civic Center, football games, etc. were the highlights of our years at school. Defining moments occurred when we saw John Kennedy defeat Richard Nixon for the presidency. We also listen to President Kennedy on prime time TV. tell us of the latest nuclear threat from the Soviet Union. By the
time I graduated, I joined the military to fight the great communist threat. What a mistake, but I still love the memory of the Kennedy's.

Don Nelson
WRHS Class of 1961