If you were in Mr. Payton Meredith's Industrial

Arts Class in 1969-1971 you know about the state of the art electronics board that we had in our shop. It was against the left wall along with a welder and a metal lathe. The electronics board was made to do all kinds of electric tasks but we had a more important test. You might find this shocking but all the boys would line up to hold hands together, but it was to test our ability to withstand an electric charge. The boy at one end of the line would grab the positive pole of the output and at the other end of the line another one of the boys holding hands would grab the negative output pole and then Mr. Meredith would turn the juice on. That was just the beginning. He would turn up the power till one of us couldn't take it anymore and broke the line, which would break the
circuit. That boy would be out like in musical chairs. The boys would do it all over again, till only one boy was left. My favorite class with Mr. Meredith was mechanical drawing. He taught us how to enjoy any task we were doing no matter how hard it might have been. He had an inner peace that none of the other male teachers had. I don't mean that he wasn't a good teacher, just the opposite,

he was a great teacher. If one of us made a mistake he was there to help fix it. He taught us to use all of the shop tools safely. I have the fondest memories of him and his class.

        One of most favorite things to do is to draw and I could spend hours with paper and pencil drawing. I would create worlds of my own and ships that could conquer the world’s oceans. I would draw planes that took me to the Seven Wonders of the World. When I found out that we could take art class, I was overjoyed till I found out that it was more crafts than art. I wanted to learn to draw and paint but we never did much, if any, real art.

         English class was terrifying for me. I was always afraid that the teachers would find out that I was faking it and taking short cuts to get a passing grade. My teachers were either saints or understood how hard it was for me. They probably had no knowledge of how to help me and they had more than me to worry about.

          History class was wonderful. We didn't have to read but a little at a time and it was about, we the people, that fought to make a wilderness into a great country. We would learn about the people as they came to a land of opportunity and traveled west from the east coast to find fame and fortune. The fight against injustice in our country is still continuing today. We learned of all the great people that gave their lives so we could be free to enjoy this great, great nation.

          My time at Airways was a shining moment in my life and was never surpassed till I met my beautiful wife and, with her help, we have had a wonderful life together traveling the world and the United States. I can't put into words what she means to me. She has helped me conquer my shortcomings. I can’t imagine my tiny little life without her.