The Memphis Park Commission was
one of the best I had ever seen. Each community had its own park and they were
landscaped and built with baseball fields and pavilions with bathrooms. I have lived in a few cities but none of them
seem to have the recreational facilities and parks that Memphis had when I was
growing up. We seem to have taken that for granted when we were kids. Memphis, Tennessee was designed for families
and communities. Even in those days that
took quite a bit of doing by our city fathers because some of these lands could
have been used for commercial projects, apartment buildings are other
moneymaking ventures that the city could have undertaken. I’m sure there were
businessmen that had begged and pleaded at times to get these properties but in
our day the city held fast and they became parks, nature trails and recreation
facilities for our youth and the use of the city elders. Again, I wish to take my hat off to those
early developers of Memphis, thank you for giving us the sense of community
that these Parks and recreation facilities gave us thank you. We even had softball tournaments and various
other things that the park commission set up for us in the summertime at these
Parks. I’m sure this took its toll on
the city budget but as long as I’ve frequented those parks, they always had
park commissioners in the summer and organized activities for the kids. They even opened up the gymnasium at Airways
Junior High School to act as a community center for us in the summertime.
I remember that very well because
my parents ran a concession stand out the back of Airways Junior High School. They
opened up a small room that opened to the outside, and put tables to block off
the entrance to that room from the outside and sold cokes, potato chips,
popcorn, candy bars and many other items for at least three or four summers
that I can remember for the Airways Athletic Boosters Club. Now I don’t want you to think that it was
only my parents or that I think that it was only my parents because it wasn’t,
the organization of the Airways Junior High School Boosters Athletic Association
was run by almost every parent that was a member of the PTA as well and it did
more for the school than just the athletic teams and the band. It gave the
school money that it badly needed to give us the education that we got
there. I think we all took for granted
everything that we had at Airways, but you know there were a lot of hardworking
people and most of those were our parents that made our community as strong as
it was. They looked after us, they
worked hard to see that we had the things that we needed to make our
communities a home. They did things that parents don’t do today for all of
us. The selflessness of the parents that
were in the PTA at Charjean, Bethel Grove and Cherokee Elementary Schools gave us
things that no other schools in Memphis had and it was all because of their
love for us and our community that made it so strong. When Airways opened and
we all got together as one community that love and hard work that our parents
put in for those elementary schools continued with this junior high school and
our community. The strongest leaders of
the PTAS from those three communities and schools now banded together to make
one of the most wonderful and outstanding experiences of my life and I’m sure
years too. This 7th, 8th and 9th grade
school that we had was something that the kids do not experience today because
of this new development of something called a middle school.
Personally, I think it was to get
rid of all of the extra costs of having sports and athletics and music and bands
and these type things. Our parents would
not have stood for this in our day they would have fought tooth and nail for us
to have the things that we had in our junior high school. My father not only worked extremely hard for
the Airways Junior High Boosters Club, but he also worked extremely hard with
the coaches’ and the Fairview Junior High School Boosters Club when they parked
cars every year for the Midsouth Fair and any other thing that needed a helping
hand at Fairview. Fairview made so much
money that the Board of Education tried to take the money away from Fairview
and give it to other schools as well. My father and other parents that worked
to help park these cars for Fairview Junior High School were extremely angry
and went to the Board of Education and fought extremely hard to keep this from
happening, however they did not win the fight but did come up with a compromise
that allowed the Board of Education to share some of the money with the rest of
the Memphis City schools but because of the work of my father and other parents,
the largest portion stayed at Fairview Junior High School. My parents continued to work in both of these
junior high schools even after both my brother and I had gone on to high school.
They took their personal time to help the children of parents that they did not
even know. I don’t think that many of
you know that the people that ran the concession stands and parked the cars and
worked so that we could have so many things, were my parents.
There were others that did this too. There
were the Bouchers, the Millers and so many others that it’s hard for me to
remember them all, so if your parents were not mentioned, please, by all means,
mention them. I do not mean to slight them in any way. I just have no
recollections of their names as I’m sure you would not remember my parents, but
I am sure that you remember the men and women that ran the concession stands
during the ball games and the special events that we had at Airways. Again, thank you for allowing me to come into
your life with the memories of my very little life. Your friend always, Keith
House