Connections

Interesting stories all. Throughout the years whenever I told someone where I graduated, I always followed up with “fat chance I’ll ever have a high school reunion with anyone who went to school at Thomas Mack Wilhoite High.” This seems to be the year of Fat Chance.

Lee, I especially enjoyed your story because the only time I ever ran into anyone I knew in Morocco was in Honolulu in 1971, thirteen years after leaving Morocco. We lived in Waipahu for 18 months while my husband was on one of the old Apollo tracking ships that docked at Pearl Harbor. My mother was visiting us and while eating at a restaurant, we both thought that a gentleman eating with his family at another table looked familiar. Curiosity got the best of me and I went over to ask if we might know each other. I’m sure no one’s surprised that we knew each other from Morocco. He was an airman, stationed at Sidi Slimane in 1957 and we sang in the same choir on base. Until being reunited with my best bud, Glenda Mathis through Classmates.com, that was my only shocking Morocco-related experience.

Sherrie (Greenwood) Hendrix

Changeover

I was in the graduating class of ’66.

When I was a Freshman, we were in a school building near the pool. By the time I was a Junior, we had moved to the school building opposite the parade ground. I know in the transition that many of the areas on base became off limits to us because those sections were being given to the Moroccans. For instance, we could no longer use the pool.

In the second school building, we no longer walked to the Oasis but were able to get food in the school building.

There also was a teen center but I don’t recall if that was accessible after the move and the base transfer.

Anne Lusk

More Incidents

Don’t know who “blew” it. Does anyone remember when us kids from Sidi Yahia hid behind the guard shack instead of getting on the bus? Then we caught the liberty bus into Kenitra, but got off in town instead of going on to school. We wandered around one of the local schools, talked to those kids when they were on a break outside, until their principal came out. He asked us our names and of course we gave him phony ones. He said he would arrange for us to visit his school with our principal if that was what we wanted.

Then we caught the next liberty bus to get on base, went to the Oasis for lunch, as it was “almost” lunchtime anyway, then went to school.

We were standing in the principal’s office explaining how we missed the bus and had to wait for the (later) liberty bus, when the phone rang. It was the principal of the French school. The principal repeated the names we had given the other guy, looking pointedly at us. He gave us a break, though, but warned us not to be late again. He knew what we were up to, but couldn’t prove it, exactly, so we had gotten away with our Half-day Hookey.

We met some of the kids from the French school later at the International Dance. Deanna or Sherrie (Greenwood) posted those pictures on the web
site. Looking back, high school was more fun than I thought at the time.

Judy (Hill) Swanson