(This story is part of a continuing series about a collection of vintage slides from Old Mission Peninsula School that Bob Panter gave to Peninsula Community Library’s Local History Room in 2022. Read how it came about here, and check out more vintage OMPS photos here. -jb)
Who remembers that godawful climbing rope in the school gym? And whose brilliant idea was it to make us all climb that thing? Whoever it was, clearly they did it with the sole purpose of humiliating me. I swear it still shows up in my nightmares now and then.
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Yes, I was the kid who managed to climb *maybe a foot or two and then gave up. Rope-climbing was definitely not one of my skills. And it never improved, no matter how many times I tried to climb that darn thing.
In this photo below, it looks like the rope was on the east side of the gym. This is probably before my time, because when I came along, it was on the west side of the gym near the locker rooms and door to the hallway.
It looks like someone put knots in the rope, which would have been really helpful in gathering some altitude. I honestly don’t remember if the rope had knots when I came along. I don’t think so, but I was too traumatized to pay much attention at the time.
I don’t recognize anyone in these photos – see anyone you know? Tell us in the comments section at the bottom of this story. By the way, if you click on these photos, it should bring them up bigger, and to get back to the story just click outside the photos.
In this photo, the rope was on the west side of the gym, where I remember it. With knots, thankfully. This looks like it might be more in my era – in fact, that might be my classmate Beth Van Farowe, in the red shirt, second from the front of the line. Hard to say. I don’t recognize anyone else. Way to go, person climbing! You’re doing great.
Here’s another one on the west side of the gym. No knots. It kind of looks like these guys are just fooling around. Recognize anyone? And by the way, this looks like a different – harder to climb – rope! This must be the one I had!
Any memories of that wretched rope-climbing fiasco? Tell us below. And if you have vintage OMPS photos, send them along with any notes and I’ll post them – [email protected] or text (231) 590-4715.
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Jane – your memory is correct – many of the photos in the collection scanned “mirror imaged”. I need to add a note to the collection about this!