News & Information --- Pictures & History About Emmet Belknap Middle School
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We lived at 306 High St. from 1952 (when I was born) until Feb. 1959. At that
time the neighborhood consisted of the following families:
Stump (Donna), Smith (Sherry),
McCarthy(Craig & Tommy), Ulrich (Mike?),Walker (Cindy),
Butz & Mrs. Keep on the corner of
High St. and Washburn.
We are the Cooney family with four kids - Jim, Hudson, Ann & Peter. Our parents
have both died (Jack & Bobbie) but we'd love to reconnect with old friends from Emmett
Belknap. I had Mrs. McGovern and Miss Young for kindergarten and 1st grades.
Any classmates out there from any of our classes? We moved to Indianapolis in
'59 and it was difficult to keep up
with anyone.
Ann Cooney Somers
ACS181@aol.com
10/20/00
Most all who went through Emmet Belknap Junior High
School will remember Shop Teacher, Carleton Beck. For many of the boys, Carl's Shop
classes were our first exposure to skills to be needed later---such as wood working.
He also taught metal working techniques, printing and other "industrial
arts."
Our picture (taken by student Robert Buckholtz) shows Mr. Beck with student, Robert Shafer in a Shop 7 Class. Many of Carl's signs on the wall were printed in the school print shop. In fact, Carl saved the school thousands over the years by printing himself, and showing his students how to print up material for the school administration. Under the "Work Safely Today" sign is one that reads, "We use good English in Shop, too."
Your Belknap Beacon editor has nothing but wonderful memories of Carl Beck. We kept in touch over the phone and in person long after we both left Belknap...right up until shortly before the time of Carl's death a few years ago. Lockportians will remember him continuing to share his views on education through the Letters To The Editor section of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal. (5/2/00)
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Peter Buckholtz remembers:
At the time, I didn't appreciate all the skills and knowledge I was acquiring in Carl Beck's shop courses. I learned far more in shop than in the math, English or history courses.
The projects I remember, and remember the skills from, were the pump lamp,
screw driver, electric motor, coat hanger swordfish, scissor holder, knife holder and
picture frame. The pump lamp involved learning how to first construct the lamp and
then to wire it, how to turn the pail on the lathe, and how to sand, stain and finish the
wood. The scissor holder and knife rack were fairly simple projects involving
cutting and gluing wood and then finishing using stain and shellac. My
mother used these
things as long as she lived on her own. The picture frame was a little harder and
involved glass cutting.
The electric motor was a simple affair made of a large nail wound with
copper wire for the armature and piece of sheet metal bent into a U-shape and also wound
with copper wire for the stator. The tricky part was the commutator. There was
soldering to be done and gluing it in just the right position on the armature so the motor
would turn was critical. This little project taught me a lot more about motors than
I ever learned in a science class. The screw driver involved a bit of black
smithing. What an experience heating steel to white heat and then bashing it with a
hammer. This was followed by hardening the end by quenching the shaped metal
in water. All very interesting operations and great learning experiences.
Frank Bredell, in his Lockport Boy, writes of the Beck shop days:
Emmett Belknap School required all boys to take a shop course to give us a little exposure to such trades as machine shop, metalworking, woodworking and printing. That was probably a good idea since a large proportion of our students would end up working in factories or trades. I liked printing best and once even made rounds of Lockport's print shops looking for part-time work, which I never got. The shops didn't know it, but they were lucky. As my printing course went on I found it quite easy to spill whole pages of handset type on the table. This kept me busy for several class periods picking up each piece, deciphering it and putting it back in the right compartment of the type tray.
In metalworking class the little funnel I made of light sheet metal turned out to be oval instead of round, the spout went at a peculiar angle, and the neat rolled edge at the top was neither neat nor rolled. Mostly it was just bent down and hammered flat.
I moved on to wood shop, where I cut a block of wood and spun it on a lathe until it was round, grooved and shiny. I gave it a nice coat of stain and varnish, cut another piece of wood into a triangle and the whole business was then assembled to make a hanging lamp. It was a decent first effort, even though the varnish never dried entirely, leaving the wood a bit sticky. And the whole apparatus would fall off the wall whenever touched.
I spent so much time with the printing, funnel and lamp that I never got to run the machines that were supposed to help me make some metal object that no doubt would have been entirely useless.
Mr. Beck, the shop teacher who had to cope with all of these crafts, was a bit hard of hearing and I was never sure he had really understood the questions I asked. He may have given the right answer to the wrong question. I liked him though. In his spare time, for extra money, he fixed radios and I took a couple over to his house for repairs. His diagnosis was always the same, "It needs filters." Maybe he was right. The sound was marginally better after he tinkered.
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My name is Tami and my last name used to be Gaze. I attended Emmet Belknap from 1983-1985.
I am trying to locate one of my old english teachers. Her name was Renee McDonald. I had her for seventh and for ninth grade and she was probably my favorite teacher! I have thought about her from time to time over the years. I would love to get in touch with her so that I would be able to thank her for being such a wonderful, supportive teacher. Her encouragement meant a lot to me and she probably has no idea. She may not even remember who I am.
If anyone here at this address has ANY information about her, PLEASE
e-mail me at: TamiTranscribe@aol.com
I would love to have some way to get in touch with her.
-Tami B.
4-7-00
Circa 1960, and for some time before and quite a bit of
time after, "Miss Rogers" was the music teacher at Emmet Belknap Junior High.
It was her job to give students an early appreciation of music beyond the words of
the Emmet Belknap "Fight Song." And she prepared those who wished to
advance further into the performing area for their encounters with Belknap's vocal music
director, Julia Callahan.
And where is she today? The last we heard she married another former music teacher about 15 years ago and the two of them moved to Texas. We've been told that her husband passed away about five years ago. Last known to be using the name "Fran Fox" and living near Kyle, Texas. But to those of us from Belknap, she'll always be "Miss Rogers."
Maybe she is at her monitor now checking out old times here at The Belknap Beacon. We hope she'll e-mail the thousands of us back in Lockport who miss her. She can reach all of us with one e-mail to: Belknap@Lockport-NY.com
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