Murray and his best friend from grade school through college, Frank Sadler, reconnected in the 1970s and began a 20-year correspondence full of reminiscence. This letter about Frank's experience in World War II makes reference to their time in ROTC at Stadium High School in the early 1930s. I'm assuming that was a required activity since Murray's parents were pacifists and would not have encouraged him to participate.
In our family lore, Frank was the protagonist, if not the hero, of a marching demonstration gone wrong in Stadium's famous arena, the Bowl. This would have been in 1932 or '33. Frank made a hole in one of his uniform pockets and then loaded it with small change. His after school job at the time was professional boxing, to the despair of his very proper widowed mother, so he had more money than most.
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| Stadium Bowl |
As the cadets marched in file, coins worked their way through the pocket opening and dribbled on to the turf. In the Depression, no amount of cash was minor. First one boy and then others broke ranks to snatch up the price of a burger or a milkshake, and the whole exhibition fell apart.
(This photo is from gritcitymag.com
I don't know its original source.)
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