There were about a half dozen of us who went to Morse Bluff High School. Morse Bluff only had grades from the first to the 10th grade and then we had to go to another high school to finish our junior and senior years. Most of us went to North Bend. In the first few days of my junior year at North Bend High School, I knew very few of my classmates except those who came from Morse Bluff. In about the second week we had class elections and, guess what, I was elected class president, even though I hardly knew most of my classmates.
As I look back at all the days that I spent at North Bend High School, I remember a very happy time. I enjoyed sports and the theater, but most of all I enjoyed learning. Learning has become a large part of my life. One thing I have learned is that the first thing we need to know is how things work. But then, more important, we need to learn why they work the way they do.
I lettered in basketball, football, and track plus earned the Full Blue award which was the highest award available for high scores in track events in Nebraska high schools. I had a part in both the junior and senior class plays. I remember hearing others say that they had the lead part. Actually, each time the parts were being handed out, the director, Miss Imig, came to me and said: “Lloyd I’d like you to take this part because it has the most lines and I know you will learn your lines; that’s very important to me.” It happen for both the junior and senior class plays.
I was also on the honor roll almost every time and was inducted into the National Honor Society.
In my junior year I was chosen to go to Boys State which was a weeklong session in Lincoln, teaching us about government offices like local, county and state. Since we held elections to place people in various offices I learned about lobbying and organizing people for a worthwhile effort. My first successful lobbying effort was to organize an activity with Girls State. The two groups, Boys State and Girls State, although they met at the same time in the same city each year, never had any activity together. I discussed this with the counselors and suggested that maybe we could have a dance together, which they promptly rejected. That was on Monday and I started organizing the guys. We lobbied the counselors to have a dance with Girls State. On Tuesday they said absolutely not. On Wednesday they said: “We will think about it.” On Thursday they announced that they had organized a dance at the Cornhusker Hotel ballroom on Thursday afternoon.
We would have a band and we would have a dance with Girls State. That was my first successful effort to organize a group of people. When we arrived at the hotel ballroom I walked in and saw a room full of girls that I didn’t know. As I looked around there was not one that I recognized. I asked a couple of them to dance and we danced a short while. Then I walked around looking for someone else and I met someone right in front of me. Our eyes met and we both said, instantaneously, “Track Meet!” And yes, we had never met really, but we saw each other at a track meet a few weeks earlier and one of the girls at the track meet was someone I knew; this individual was there with her. We danced the whole afternoon and had a wonderful time. The best part of the story is that, five years later, we were married and last year Jan and I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary and 60 years of happiness together.
After graduation from North Bend high school I accepted a Regents Scholarship from the University of Nebraska and went on to get a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering.
Lloyd Keller 