Individual Crossroads Reflections

Dennis Gorg

Crossroads, 1979 – 1984

Class of 1984

I arrived at Crossroads at an interesting time. It was 1979 and my family and I moved back to St Louis from three years in Portland, Oregon. Born and raised in St Louis I had attended Clayton schools through the 4th grade. When we moved back, I started at Crossroads in January of my 7th grade year. Crossroads was located on Lindell in the Central West End in an historic large home converted to a school. We lived only a few blocks from the school.

 

 

Younger, I was always getting involved in something exciting like selling greeting cards door-to-door, delivering newspapers, and odd jobs, so Crossroads approach to “experiential learning” was a welcome to me.

Classroom walls seemed not to exist. It was not uncommon on a nice day for teachers to take us out on the front lawn or a trip to nearby Forest Park. Activities outside of classes were extremely robust with Mock Legislature, student paper, yearbook, field trips, overnight camping trips, community projects and various other activities.

Looking now, it’s a challenge to list all of the projects and activities Crossroads afforded us, and if you took advantage of most, as I did, the depth of “street experiences” was never ending.

Simply put, I credit Crossroads for taking us little seedlings and adding sunlight and water and letting us grow in our own direction. Those students who needed structure, supervision, or a regimented education were often lost and included many of whom didn’t take advantage of the plethora of experiences Crossroads offered. Looking back, it probably wasn’t for everyone, however, for me it was 100% in my wheelhouse and, not knowing it at the time, I took full advantage of it and excelled in the environment.
I’ll contribute antidotes and stories as part of this project that offer my own experience and point of view. I thank Crossroads, my fellow students, the teachers and the administration for the wide berth they provided us, and simply put, the hundreds of experiences that contribute to who I am. Thank you.

Mock Legislature

Friday nights at Crossroads in the Lindell building consisted of a large group of us going to Culpepper’s in the Central West End for burgers in the basement where we could read the dirty cartoons on the walls in the basement and then Mock Legislature back at school, after which many of us went to the Varsity Theater in “The Loop” (University City) to catch the midnight show of Rocky Horror Picture Show (yes, many of us dressed up). Later in life I rewatched – to my shock – Rocky Horror remembering that I was only in 7th grade at the time! It’s important to mention the Culpepper’s part and Rocky Horror were in no way a school activity. It was a wild time.
Mock Legislature was a combination social experience and political get-together. We would pick topics to debate, take sides and argue our points following Roberts Rules of Order, and pass resolutions regarding issues of the day. Of course, we learned negotiation, bargaining and how to get things done in a political environment. We took it seriously. I was offered the opportunity to run a video camera and we’d record all the “sessions”, which added an air of excitement for people — knowing they were “on camera”. Back in those days, the equipment was big and clunky and quite a presence. Black and white TV monitor too! Looking back, I’m not sure we ever even watched the hours and hours of tape (reel to reel tape!) that we accumulated. I suspect the heavy interest in this activity really promoted our school trip to Washington DC where we met with our local reps, took photos, asked questions and toured museums.

School trips

Marion Hilfrink was a Biology teacher beginning in the late 70’s and early 80’s at the school. Her general beliefs educated us on climate change, natural resources and other environmental issues. When the school was on Lindell she started a composting garden in the back alley and as a result she gathered a group of us and we sorted all the school’s trash to pull out compostable materials.

Every day following lunch we would sort the garbage. It was gross work, we learned what could go in the ground and what could not. Plastics were not our friend. Looking back this was 1980 long before anyone was speaking about or teaching about using plastic!

 

For many classes and teachers this was the norm, most were way ahead of their time and really equipped us for the future

When we moved to the DeBaliviere building her classroom was in the back (where the gym and side entry are now). She would often take her classes out back to study weeds, bugs and other vegetation. Quickly though this area became the recycling center.

Spurred by The Chronicle student newspaper and left over issues, papers needed to be dealt with so she came up with the idea to open a recycling center to collect newspapers. This also lead to monthly newspaper drives in the neighborhood. Monthly we would cruise the streets of the Central West End, picking up papers people would leave for us at the curb. It was a pretty robust system, the week before we would flyer everywhere promoting the upcoming drive.

 

The following Saturday we would load up the school’s van (after taking the seats out) and go pick up newspapers. The van was not the most reliable and we’d run up and down the streets with the big side door wide open the whole time and would jump out while it was still moving to collect papers.

Thinking back now, it was fiercely unsafe, and I can’t imagine any institution allowing students to do that now. Likewise, too, they wouldn’t let the students drive! We did learn a lot.

Recycling and Paper Drives

Marion Hilfrink was a Biology teacher beginning in the late 70’s and early 80’s at the school. Her general beliefs educated us on climate change, natural resources and other environmental issues. When the school was on Lindell she started a composting garden in the back alley and as a result she gathered a group of us and we sorted all the school’s trash to pull out compostable materials.

Every day following lunch we would sort the garbage. It was gross work, we learned what could go in the ground and what could not. Plastics were not our friend. Looking back this was 1980 long before anyone was speaking about or teaching about using plastic!

 

For many classes and teachers this was the norm, most were way ahead of their time and really equipped us for the future

When we moved to the DeBaliviere building her classroom was in the back (where the gym and main entry is now). She would often take her classes out back to study weeds, bugs and other vegetation. Quickly though this area became the recycling center.

Spurred by The Chronicle student newspaper and left over issues, papers needed to be dealt with so she came up with the idea to open a recycling center to collect newspapers. This also lead to monthly newspaper drives in the neighborhood. Monthly we would cruise the streets of the Central West End picking up papers people would leave for us at the curb. It was a pretty robust system, the week before we would flyer everywhere promoting the upcoming drive.

 

The following Saturday we would load up the school’s van (after taking the seats out) and go pick up newspapers. The van was not the most reliable and we’d run up and down the streets with the big side door wide open the whole time and would jump out while it was still moving to collect papers.

Thinking back now, it was fiercely unsafe, and I can’t imagine any institution allowing students to do that now. Likewise, too, they wouldn’t let the students drive! We did learn a lot.

The Era of theatre and Anita Grunmann

When Crossroads moved to DeBaliviere, space was created for a “theatre” of sorts. Really it was a white box, like everything else, but a bigger space then most classrooms by double the size.

Joining the staff was Anita Grunmann, a serious- minded theatre teacher tasked with bringing drama to us. She insisted in top-notch productions that lead us to seek out places with a theater to host our productions. Because of Crossroads connection with New City School, we were able for a few years to use their theatre for our productions. Our Town, Pygmalion and others provided us with outlets for our talent and a little fundraising through ticket sales and ads in our program book. New City School provided us with a big stage with sound and lighting equipment built in. Although Anita insisted that we up our game and we rented additional lights from a theatre supply company. I ran the tech crew and we had more fun then I care to admit now, but Anita was tough always demanding our attention and our best with no excuses. She was probably one of the most professional and demanding on the staff and we respected her for it.

One year, unable to use New City’s space we were able to use an old stage in the basement of the Park Plaza Hotel (part of The Chase-Park Plaza complex). That was a completely different experience. We were literally, as students, given the keys to the place. For two months we roamed the basement there, finding ourselves exploring the depths of a once busy basement “speakeasy” from the 1930’s era. There was plenty to find and explore. I remember John Ryan and I actually building a tech booth ourselves out of all the scrap we could find in their basements there. I can’t remember the play performed there, but I remember we had one hell of a time!

In later years, Anita moved on to teach drama at Chaminade College Prep where she continued to produce popular musicals and dramas.