the Cisco pool
Senior trips for Breckenridge High School were one -day trips near the end of the school year. In the thirties and forties, the seniors went to Cisco. The 25 -mile trip took them to an outstanding recreation area, a swimming pool behind the base of the dam which created Lake Cisco. It was known as the world’s largest concrete swimming pool. (It was actually a natural bottom pool with concrete sides.) The dam was hollow, and the brave could walk through the center. The highway from Cisco to the neighboring town of Moran was atop the dam. Beside the pool was a two story building which housed concessions and dressing rooms on the lower level and a roller skating rink on the upper level. The pool closed in the seventies and the roller rink burned several years later.
At that time, the Breckenridge seniors rode to Cisco on a cattle trailer with the sideboards removed. There were bales of hay for them to sit or lean on. The trucks traveled slowly. There was no hurry. They sang and had a good time as they rode along. No one fell off and there probably was no horse play. My older brother, Carroll Williams, was in high school by the time I was old enough to wave as the truck went by our home. We lived one mile out of town on the Cisco highway (US hwy 183). My mother would stand in front of the house with me. As the truck went by, I would wave, and the seniors would wave to “Carroll’s little sister.” At some point, the seniors began traveling on school buses. It was safer and faster. The classes continued going to Cisco during the forties.
The class of 1950 desired a change. They wanted to go to Forest Park in Fort Worth. The senior class sponsor was Kate Bailey. She had reigned for several years by this time and was described by some as strict and unyielding. When the matter was brought up in class meetings, there was little discussion and no class vote. There was only one vote and that vote belonged to Kate Bailey. It was NO, and the discussion ended. The class realized that it was a dead issue with their sponsor. They did not give up easily. They began to make their own plans. Every class member who had access to a car was to take other class members and they would go to Fort Worth without the blessing of their sponsor. Senior Day arrived and the parking lot was full of cars. Each class member knew with whom they were to ride. The buses were waiting. The class officers approached Mrs. Bailey and told her that they were going to Fort Worth. Her response was that if they did, it would be the first time in the history of Breckenridge High School that there would be no graduating class. They began walking to the cars and were preparing to depart when she asked them to wait. She relented. They left their cars and boarded the buses. They became the first class to go to Forest Park in Fort Worth.
Two students in the class of 1951 decided to take their own trip instead of going to Fort Worth. By the time the buses were loading on Senior Day, they were in Carlsbad, New Mexico, waiting for the first tour of Carlsbad Caverns to begin. My husband, Ken, who had graduated in 1950, was with them. The trio toured the caverns and afterward returned to Breckenridge. When the two boys went to school the next morning, they were expelled and told they would not graduate because they did not go on the trip and didn’t stay in class.
Early the following morning, one of the boys and his Dad were waiting for superintendent John Bailey when he arrived for work. The boy’s father invited Mr. Bailey into his car for a discussion. When Mr. Bailey exited the car, the boys were no longer expelled. Both returned to class and graduated.
The class of 1952 traveled to Fort Worth in a moving van owned by local businessman, Vanno Carey. They had hay bales inside for sitting and lounging.
(Breckenridge ex-students provided the information on trips after I graduated in 1953.)
The trips to Forest Park in Fort Worth continued through the fifties and sixties.
One responder said that some of the guys in the late sixties got to go to Southeast Asia. Another just said “Went to Vietnam on my senior trip.” He did not have a fun trip but said, “had a wonderful time returning home.”
A person from the class of 1968 wrote that they went to Forest Park and were threatened within an inch of their lives if they boozed it up like the class of 1967. There would never be another senior trip ever if they messed up. No one from the class of ’67 commented on that. However, another member of the class of 1968 said that the class had a great time at Forest Park Zoo and he was going to leave it at that. Someone else agreed that he should do just that.
Forest Park and the Zoo were still the destination in 1970. Reportedly a class member watching the orangutans laughed so hard he was in tears
I believe that the class of 1971 was the first class to go to the Six Flags Over Texas Theme Park.
The class of 1972 went to Six Flags. Miss Ola Frazier was the class sponsor and she told them to be back at the bus at a certain time or be left behind. In the words of a class member, “She wasn’t kidding.” This was the class of my niece, Margaret Stewart. She said she doesn’t remember whether she had fun. Leaving friends behind in a large city is what she remembers. One of the guys had an older brother that lived in the area and he picked them up. She says she later asked them if they were worried. The answer was, no, they just stayed inside and rode some more rides. She asked, “Can you imagine what would happen today if students were left behind at a school event?” My first thought was, termination.
The class of 1973 went to Six Flags and had much fun in their bell -bottomed hip huggers. Six Flags was the destination through 1978. The class of 1977 was supposed to go to the Seybold Guest Ranch in Mineral Wells, but the trip was changed a couple of days before senior day so they also went to Six Flags. They also took a side trip to North Fort Worth because of a wrong turn at the Mix Master in downtown Fort Worth.
The class of 1979 did go to the Seybold Guest Ranch in Mineral Wells. They tubed down the Brazos River, or as one class member put it, “we were thrown into the river to float down on inner tubes.” It was cold and someone said they should have had a beverage to warm up. The response was, “I believe some of us did.” Someone else remarked that the class should have gone to Six Flags.
The last trips made were in the early eighties to Six Flags. There were no trips in the mid and late eighties. There was one mention of a trip in 1997, but it was not school sponsored. A company came and offered a trip to Cancun, Mexico, and a few students went.
The trips are a “thing of the past.”
Sincere thanks to members of the facebook group, Remember in Breckenridge When, for the information which they furnished.