Ironton Sililoquy

Student Demonstration

February 22, 1966

Written by Charles Collett

Submitted by: Robert Kingrey

George’s birthday came on Sunday 50 years ago and the city school board failed to follow the lead of the banks and others who celebrated on Monday with a holiday. The high school students at Kingsbury building thought it a dirty deal to be denied a holiday, which had been long celebrated honoring the man who cut down the cherry tree and couldn’t tell a lie about it. Shortly before the school bell rang on Monday morning February 23, 1916, students under the leadership of a couple of football players who later became stars on the famous team remembered as the Tanks, started a parade from the schoolyard toward the business district. The parade ended at the photo studio of L. J. Glines on Third Street, now location of the Lawrence Federal Savings and Loan building.

The boys and girls wanted their pictures taken for the school annual The Owl. The studio wasn’t large enough for all the student demonstrators, so the photographer lined the group up in front of a billboard across the street from the studio, now the Ro-Na Theater.

The picture turned out fine, the only mistake was the poster on the billboard was for a burlesque show at the opera house, and there stood the "cream" of the Ironton High School under the word "Burlesque" in big letters.

The picture never appeared in the school annual or in the newspapers, as pictures in local newspapers at that time were rare. However the picture was displayed in the window at Klein’s soda shop. Nicholas J. Rider was superintendent. I am sure there are several of those 9 by 12 inch photographs in old boxes or trunks in the attic, which grandparents could get out and show the children, but are ashamed to.