School years at John Spring form a bond

They're joined by another 20 to 30 amigos who gather to talk, share memories and, guys being guys, gossip a little.

It's all in good fun for the boys of John Spring Junior High School. They love to talk and laugh about the good ol' days, including their years at Tucson High School.

"We're from the older generation," said Gonzales.

They also are pioneers of sorts. The guys are part of a larger group of Tucsonans who attended the now closed John Spring Junior High School after it was desegregated in 1951 - three years before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregation. Before then the school was known as Dunbar, which for 38 years was Tucson's blacks-only school at West Second Street and North Main Avenue, just north of downtown.

Most of the new students who went to John Spring were Mexican-Americans who lived near the school in Barrio Anita. But Yaqui children from Old Pascua and Chinese kids, whose families owned corner stores in the surrounding neighborhoods, also joined the black students at Spring.

Social change had come to Tucson and the students at Spring were going to make the best of it - and make desegregation work.

Manny Don, whose father owned a barrio Chinese store, was the class president in the early years after desegregation, Gonzales said.

But the group's monthly gatherings are not so much about great social transformations and history, rather the luncheons are a chance for the Spring alumnae to socialize.

"It's good to stay in touch," said Ortiz who joined his buddies Wednesday at El Torero Restaurant on East 26th Street in South Tucson for the the monthly luncheon.

The group developed about five years ago when some of the guys went to the funeral of Benny Ramos, brother of Manny Ramos and one of the boys who grew up in barrio.

They didn't want to see each other at funerals. They didn't want to share memories at the graveside.

There had to be a better, happier way to recall their younger days. So they created their John Spring group.

There was no formality at last week's luncheon. No one got up to give a speech or make announcements. But the group holds small raffles; half goes to the winning ticket holder and the rest is used to buy flowers when one of the group's members or spouse is in the hospital.

"We're getting older," said Joe Romero.

Every three months or so the group skips lunch and instead they cook a meal for their "better halves," an activity which Matthews' wife Marie Matthews thoroughly enjoys, he said.

"We do it when we get the urge to have our wives join us," said Matthews. "It's just a fun group to be with."

In addition, the boys go to sporting events.

While the majority of the boys from John Spring remained in Tucson, some like Gilbert Glass left town and lived away for many years.

Since his return to Tucson two years ago, Glass, who lived in New York and other places, said the monthly gatherings are his way of staying connected with childhood running buddies.

"I always came back to my roots," said Glass.

There's something deeper running in this group, however, more than smiles and laughter. There are common shared values, acquired in the hard work of the immigrant families and teachers at John Spring, many of whom were African-American.

Gonzales pointed out that most of the guys in the John Spring group are still married to their gals. Their lives were more stable. And a number of their children went on to college and developed professional careers, he added.

While the boys of John Spring worked blue-collar jobs they and their spouses gave their children white-collar dreams.

That gives the boys a lot to talk - and brag - about.

Did you know

John Spring was Tucson's and the Arizona Territory's second public school teacher, after Augustus Brichta. Spring was a Swiss-born Union Army veteran who began teaching in Tucson in 1872. Spring taught in Spanish, to transition his Mexican-American students to English, making him Arizona's first public bilingual-education teacher.

SOURCE: "The First 100 Years: The History of Tucson School District 1, Tucson Arizona, 1867-1967," by James F. Cooper.

Ernesto Portillo Jr. is editor of La Estrella de Tucsón. He can be reached at 573-4187 or netopjr@azstarnet.com