To celebrate National Library Workers Day (April 6, 2021), Mooresville Public Library deputy director Sandra Osborn has written and produced a promo trailer showing that MPL staff's collective 139 years of experience helps patrons find out why.
Find Out Why (Promo Trailer)
by Mooresville Public Library
(Click above to play video)
Drop by the library and discover that experience matters.
Being a local historian (sort of) at Mooresville Public Library, I am often asked to unlock one of our glass storage cabinets to allow patrons to peruse yearbooks from Mooresville High School. We began digitizing these yearbooks a couple of months ago (thanks to OCI Digital Imaging Service), and some are now available to view online (see this blog post). Even when we have completed the project, I anticipate that patrons will still visit the MPL Indiana Room to request the bound paper versions of these yearbooks. I hope so. Holding the past in your hands can be thrilling.
From 1946 onward, the MHS yearbook has been called Wagon Trails, in line with the school's nickname (Pioneers). One day I happened to be looking through the 1976 edition of Wagon Trails (from the year my wife graduated from MHS) and stumbled across the speech team (pages 98-99). I was a member of a speech and debate team when I attended a different high school (also graduating in 1976), so I stopped for a quick look. I discovered something inspiring.
From Wagon Trails, page 99
Mooresville High School Yearbook
(Click Images to Enlarge)
This was meaningful to me because I attended the same state speech tournament as Greg 45 years ago around this time (Saturday, March 20, 1976, if memory serves), in my case representing another school (Lafayette-Jefferson). I never met him, but his performance is inspirational for someone interested in high school public speaking competitions. To reach the IHSFA (Indiana High School Forensic Association) state speech tourney, Greg would have had to have placed among the top five in his speaking event in the super-tough west Indianapolis regional meet, which included powerful Ben Davis High School, the largest high school speech team in Indiana at the time.
I don't know in which speaking category Greg participated--maybe it was Radio, or perhaps Boy's Extemporaneous (my event), Impromptu, Dramatic Interpretation, Original Oratory (I really have no idea--just guessing)--but reaching state finals was no easy chore. It took an enormous amount of practicing and competing in weekly tournaments at high schools across the state to prepare for the "big game."
Here's where Greg's example could be inspiring. If I were an MHS student participating in speech contests today, knowing that a previous alumnus had excelled--especially if I were competing in the same event(s) as that alumnus--could encourage me to work a little extra. Maybe I, too, could make it to state finals, like Greg did.
As it happens, when I attended Lafayette-Jefferson, I was deeply inspired by my predecessors who won state championships or NFL (National Forensic League) district tournaments to qualify for the NFL National Tournament. Legendary speech and debate coach James F. Hawker--my coach--had had dozens of students win top state and district honors and attend Nationals. His two national speech team championships (1964-1965) and eight consecutive years of state speech team championships (1958-1965) was an amazing run. (Imagine your high school basketball team winning the state tourney eight years running.) I studied what my predecessors had accomplished, knew all their names and dates of participation, and idolized their achievements. Perhaps I, too, could be among them? Well, at least that was the dream.
So I practiced every day after school throughout my time at Lafayette-Jeff, inspired by past glories. I didn't have to look to the past only--many of my teammates became state and district champions and attended Nationals, my older brother Alfred among them--so inspiration was close at hand. But it was the "old" former students from the "glory days" who most captured my imagination.
Of course, inspirations from the past can come from many different aspects of life, not just high school contests. But the high school example is poignant. Don't we all remember watching our school's sports teams play? Haven't we all walked past high school trophy cases filled to the brim with past fulfillments? Does your high school have its "wall of fame" with the names of honored past performers? For those of us involved in non-athletic extracurricular activities, we followed the achievements of our schools' bands, orchestras, choirs--even our newspapers, yearbooks, art clubs, and business teams (DECA and ICT, although I can't now remember what the acronyms stood for--distributive education?)--as they competed with students from other Hoosier schools. Americans love achievements--especially championships--so there was lots of inspiration available. Our classmates (and particularly those who came before) accomplished great things. Maybe we could, too.
Drop by the MPL Indiana Room and look in our glass display cases at Mooresville High School's state finalist girls' basketball team from 1978, or its regional champion boys' basketball team from 1944. (The boys won regionals in 1977, too, but there's only so much room in our display cases. Sorry.) As you look at their faces, can you feel their excitement? Those are just two examples of many others available to see in MHS yearbooks. And that's just one sport among many. Then there are the non-athletic groups. What about the MHS orchestra's state championship in 2011? If you're interested in something, those who preceded you can inspire you to greatness.
The past can encourage the future. It worked for Greg Haught. Greg's example (and countless others) can work for today's students, whose achievements may spur tomorrow's youngsters.
Friday, June 4, 1976, page 3
(I was a political science major at Indiana University-Bloomington at the same time Greg was. Small world, although not small enough--I never met him down there, either. But the example is worth noting--winning scholarships is no easy feat. Take note, all you kids out there. That extra hard work will pay off.)
If you like real ghost stories and paranormal phenomena, watch our new video series, "Ghostly Hoosier Haunts, by Cauli Le Chat" now showing on the MPL YouTube Channel. Learn more from our brochure.
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