Joella Balles:  

School I started Kindergarten at Harrison Elementary. My teacher's name was Mrs. Wrightings. I attended Harrison from Kindergarten to the first week of the B-2 semester. My mom moved to Stone Street and I then started attending, Malabar Street School. I attended Malabar from 1960-1965. I graduated from Malabar in June of 1965. My teachers at Malabar were: Mrs. Diamond, Mrs. Hobbs, Mrs. Teel, Mr. Yip, Mr. Levy, Mrs. Callison, Mr. Baltic and Mr. Ferrell. I had lots of great friends at Malabar and I loved that school. I loved the huge play areas. Does anyone remember "Up the Galley" and "Down the Galley"? I entered Belvedere Junior High School in the Fall of 1965. I was a "scrub". Had a great B-7 Semester at BJHS then my mom moved to Baldwin Park for a year and so I attended Landis Intermediate. We then moved back to L.A. and I re-entered Belvedere Jr. High in my A-8 Semester and stood at BJHS until I graduated in June of 1968. My graduating class name was The Thesians Class of Summer 1968. Royal Blue and White were our colors. I had many great friends at Belvedere. Many of us split up as we went to different High Schools. I entered Theodore Roosevelt High School in September of 1968. I never looked back after that. Roosevelt was great. I met a lot of people there and made lots of new friends. I was active in many clubs, drill team, cheerleading and class councils. Some of my favorite teachers at Roosevelt were, Mrs. Simpson, Mr. Dawson, Mr. Foxworth, Mr. Drye and Mr. Kendricks.............. If I could do it all over again, would I? Hell Yes!! .............. Who could forget, first drill team performance, 40-0, City Championship game against Gardena, The Walkouts, Last Drill Team Performance at ELAC 1970, Ditching, Driving around in Miss Williams "Bug" with Bertha and Norma, Senior Ditch Day when more than half the school was absent and showed up at the same park as our class........... One of the funniest moments occured at our Senior Talent Show when George Burwell, The Eaton Brothers, Ray Paniaqua (someone else but I forgot who) got up to sing, The Temptations song. Those high falsetto voices coming out from these big guys busted up the whole auditorium! They sang great but no one expected that performance from them................ My happiest moment was leadin...Expand for more