When she was a student at Thomas Jefferson High School a half century ago, Ruth Burkett Daerr was a member of the history club. On Friday, she got to be part of the school district's living history.

Mrs. Daerr was among 10 members of the Thomas Jefferson High School Class of 1960 who visited schools in THE West Jefferson Hills School District and shared school history and traditions with students. The activity was part of the year-long 50th anniversary of the Class of 1960 - the first to graduate from the district's high school.

"I've always liked history, and now I am history" joked Mrs. Daerr, of South Park.

Students at Jefferson Elementary were shocked to hear from the alumni that there were no iPods, computers or cell phones when they were in school.

"They just couldn't believe it. They wanted to know how we could talk to each other without them," Mrs. Daerr said.

Another member of the alumni group, Joyce Schmitt, of Jefferson Hills, who is president of the West Jefferson Hills Historical Society, presented the students with a full history of the district.

"I will take you back in time," she said. She told the students at McClellan Elementary that in 1960, gas cost 25 cents a gallon, John F. Kennedy was elected president, "Elvis was king," and the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series.

Then she took them back even further: To the founding of the first school, Gill Hall, in 1812 in a log cabin. She said the school was heated with a pot-bellied stove and that the teacher likely asked the strong boys in the class to fill it with wood or coal to keep the classroom warm.

Mrs. Schmidt said the district's first teachers made about $20 a week and could earn an extra $5 weekly if they agreed to chop wood and clean the schoolhouse.

She showed students a hand bell from one of the original schools and explained that the teacher rang the bell when it was time for classes to start.

Since the did not have running water, when students were thirsty, someone was sent to fill a wooden pail from a nearby water source. Mrs. Schmidt showed the students a pail with a ladle, from which all of the students would drink.

Mrs. Schmidt said sometimes, if the water came from a stream, there might be a tadpole in the ladle and the teacher would simply toss it to the side.

That didn't appeal to the McClellan students, who squealed and made faces at the idea.

She then fast-forwarded to the West Jefferson district that she and her contemporaries attended. At that time, the district had various elementary schools that led to a single junior high school that served grades seven through nine.

After that, students attended either Clairton or Baldwin high schools or private high schools.

She said most of the students in the Class of 1960 went to Clairton High School for their sophomore year. For their junior year, they returned to West Jefferson, where a wing had been added to the junior high school, making it a high school.

The Class of 1960 started the first high school sports teams, student council, yearbook and other activities.

They got to choose the school colors of black and gold, which they took from the Pittsburgh Pirates, and create the district's mascot, the jaguar.

Being trailblazers, though, wasn't always exciting because the newly formed teams didn't have many victories.

"Our guys tried, they really did. But things just didn't have enough time to mesh," Mrs. Daerr recalled.

Still, she said, the close-knit class was glad to be back in their home district and in their new school.

"We loved that place so much, we wouldn't let a crumb fall on the floor,'' she said.

In addition to Mrs. Daerr and Mrs. Schmidt, the other members of the Class of 1960 who visited schools last week were: Jim Ackman of Sandy Lake, Mercer County; Carol Relf Kondrat of New Bethlehem, Clarion County; Raymond Daerr of Finleyville; Connie Shaffer and Ida McConeghy of Jefferson Hills; Mary Fran Artman of West Mifflin; Bill McVicker and Andy Galioto of Pleasant Hills; and Barry Wagner of White Oak.

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