THE CANNON CAPER…Now, the rest of the story
Let us begin with a refreshing of memories, to the activities on the night of
Sunday, May 18, 1969…from the Tuesday, May 20, 1969 Rochester Sentinel:
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And now it is the cannon caper There was a report that RHS Principal John Stone planned to talk with County Prosecutor James O. Wells Jr. about the entire matter. Wells said this morning that Stone has not contacted him. |
| I was looking for something the other day and after scouring everyplace that I could think of, I
decided to look in my padlocked treasure box. As you can see, the letters “D & D” are stenciled on the top of this metal box. The first “D” stenciled on the box stands for “Deniston”. However, the owner of the second “D”, Ted Denton, would
argue otherwise, I’m sure. Ted and I started a trash collection business in April of 1969, during our Senior year at RHS. |
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The box was an item we picked up from a crawl space cleanout project, and it was too good to pitch into the city dump. In the treasure box are a collection of valuables, such as two yo-yo’s, tap dance shoes from my Pamela and Louise “forced” dance classes, assorted keys for which locks have long been forgotten, newspaper articles, and many other miscellaneous assorted treasured items.
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As I searched for who-remembers-what, I located my old fire-damaged pocket diary. The diary has entries for January through June of 1969. The diary is fire damaged because I threw it into the burn barrel out by our garage, in a fit of anger…the source of which has also long been forgotten. My Mother, God love her, went out after I left and rescued the diary from the smoldering burn barrel. When I returned home later, there, on my desk was the partly burned diary. I thought it might be interesting to flip through a few pages and see what I |
Note: because of the condition of the diary from the fire, parts of some entries are illegible. I will
so denote those parts with “***” I also see that I ended each entry with a single word description
of that day’s weather.
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Tuesday, March 11 Steve Moore and I bought
Since the writing isn’t legible to the left of the 7.50, and I’m sure we paid no more than $100 for Freddy’s old car, we probably paid somewhere between $15.00 and $95.00. |
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| Freddy Pushbacher (with signature cigar in hand) |
Saturday, March 15 …Ted (Denton), Dan (Riley), I decided *** take cannon from V.F.W.
In all the years since I wrote in this little diary, this is the first time that I opened it up and read through the pages. When I read the March 15 entry, I was compelled to tell “the rest of the story” of the cannon caper. But first, some diary entries leading up to the caper…
Saturday, March 29 – Ted, Dan and I went to Peru … I bought a camera, $31.00. Took pictures at last showing of Take Me Along…
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Beth Marsh, Take Me Along
Sunday, March 30 – Took pictures of Ted and I’s U.F.O at Pedigo’s…
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Ted and I made a “U.F.O.” in my basement, from anything we could find; an old tv stand, cloths rack, emergency blanket (borrowed from the trunk of Ilene Denton’s car), an old windup fire alarm bell and flares. |
| We planned to land our U.F.O at Coach Bob Pedigo’s house, who lived across the alley from me. |  |
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The U.F.O landed in Bob Update! According to Ted, this picture was taken in Larry McKonkie's back yard. Yes, the UFO did land in more than one backyard! |
Monday, March 31 - Ted & I about ready to go into business hauling trash.
Tuesday, April 1 - Ted & I just about ready to go into business hauling trash.
Wednesday, April 2 - Ted & I got license plate for truck $18.50. Daddy is going to lend me $50.00 for insurance and license to haul trash.
Thursday, April 3 - Ted & I drove truck for the first time.
Friday, April 4 - Ted & I fixed brake lights on truck, worked at station from 5:00 till 9:30, also put *** (door?) on side of bed ready to *** (begin?) hauling tomorrow.
Saturday, April 5 - *** (Purchased?) Insurance $86.40 (6 mo.) ***(Picked up at?) Riverwood acres.
Monday, April 7 - Went out on route to lake and got a few customers. Got ***(ad?) in paper. Made $14.00. *** worked on truck.
Tuesday, April 8 - Had big day with *** Have to get license so we can dump. (Bigger *** tomorrow!)
Wednesday, April 9 - Picked up trash, cleaned out under Lawrence Brown’s house, got $40.00. Got license & key to dump.
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We had the Graphic Arts class make up a few business cards for our new business and as you Our motto was a little longer than is shown on the card. It was “Satisfaction Guaranteed or |
| Our trash truck was an old Dodge cattle truck and loading trash barrels into the bed was not easy. Unloading was accomplished by crawling into the back of the truck and shoveling the trash out by hand. The truck had its problems, as the following entries reflect.. |
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Friday, April 11 - Truck not running so good. Starting to pop out of first. Could be a chipped tooth on gear.
Saturday, April 19 - Spent the whole morning trying to start the truck…
Sunday, April 20 - …I worked on truck. A little afraid of low compression.
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Monday, April 21 - The transmission on the truck is just about gone. Going to have Thursday, April 24 - We blew muffler off the truck today. About ready to give up on |
Friday, April 25 - Truck went to HELL!
Saturday, April 26 - Ted & I took transmission out of truck and replaced it with a stick transmission on the floor, took all day. Tomorrow, work on motor.
Sunday, April 27 - Ted & I took head off of truck and found out we need valves. Max is going to work on it for us.
Monday, April 28 - Max fixed truck and we hauled trash tonight…
Tuesday, April 29 - Had a blowout on truck. Didn’t get home until 9:00. Paid Max $18.00.
Wednesday, April 30 - Went on route, took in $1.00 (wow)
Thursday, May 1 - Didn’t pick up trash because of truck trouble. Carburetor isn’t working.
Friday, May 2 - Denton & I went to Dimmit’s in Argos for Carb, then went to Gill’s in Akron for parts for carb. Denton quit D&D.
Ted finally had enough and quit. As bad as these diary entries seem, it was probably even worse for Ted. You see, I, as the designated “mechanic” would be the one to jump in the cab and “pop” the clutch when the truck was pushed. That made Ted’s job…you guessed it, the main pusher. And, since pushing is generally done from the back of the truck… let’s review the diary entry from Thursday, April 24. Yes, when the muffler “blew”, Ted was pushing, and I had just jumped into the cab and popped the clutch, then BAM!! Ted staggered around from the back of the truck, and resembled Little Black Sambo! That was almost his last day for sure!
Saturday, May 3 - …Got a loan ($350.00) and bought a dump truck…
So, to keep the business going, now solo, I purchased a 1951 Ford “Stubnose” dump truck from Louderback Chevrolet. This establishes the fact that at age 17, a Senior in high school, I did in fact own a dump truck, and
is a key point in “the rest of the story.”
As I continued to read the daily diary entries, I was regularly picking up trash and no entries are worth mentioning. Then continuing with May 18…
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Sunday, May 18 – Seniors tried to take Cannon and put into front of school (got caught) … |
Yes, the plan to take the cannon from the V.F.W was executed by 12 members of the Senior class, the evening of Sunday, May 18. Even though Dan, Ted and I had planned the event, I was not a part of the actual cannon caper. You see, after we came up with the idea, somehow the word spread out of control and I was afraid to take part, for fear of being caught. There were just too many people with knowledge of the plan for me to feel comfortable. So, I told Ted that I was backing out of the plan. Unfortunately, my apprehensions were confirmed when the group got caught in the act, after someone reported to the Sheriff of seeing a cannon being towed along Ind. 14 towards Rochester.
Tradition in the 60’s was for the Seniors to come up with a prank on school grounds, just before the end of the school year. The cannon caper was the grand-daddy of all pranks…if only it had succeeded. So, I talked to Dave Shore about the possibility of another prank attempt, for the sake of the honor of the class of 1969.
| Tuesday, May 20 – Dave Shore & I got an outhouse and are going to put it at the school early in the morning… |
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On Monday, May 19, 1969, the day after the Cannon Caper, Principal John Stone announced to the Senior class that anyone caught performing a prank on school property, would not graduate. No exceptions! He was not happy. This would normally be enough to scare the daylight out of anybody that was contemplating another prank. However, the word “caught” was the key word. The Cannon caper was a valiant attempt to represent the class of 1969, however it was not a success, because the dirty dozen seniors were “caught”. Dave and I discussed this and came up with a plan, but it could only succeed if we swore to complete secrecy. The stakes were high, however the honor of the prank, for the class of 1969 seemed to outweigh the cost.
The plan was to use my dump truck to pick up an outhouse. We both knew of a good candidate, located near the round barn South of Talma, on State Road 25. Tuesday night we dropped one of our cars off at the station, and drove out and appropriated the outhouse. We laid the outhouse flat in the back of the dump truck, so it could not be seen on the trip back to the station.
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The "station" of course
Right, Max note, the cabinet on Ted's right is the ticket cabinet for the Indiana Motor Bus company |
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When we arrived at the station, we opened one of the bay doors, backed the dump truck inside, closed the door, and turned the bay lights out. We spray painted “Class of 69” on all sides of the outhouse, then locked up the station, and drove home for the night. We agreed to meet back at the station at 4:00am the next morning.
We both snuck out of our houses and met at the station at 4:00am. We pulled the dump truck out and locked the station up and headed to the school. Dave’s job was to jump out of the truck the minute we swung around the curve by the back door of the high school, and go back and lower the tailgate. I engaged the hydraulic lift so that the bed was raising as I backed up to the curb by the back doors of the high school. It was slick as could be. Within less than a minute, the outhouse was standing at the curb at the back door of the high school with “Class of 69” proudly accepting the responsibility.
We were expecting all hell to break out when we went to school later that morning, but there was nothing. The outhouse had been removed. No sign of anything. We still thought that there would be an inquiry by the school to try to find out who dared to defy Stone’s threat, but the school was silent.
We knew, that the school knew, that someone was walking the halls, full of guilt, and we swore more than ever, not to say anything about the outhouse to anyone. Even after we received our diplomas, we thought there could be reprimand if Stone was to find out. So, I never told anyone, and to my knowledge, Dave did not tell anyone either. And, because the school made no announcement about the outhouse, the pleasure and excitement of the whole prank was totally deflated. We knew that the class of 1969 succeeded in placing an outhouse at the school without having been “caught”, but the administration, by removing the outhouse before it could be seen, and keeping silent, beat us, because they knew that the perpetrators would have to keep silent or risk being exposed.
In retrospect, the “Dirty Dozen”, even having been caught, were the one’s that brought the honor of the prank to the Class of 1969.
And now you know the rest of the story. Spike
I wanted to continue in my diary and review one more entry…
Friday, May 23 – Got out of school (For good) at 11:25. Dan (Riley), Beth (Marsh)
& I ate in Park…
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Beth Marsh, Dan Riley and I met at the City park after the last day of school. We vowed to meet back at the same park in 30 years, so we tore the cover of a Zebra notebook into 3 sections, and wrote our names and the date that we would meet. |
Over the years Dan and I communicated about our future meeting, however neither one of us could locate Beth. At some point, we heard that Beth had passed. 30 years later, on a rainy afternoon in May, 1999, Dan, his wife Becky and their son Bill, my wife Barb and I, all met at the same park.
The picture shows Dan and I matching up our two sections of the Zebra notebook, sadly, the top section of Beth’s is missing. Becky at left.
Postscript
In memory of my friend, David Shore
My diary entries regarding Dave Shore with the outhouse caper brought back so many memories, especially the memories of the day that Dave told Tom Grosvenor and I that he had cancer.
Rochester Cement Products was a kind of hangout for several of the guys in our class, where we would meet and visit. Tom and Tim Grosvenor were running the operation since their father, Calvin passed on. The shop was located on the South side of State Road 14 across the road from the airport, a short distance West of the Lakeside Inn restaurant.
One afternoon in June of 1970 I was at the Cement Products talking to Tom, and possibly others, however I can’t recall, when Dave Shore drove up to the shop. It wasn’t unusual for Dave to stop by the shop so we greeted him as usual, and it became evident that Dave was serious about something. It was then that Dave told us that he had cancer. At the age of 18, we certainly were not thinking in terms of our own mortality, so I’m sure we tried to shrug it off as not that serious, for Dave’s benefit. He obviously knew better.
Dave liked my dump truck, and we had previously talked about the possibility of a money-making scheme involving Christmas trees and oranges. The idea was to buy Christmas trees from Bob Kern, load them into the dump truck and drive to Florida in December. We could sell the Christmas trees at a premium price in Florida. And, while in Florida we would buy up a truck load of oranges to bring back to Indiana and sell at a premium price in the winter.
Tom’s dad had an old 1949 Ford dump truck, and Dave thought that if we could get that truck running, he could use it for our plan and we could double our profits using two trucks. This subject was top-of-mind when Dave became too sick to come to the shop anymore.
One night, Tom Grosvenor and I towed his Dad’s old dump truck into the shop with the anticipation of getting the old girl to fire up. After a while we got it to fire up and it was loud! No muffler! While it was running, we hurried over to the phone and called Dave so he could hear the truck running. He was happy to hear it running.
As time went on Dave’s health continued to decline and it was getting close to Christmas. My phone rang one night and it was Byron Shore calling. He said that he and Marie were trying to think of things to give Dave for Christmas, but all that Dave talked about was the dump truck. He asked me if the truck needed anything that they could give to Dave for Christmas. I told Byron that the dump truck needed a muffler. He asked me if I would pick one up for him, for Dave’s Christmas present, and of course I did. I don’t know if Dave got enjoyment, or encouragement when he received that muffler on Christmas, because I never saw Dave again.
Dave died January 20, 1971 and the service was held on the 23rd. At the service, Byron invited Dave’s friends to come to his house after the service, to have a beer in Dave’s honor. I couldn’t go. Up until the funeral, I kept my emotions to myself. Dave’s funeral triggered emotions in me, and I needed to be alone with my grief, too embarrassed for anyone to see. So instead, I got in my car and drove around in the country, by myself… and wept.
50 years later, I wish that I had visited Dave more often when he was bedridden. I wish that I had gone to see Dave on his last Christmas day. I wish that I could have gone to his house for that honorary beer. But I believe that Dave knows, because I’ve told him so many times in my prayers.
One more postscript
Since I wrote this, my good friend Tom Grosvenor passed away. I was eager for Tom to read my "Cannon Caper" story and the last thing I would have expected was that he wouldn't live to read it. Tom was a good friend to me, as he was to so many others. I'm so grateful for the time last year when Tom and Val came up to South Bend and we all went out for dinner. We had a great time catching up, and Val's laugh is just contagious. I hope her laugh will eventually return. Rest in peace, my friend, until we meet again. Your friend, Spike