Growing up in Pottsville in the fifties was a great time; children wore Davy Crockett hats and played cowboy and Indians. The next decade was very turbulent. For those of you mathematically challenged I am referring to the sixties, a decade that brought upheaval - with war, the struggle for civil rights and the assassination of the beloved President.
You may be thinking I am referring to the 1950s, but I am not. I am talking about the 1850’s, for that is the decade that Pottsville High School opened for business.
There are so many unanswered questions about those early days. The most perplexing question, of course, is “why does Pottsville High School an oceanic nickname? Why “The Tide?” Take a walk around the city and you are hard-pressed to find any sand, shells, or hermit crabs even in Pottsville’s “fish-bach” section. Secondly, look around; Pottsville is like Rome – a hilly place; it’s not Miami or even nearby Clamtown.
Don’t you often lay awake at night like I do, tossing and turning, wondering “Why ‘the Tide’ and not ‘the Mountaineers’?” When it was confirmed that the school wasn’t promoting Proctor and Gamble’s household product, I assumed the name must have some connection with the Schuylkill River, but I needed to know for sure. I needed to sleep soundly once again. I would travel to the school and find out.
Not surprisingly, none of the original faculty members were still teaching, so I relied on the old school newspapers, school board minutes, and bathroom graffiti to find out more about the selection of the quaint aquatic name. Remember, in 1853 the school was not located high on 16th Street, it was the downtown somewhere; but even down there the water level did not warrant flood insurance. Why the name “Tide?”
Could the Schuylkill River have a tide? I definitely had a scientific background as I own the “Back to the Future” DVD trilogy. I also had won a ribbon at the school science fair with my entry, "Sweet and Sour: How Can Pork be simultaneously both?” But I did not trust myself and I sought out expert advice. I went to Mount Carbon’s Adelphia Seafood to further my research. It is Schuylkill County’s version of an edible aquarium. I took a number and waited for service. When it was my turn, I said, “I’ll have pickled herring and can you tell me if rivers have tides?” I was dumbfounded by the candid response. “Yes indeed! Rivers do have tides. That includes our own Schuylkill River. Not only do rivers have tides, even the earth and the air around us have tides. Fishermen depend on the tides for their livelihood. Moonlight also affects the size of their catch. But I’m sorry we are sold out of pickled herring.”
I was closer to the answer to my question. It had nothing to do with oceans. Rather; the school name came from the full moon, which affects oceans, the Schuylkill River, Ivy Side pool, the even the Centre Street fountain. Indeed, that is why Nativity H.S. calls its team, “The Green Wave.” Amazingly, Pottsville’s two schools, high atop opposite mountains, are nautically named.
I did further research at the Eagles Club and discovered that 80% of the human body is composed of either water or beer depending on what time of day it is, and whether the beer is lager or light. I stared at the bottle in front of me and began to ponder the gravitational force of the moon and its influence on the water within the human body.
I said to the bartender “So we all have tides within ourselves and are all affected by the moon.” I now felt as if I had solved the Pottsville Republican Sodoku puzzle. I had discovered why Pottsville is “the tide.”
“Each one of us has our own high tides and low tides! Just like the football team. Yes, the Tide was a name given by the original Pottsville school board members, who were probably all druids, in respect for the gravitational pull found within everyone of us.”
At that moment the Eagles barkeep politely asked me to leave. I now had to search for pickled herring.
You may be thinking I am referring to the 1950s, but I am not. I am talking about the 1850’s, for that is the decade that Pottsville High School opened for business.
There are so many unanswered questions about those early days. The most perplexing question, of course, is “why does Pottsville High School an oceanic nickname? Why “The Tide?” Take a walk around the city and you are hard-pressed to find any sand, shells, or hermit crabs even in Pottsville’s “fish-bach” section. Secondly, look around; Pottsville is like Rome – a hilly place; it’s not Miami or even nearby Clamtown.
Don’t you often lay awake at night like I do, tossing and turning, wondering “Why ‘the Tide’ and not ‘the Mountaineers’?” When it was confirmed that the school wasn’t promoting Proctor and Gamble’s household product, I assumed the name must have some connection with the Schuylkill River, but I needed to know for sure. I needed to sleep soundly once again. I would travel to the school and find out.
Not surprisingly, none of the original faculty members were still teaching, so I relied on the old school newspapers, school board minutes, and bathroom graffiti to find out more about the selection of the quaint aquatic name. Remember, in 1853 the school was not located high on 16th Street, it was the downtown somewhere; but even down there the water level did not warrant flood insurance. Why the name “Tide?”
Could the Schuylkill River have a tide? I definitely had a scientific background as I own the “Back to the Future” DVD trilogy. I also had won a ribbon at the school science fair with my entry, "Sweet and Sour: How Can Pork be simultaneously both?” But I did not trust myself and I sought out expert advice. I went to Mount Carbon’s Adelphia Seafood to further my research. It is Schuylkill County’s version of an edible aquarium. I took a number and waited for service. When it was my turn, I said, “I’ll have pickled herring and can you tell me if rivers have tides?” I was dumbfounded by the candid response. “Yes indeed! Rivers do have tides. That includes our own Schuylkill River. Not only do rivers have tides, even the earth and the air around us have tides. Fishermen depend on the tides for their livelihood. Moonlight also affects the size of their catch. But I’m sorry we are sold out of pickled herring.”
I was closer to the answer to my question. It had nothing to do with oceans. Rather; the school name came from the full moon, which affects oceans, the Schuylkill River, Ivy Side pool, the even the Centre Street fountain. Indeed, that is why Nativity H.S. calls its team, “The Green Wave.” Amazingly, Pottsville’s two schools, high atop opposite mountains, are nautically named.
I did further research at the Eagles Club and discovered that 80% of the human body is composed of either water or beer depending on what time of day it is, and whether the beer is lager or light. I stared at the bottle in front of me and began to ponder the gravitational force of the moon and its influence on the water within the human body.
I said to the bartender “So we all have tides within ourselves and are all affected by the moon.” I now felt as if I had solved the Pottsville Republican Sodoku puzzle. I had discovered why Pottsville is “the tide.”
“Each one of us has our own high tides and low tides! Just like the football team. Yes, the Tide was a name given by the original Pottsville school board members, who were probably all druids, in respect for the gravitational pull found within everyone of us.”
At that moment the Eagles barkeep politely asked me to leave. I now had to search for pickled herring.
1 comment:
Good story but you know or should know that "tide" is just short for Crimson Tide- which came from wearing uniforms the same color as Alabama which is also called the tide but southerners are crazy so who knows why they called their team the tide- possible becasuse of the early days of football when running the ball was the only play- Alabama would put 9 or 10 guys in a row to block for their runner and i guess to opposing teams it looked like a tide rolling in on the beach. AS for Nativity- they started with the appropriate name of "Hilltoppers" which put fear into the hearts of no one- so someone did a takeoff on tide and came up with Green Wave.
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