but as I recall it, Ray Lounsberry was the other ref and he had reffed a number of our games and I kind of knew him and he knew that I and the Milford ball players liked to “clown around” a little if we had the opportunity. He just laughed a little, told the other ref to let him handle it and smilingly told me something to the effect that was entertaining but don't do it again. I didn't get thrown out and of course, the goal didn't count. Coach Cochrane just grinned, smiled, shook his finger at me, and slowly shook his head. I think he appreciated the levity and actually enjoyed seeing his players have a little fun.
After a fashion, the gym was the center of the Milford community. It was the public meeting center of the area and the home of the school's musical presentations, the class plays, and the PTA meetings after which, each month, one of the combined class home rooms would present their own version of a presentation. Many days throughout the year, particularly when it was cold or wet, there would be scores of kids in their stocking feet, playing in there for the periods of recess. The shrill piercing noise level could have awakened the dead. The lower grades had three recesses a day. Generally at 10:00, noon and two plus time before school.
Milford was not novel in many of the functions etc. dealing with the schooling of youth with class size up to 13 to 15 although many of the classes were significantly smaller. The design of Milford school was, in many ways, typical of the great number of consolidated schools that were constructed during the late teens and through the twenties. The gym at Milford was quite small compared to those of constructions of the post-war era. The floor was something like 64x26, and extended east to west. There was a stage about three and a half feet above the floor on the north side where the two-opposing teams sat, along with the scorekeeper's table.
There was, at the floor level, one on each side of the stage, doors that lead to quite small, but adequate, shower rooms- east one for the guys and west for the gals. Major doors were on the southeast corner. A regular sized door on the east and a double door on the south. Spectators could be seated in four rows. Two rows on the floor and one each on two raised platforms that ran the length of the south wall. There was a break half way to the west end for a couple-a-three steps that went down to a door that was kept locked but led to a “Dungeon” where extra chairs, etc could be stored. This room, which the students could enter only on the most unusual of circumstances, always had a musty damp odor. We had very unusual chairs for the spectators and which also would be set up