As told to Bonnie Wren by Norm Keith. Would you like to share your brick story? Or just share a memory of a favorite teacher, or an experience at school? Send your stories to sda.alumni@gmail.com
The Brotherhood consisted of me (Norm Keith), Tim Tinsley, Jack Hawkins, Carlos Benson, Charlie Grattan, Vincent Vint, Jerry Myers, Lou Dawson, and Lloyd Minnick.
One of the guys was class president the first semester, another was class president after that, we were on Student Activities, the Student Council, we were the people who ran the school. As a member of the Student Court, we were the people who judged our peers when they were caught doing wrong.
We ran around together. The Brotherhood dressed in cords, always had our hair cut clean shaven.
We double-dated a lot and basically dated the same gals. One time I’d pick up “Mary” and my friend would pick up “Sharon”, and then unbeknownst to either of us, the next time we went out, I’d call “Sharon” and he’d call “Mary”, and there we would be, the four of us again!
For dates, the brotherhood would cruise around a lot, listen to the rock songs of the times, and we’d sit around and harmonize with the songs. We loved Fats Domino, just about all of his music. Back then all of the groups always were dressed up and wore coats and ties and they had musical names, like “The Four Tunes”.
A good place the Brotherhood liked to go for dates was out in Rancho Santa Fe, an area that was undeveloped but graded and had plenty of room for our cars. We’d park our cars in a circle, bumper to bumper, and open the doors and stand around inside the circle. It was like a stereo, not blaring but mellow.
We’d neck a little bit and drink a little beer and that was about the end of it. We never got into any trouble because we kept the noise down. Nobody could hear our music or see us. Sometimes we’d go for a malt, too, or down to the beach and watch the submarine races.
We did so much together throughout our high school years. We were the Brotherhood, the nine of us. We’re still in touch.