As Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times -- or so some of us thought as we journeyed through those joyous and melancholy days at Wheat Ridge High School. Norm Saunders was almost emblematic of those times of great glee and deep, deep sorrow. He was an extremely nice guy; one of the smaller, skinnier guys in our freshman class -- a funny kid whose humor did not tend to be boisterous. A guy known for his smile and friendly manner. During the summer after ninth grade, though, his growth hormones kicked in full force and he was one of the tallest in our class, as I remember, by September of 1958. Suddenly he made the transition from good basketball player to a dominant basketballer. He would soon become a key member of our State Championship team.
The next summer, June 1959, changed Norm -- it became the summer of tragedy for him and for all of us who cared about Norm. That was the summer the entire Saunders family went east to buy some used school buses. The plan, as I understood it, was to drive a couple of buses back to Colorado so Norm's dad could re-sell them in Colorado. Norm's brother, Roger, drove one of the buses. His girlfriend served as Roger's 'co-pilot'. I don't recall for sure, whether Norm rode in another bus or, perhaps, drove the family car. In either case, Norm was the first to arrive after Roger's bus burst into flame. The flames instantly engulfed the bus and trapped the two young people inside. Norm stopped his vehicle and ran to help his brother and the young girl with him. But the flames were too huge, the heat too intense. Norm could not get close enough to save them. He could only stare in horror as the pair clawed at windows and tried to escape. Norm told me later that they almost seemed to melt before his eyes -- it was, of course, the most horrid experience of his young life. For Norm, no question, it was the worst of times. And for those of us who cared about Norm -- which was nearly all -- it scarred us, too. It became an undertone for the rest of our high school years.
This was Norm's brother Roger,
who was one-year older.
I thought Norm's personality seemed to change after his loss. He laughed differently and showed a tougher side more often than I had remembered. He became somewhat louder, more boisterous more often. But he was still a good guy. And he began to excel in basketball.
He also became a member of the golf team:
I think it may have been late in our junior year, or perhaps the fall of our senior year, that the love affair of Norm and pretty Jeanne Cowles captured every romantic heart in the school. As high schoolers so often tend to do, we saw them as most probable to marry soon, love forever, and have a basketball team of beautiful children. I remember how so many of us campaigned so fervently to get the pair elected as King and Queen of Blue and Gold Day.
Their great love, like so many high school
romances, became part of the past.
Now, that friend from so long ago is gone, I feel diminished -- sad. It seems odd in a way -- it has been so long since we laughed together.
By Richard Speer, June 5, 2006
