Blog 3861 – 06.18.2026

My Sophomore Year 1966

In 1966 I completed my first year at Chattanooga Central High, my sophomore year. Back then Junior High was seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. Central though in the Chattanooga city limits was a Hamilton County High School and actually had students from the seventh through the twelfth grades. It was different from all the other nearby high schools in that respect and I am grateful for the three years that I spent there and all the teachers and students that I shared those hallowed halls with. 

I road a city bus to high school each weekday morning during my sophomore year and also my junior year. Sometime early in my senior year my parents allowed me to buy a used car, a black 1957 two-door Ford Standard with a six-cylinder engine and manual three speed transmission. My brother Robert was a sophomore during my senior year at Central and road to and from school with me criticizing my driving, but happy that he did not have to make the far longer trek on the bus.

The bus ride was much shorter and a more direct route to school in the morning, but much longer on the way home. Those of us student from East Lake and other communities around the city had to walk a couple of blocks from Central High’s location on Dodds Avenue near McCallie Avenue to catch the downtown bus requesting a transfer because we had to get off that bus at Market Street and await another bus that would take us closer to our individual homes. The afternoon bus trip could take a couple of hours. The more direct route was only a fifteen minute ride by car.

On those afternoon bus rides I saw The Reed House hotel pictured above in 1966, the year I completely my sophomore year of high school.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White