“Late summer prior to the start of my junior year saw several changes. My parent’s divorce was finalized, Mom and I moved out of our upstairs apartment to a much nicer ground floor apartment two blocks south of the (Chanute) high school, and I received a call from Olson’s Supermarket. They wanted to talk to me about a job. Olson’s was known as one of the best employers for teenagers because they paid a whopping dollar per hour and offered flexibility in scheduling. Both of those benefits appealed to me.” Thus starts a chapter in “Rites of Passage and Rituals of Humiliation,” an autobiography of Jerry Weis’ secondary years, mostly at Chanute High School. WEIS HAS also written several short stories and intends to do more.
Later, Weis, 67, was principal of Iola High School 1977-81 and still has close friends in Iola, including Don Wilmoth and Don Bain, then fellow administrators.
He will be in Chanute Saturday for a book signing at Comforts of Home, 111 E. Main, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Weis will have copies of the book that he spent six years writing, editing and preparing for publication in 2013.
Weis began writing in the waning years as a financial consultant and then retirement in 2010.
“I thought people in the Midwest who grew up about the time I did would find the stories interesting,” Weis said, but he found the book’s appeal had a broader audience.
He happened onto a reader from Wisconsin who attended high school in California. He lavished praise and allowed that the stories of being a teenager in high school reminded him of his own prep days in Los Angeles.
Early in what turned out to be a relatively brief career in education — he graduated from Chanute High in 1964 and was dealing in finance by the mid-1980s — Weis took a college course in creative writing while teaching speech and drama in high school. The writing instructor, whom he admired, encouraged him to write for pleasure. A seed was planted.
Instead of continuing in education, a part-time job in finance turned full time, and Weis spent 26 years with Edward D. Jones.
“When I was in Vietnam (1969-70) I wrote to my wife (Janice) every day,” Weis said. He has given some thought to converting those letters to a novel.
In regards to his tenure at IHS, Weis said they were mostly “good experiences.”
He recalled one “glitch.”
He, Wilmoth and Bain, then superintendent of schools, decided to enforce a rule long on district books.
“We were having parents drop off their kids at football games and then leave,” which led to some problems, Weis said.
The administrators revived the rule requiring any student under 14 to be accompanied by a parent when attending extracurricular events.
“There were some meetings,” with a handful of parents wanting to send the three packing. Nothing came of it, an event that may be fodder for a story someday.
Former Iolan pens autobiography
