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<\/img>\r\n<\/p>\r\nGerald Clifford was known by his friends at the Holy Rosary Indian Mission Boarding School as \u201cPlum.\u201d How he got that name escapes me, but many of the boys at the mission had nicknames with no derivation.
<\/p>\r\nGerald\u2019s father was Bob Clifford, the greatest coach in the history of the boarding school, and they lived on the mission grounds in a house out by the highway. Gerald was so religious in those days that he even considered becoming a priest at one time. In fact his older sister Geraldine went on to become a nun.
<\/p>\r\nBob Clifford, Jr. was his older brother. Bob was extremely intelligent and the horned rim glasses he wore made him look even more so and he was given the nickname \u201cProfessor.\u201d Of course the mission boys just called him \u201cProf.\u201d He loved to hunt and one day he was out hunting on the mission grounds when he tried to climb through a fence with his rifle and the gun went off and shot him in the leg. The bullet hit an artery and he made every effort to make it home, but it was not to be; he bled to death. I think the \u201cProf\u201d was destined for greatness if his life hadn\u2019t ended at such a young age.
<\/p>\r\nAnyhow, it turned out that \u201cPlum\u201d was also extremely intelligent. In fact he was one of the youngest students ever to be admitted to the School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City. Plum started a consulting organization called ACKO, an acronym for Artichoker, Clifford and Killer and it was based in Boulder, CO. I was trying to start the American Indian Chamber of Commerce in those days and I had an office across the hallway from Plum.
<\/p>\r\n <\/P>\r\nOne time, after a long day at work, Plum and I decided to go to one of the college bars near the University of Colorado just to visit and have a beer or two. You knew it was a college bar by the toilet seat hanging on the wall behind the bar that had a sign on it that read, \u201cMiss America Sat Here.\u201d It was true, a co-ed from the U. of Colorado went on to win the Miss America Contest and she did frequent that bar as a student. <\/p>\r\nOf course, when mission boys get together their conversation invariably turns to the boys and girls at the boarding school. And so we reminisced for a bit and all of a sudden Plum, after his third beer, started to sing the old fight song from the Holy Rosary Mission. <\/p>\r\n\u201cRah, blue and white; we\u2019re going to fight, we\u2019re going to fight for you. Rah, blue and white, with all our might we\u2019re going to see you through,\u201d the song went and the next thing you know Plum and I are both causing everyone in the bar to look at us as we belted out that old fight song. <\/p>\r\nI think it serves to remind me that no matter how much I hated the old Holy Rosary Mission Boarding School, guys like Plum and I could still draw some good memories from our schools days there. We laughed about sneaking into Brother Schlenger\u2019s garden and stealing tomatoes and an occasional head of cabbage, which we ate raw. \r\n <\/p>\r\n<\/IMG>