It was a different time when Pat Ballard attended Turkey Creek High School in the late 1960s.
Before football games, cheerleaders stood on the roof, chanting and rallying school spirit with the students below in the courtyard. Their arch rivals, Plant City, would hang dead chickens in the schoolyard before games as intimidation.
Try that now, and you’re facing a lawsuit if a student falls off the roof or an animal-cruelty charge.
“We could have a great football season,” Ballard said. “But when it came to the Plant City game, if we didn’t win, the whole season was a loss.”
Walking down the halls of Turkey Creek, certain features trigger memories for Ballard. She can point out the classroom she was in when she heard that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.
Back then, it was 10th grade science.
Another area outside was a designated smoking area. At the front of the school stands a glittering trophy display full of trophies from immediate past years and even some from decades ago. Only recently did Ballard discover one trophy tied directly to her. It was a trophy given to her little brother for being one of the top three honor students in 1968. He died five years ago, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
“I had no idea it had been there for all these years,” Ballard said. “It was really special to me. It meant quite a lot.”
Ballard, a retired supervisor of middle schools with the Hillsborough County School Board, was asked to help put together Turkey Creek’s 140th anniversary party. With a passion for the school, she was a perfect fit.
“Turkey Creek sort of gets in your blood,” Ballard said. “Once a gobbler, always a gobbler.”
The party, a free event open to the public, will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 23, at Turkey Creek Middle School, 5005 S. Turkey Creek Road. At 10 a.m. a special presentation will take place. Students also will be burying a time capsule donated by Hopewell Funeral Home. It will be opened in another 60 years. Games, bounce houses and lunch all will be provided.
“It’s going to be really exciting,” Ballard said.
MEMORY LANE
Turkey Creek started as a tiny log cabin in 1873, near the corner of Turkey Creek and Trapnell roads. It remained at that location for 47 years.
In 1903, Turkey Creek consolidated with Bledsoe and Pleasant Grove schools, forming a new two-story school located southwest of the intersection of S.R. 60 and Turkey Creek Road. The first graduating class — a total of three students — received diplomas in February 1908.
After 1909, the school gradually added in a junior high program.
The school moved once again in 1920, to its present site on Turkey Creek Road. A new brick building was added in 1927, and high school courses were added back into the curriculum.
By 1960, Turkey Creek Junior-Senior High School had 850 students and 34 teachers. It was considered the largest rural high school in the state. During this decade, the south wing of the new 300 building, the shop, band room, and physical education facilities were added.
“It was more like a family,” Ballard said. “Everyone knew each other, and everyone was related.”
After Plant City High School opened in 1972, Turkey Creek became a junior high school. But in the wake of that change, tragedy struck the Turkey Creek community. A major fire in October 1973 destroyed the library, several classrooms and part of the school’s offices. A new administration/library building and a building for special-needs students were added in response to the damage.
In the 1980s, a cafeteria, gym and science building wing were added. In 1995, Turkey Creek Junior High School became Turkey Creek Middle School. In the late 1990s, it became one of the largest middle schools in Hillsborough County. To accommodate its huge student population, Turkey Creek underwent an $11 million renovation project during the 1997-1998 school year.
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE …
Turkey Creek was a “strawberry school” until 1956. That meant that classes were not in session during the three-month winter strawberry picking season.
Today, students still honor that tradition. Across the street from the school is a field where the students work. They learn about agriculture, how to plant, grow and market their crops.
During strawberry season, students pick the berries every Tuesday and Friday and sell them to the public as part of a fundraiser for their FFA program. There are 170 students in the FFA program, one of the largest in the area. The FFA program has been around since 1936.
In addition to selling berries, the students also grow vegetables, such as cauliflower. Three schools are buying strawberries to serve in their lunchrooms this year.
Last year, Turkey Creek raised $17,000 from selling strawberries, plants and hay.
“It’s kind of fun, because you get to be with your friends and be outside,” student Coty Deluca said.
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.
Turkey Creek 140th Anniversary Celebration
WHEN: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 23
WHERE: Turkey Creek Middle School, 5005 S. Turkey Creek Road
COST: Free
RSVP: Pat Ballard, pgballard@tampabay.rr.com, or call the school, (813) 757-9442