For those of you who have read more than one entry of this thing I laughingly refer to as my 'blog', you 
know
it sometimes takes such sudden and unexpected turns that some people
get a little queasy. If that's the case, you'd better put on your seat
belt for this one.
The reason for the sudden bounces is that
sometimes I feel a bit like Billy Pilgrim. I'm sure you know who Billy
Pilgrim is and if not, see if you can find a library still operating and
check out Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. The actual title is Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. Now that's a title!
Billy
becomes 'unstuck in time' and jumps around to different events in his
life, much as I'm doing in this 'blog'. Vonnegut being a better writer,
his work doesn't produce that queasy, upset stomach feeling. So, in this
post, the logical thing for me to do is to talk about my first junior
high, North Miami Junior High School.
The
natural place to start such a discussion is with Herman Roman Gustav
Proske who was born in Vienna on Sept. 21, 1898 and died in Miami in
July 3, 1972. In 1911, exactly one hundred years ago, when Proske was thirteen years old, he ran away and joined the circus. How great is that!
He
went on to become what many consider the greatest big cat trainer that
ever lived. He wrote two autobiographical books about training lions and
tigers and even today Proske is still considered the authority on one
arcane aspect of big cat handling that had never really occurred to me.
Among
serious students of big cat interaction, the question of who would win
during a battle between a lion and a tiger is a matter of much
discussion and debate. No debate from Proske, however, he stood entirely
behind the tiger and referred to his eye-witness accounts of actual
battles. The tiger always won,
and such respect is shown, at least in part, by his choice of the
nickname 'Tiger' Proske. The main reason people say 'lions and tigers'
instead of 'tigers and lions' is because of the Wizard of Oz, not because lions are better.
Proske
arrived in New York on June 23, 1933 and was detained for not bothering
to get a visa. He put on shows and built zoos around the country and
finally ended up in Miami, Florida where he built the North Miami Zoo.
At his 'tiger farm', he showed off his many tigers including the famous Nubian the Tiger along with his 200
pound chimps Congo the Great and Gargantua. The chimps were probably
more dangerous than the tigers. Tigers just kill you, they don't rip
your face off and eat it like chimps do.
Here's Proske below with his pals.
His
North Miami Zoo was located on NE 131st Street between 7th and 8th
Avenues just a half block from West Dixie Highway. This block is the
location today of the newly built North Miami Senior High School. I
wonder if today's students who attend that school know what lies beneath
their feet? Remember, Diaspar was not always thus.
When North
Miami's population exploded following World War II it became clear that a
new high school was required. Land was donated by Edward L. Constance
from the High Pines Addition to Iron Manor. That site extended from NE
135th Street to 137th Street and from NE 7th Avenue to 9th Avenue. The
Edward L. Constance Junior-Senior High School opened in the fall of 1951
being renamed North Miami High School four years later.
In the
image below from today (which becomes much clearer when you double click
on it), the original North Miami High School site is that horizontal
four blocks on the top half of the photo with all those big buildings on
it. The new High School is the vertical four blocks in the lower
portion of the photo. The zoo was located in the lowest two blocks where
the new High School buildings are now.
Beginning
as a Junior-Senior High School mostly with students from nearby William
Jennings Bryan which was running grades 1-8 at the time, the new school
became overcrowded immediately. So more land was required and Tiger
Proske's zoo was targeted. After a spectacular uproar (get the tiger
reference?) nearly causing a civil war in North Miami, the tiger farm
was purchased and North Miami Junior High School was built there in
1955. Also built on the former zoo property was the North Miami Armory
and Municipal Pool.
Now, here's what the area looked like
in March 1952 during the High School's first year of classes.
Construction is still underway at the High School and Proske's zoo is
still in full operation, you can see the zoo in that square with dark
growth near the bottom of the photo. You can see it better if you double
click on the photo. That's West Dixie Highway cutting diagonally across
the image.
After
North Miami Junior High School was completed, they paid homage to their
predecessors on that land by calling themselves the Tigers. Their
yearbook was named Tiger's Tale. See? Everything's a circle.
But speaking of 
circles, I did some of this research the other day and a lot of this work is very obscure and frankly difficult. Thank
goodness for the Internet. But the very night I discovered that the
name of the zoo owner was Roman Proske, I was mindlessly watching this
idiotic movie called Vampires Suck which is a parody of the Twilight series. And who do you suppose is the star? Jenn Proske. What are the chances? Is the Proske name really everywhere and I just never noticed? But twice in the same day? Geez, it gave me a little chill.
Next time, I'll drop the other shoe and tell you about Tiger Tail.
9 comments:
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Dave said...
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What a great tail, I mean tale!!
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ch102523206759 said...
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Stumbled on this via Linkedin. Great Blog. Really enjoyed reading it. Honestly. Hope you are doing well.
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Paul Goeld said...
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Loved it, Rich. Loved it. Keep 'em comin'...
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Robin said...
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As a former Tigertte, NM Pioneer 66..and researcher, I enjoyed your blog 'Tiger Tales' I have posted it on Facebook..to over a thousand other Pioneers...I am sure they will enjoy it as much as I did..Thank you.
Robin McGary Gerzina NM66 -
Anonymous said...
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I always thought it was NE, not NW.
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Garry said...
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29630NMJH alum here. NMHS Best Alive '65! NMJH was quite an architectual achievement wasn't it? Built in a circle w/a 2-story auditorium in the middle and classrooms on two floors radiating out from the center. Mr.Rizzo and Mr. Nelson, PE? Mrs. Buckner, English? Mrs. Comstock and her polargist including her white hair streak in an otherwise head of blond hair? Remember?
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Garry said...
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NMJH alum here. NMHS Best Alive '65! NMJH was quite an architectual achievement wasn't it? Built in a circle w/a 2-story auditorium in the middle and classrooms on two floors radiating out from the center. Mr.Rizzo and Mr. Nelson, PE? Mrs. Buckner, English? Mrs. Comstock and her poltergeist including her white hair streak in an otherwise head of blond hair? Remember?
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Unknown said...
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Great information! Researching information to celebrate the City's 90th Anniversary. Former NM JR. High Tiger :)
Andrea
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hurricanedrift said...
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I remember Mrs. Buckner!
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