When I moved in with Bob and Michelle, the house wasn't big enough for all of our combined stuff. We put a lot in storage, and filled one extra bedroom with all the stuff I thought I had to have in reach.
Now, almost two years later, we've been sorting through everything in that room so that we can actually have some room. One of the things there that needs to be cleaned out and re-organized is a container of mine, filled with all sorts of loose photos, cards, old school things, and odds-and-ends from traveling. The kind of stuff you're supposed to put in scrapbooks and/or photo albums...but rarely ever do. Today, I finally sat down in the middle of the floor of that room, and started looking through the first drawer.
I hadn't gotten too far when I came across this.
It's one of my old high school "newspapers," and I have a stack of them. This is the masthead:
I remember working on our yearbook staff, but I totally forgot about our newspaper. Yes, it's just a few 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of colored paper stapled together, but hell, it was 1981-1984...we still had typing classes, for goodness sake! (Not keyboarding...typing.)
Our editor, Arleen Annett (now Mills, of Hays Street Cafe fame, in Bridgeport) must have been quite the slave driver, as those papers have a lot of articles in them -- and some of them are a hoot. Well, a hoot to 1980's high schoolers.
In the Homecoming edition, I wrote this one, for instance:
WHAT'S THE CLASS HAP, MAN?
Now that it is the year 1982, we high schoolers have discovered two problems concerning money. One, no longer are you able to buy a gumball for a penny. And, two, senior trips now cost in the thousands of dollars instead of only the hundreds. To solve this problem, each class is, basically, going for it: Operation Much Moola.
First of all, but by no means number one, the freshmen, class of '86. ('86?! You've got to be kidding!!) Their story is a unique one: Simply, they have no idea what to do, or how to go about it. In fact, some of them don't even know enough to get out of the way of a door opening toward them. When asked the question, "What is the freshman class doing to raise money for their senior trip?" by this roving reporter, one freshman replied, "Senior trip? I'm not a senior, I'm a freshman." If the freshman class was smart, they'd start saving all the pennies that they have to push across the gym floor. They'd make more money than they're making now.
1985. Sounds far away, doesn't it? But, actually in only two years our little sophomores will be macho seniors. Although as freshmen last year, the class of '85 seemed to be enthusiastic, as of the second week of school this year, they still hadn't found an advisor. It seems that all of the teachers are very hesitant about taking on the responsibility of this class. I don't know what the teachers are afraid of. Jim Sayer stated that the most violent thing the sophomores did as freshmen was ganging-up on a six-foot-180-pound senior after an assembly and hitting him to the ground. No biggie.
Let's face it. The junior class of 1984 is loaded. This is only their third year in high school, and already they have nearly 2,000 dollars. And, there's going to be mega-amounts of money coming in soon, if all goes as planned. The juniors plan on selling t-shirts, as they've done since they were itsy-bitsy frosh in 1981. A rifle-raffle is another project, and they're even discussing selling community calendars. The juniors need to work extra hard this year in preparation for the Junior-Senior Banquet, which, traditionally, the junior class pays for. Seniors, would you settle for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in Hardy Park?!
Finally, we come to the mighty class of '82. (Drum roll, please) THE SENIORS. Not wanting to be sued, this paper will not print the seniors' past history of money-making successes. Unlike prior years, however, senior prez Shelly Benson states, "The seniors are gung-ho on making money. Well, some seniors, not all. We could stand some improvement in that area." The seniors plan on pushing See's suckers and M&M's. They are having cake raffles at football and basketball games, and are also running concessions. What with all the sugary stuff, kind of sounds like they want to leave a school full of roly-poly students behind next year.
We all need money. Support each other, and we'll be able to better support ourselves.
by Kathie Reid
I really did miss my calling as a journalist, yes?!
No comments:
Post a Comment