Two Pages From My High School Yearbook
I was flipping through my high school yearbook a few days ago — the one with the unfortunate phrase “We’re coming out” on the cover (wtf?!). And I noticed a two-page spread near the back of the book, where they published the results of a senior poll conducted during the 1980-81 school year.
Below are some of the categories included in the poll, and the most popular answers for each. I’ve also added a few comments, and hope you’ll have some reactions, as well.
And just so you know, this is my senior pic. Please note the Brady Bunch afro, and fake brown tux with no back in it. Yeah, almost every senior boy is sporting the same fraudulent suit in their pictures. I think they had three of them, in varying sizes, and we had to “wear one and pass it on.” Blecch.
But back to the poll… Below are some of the results, and a few of them are especially interesting. I hope you enjoy this trip down the halls of good ol’ Dunbar High School (RIP).
Food
Pizza
Tacos
T-Bone
Apparently this is favorite food? Right? It just says food, which isn’t much of a poll question: Food.
Anyway, pizza certainly belonged at the top, ’cause we ate a ton of it. But tacos? I’m not so sure. There was Taco Bell, and some knock-off called Taco Royale, but beyond that… we didn’t have much exposure to Mexican food in 1981 West Virginia.
I remember going to Taco Royale with Bill and Vincent, in Bill’s brother’s car. We’d get all Old Milwaukee’d up, and buy a dozen tacos through the drive-thru. Then we’d go park in the K-Mart parking lot across the street, and buzzsaw through that sack o’ grease.
And the next morning Bill’s brother would go out to his car, and it would just be a sea of lettuce and cheese across the entire front and backseat upholstery. And he’d flip out. Heh.
T-Bone steak was considered the ultimate in fine dining during the ’70s. I never liked it all that much, because there was only a pork chop-sized section of edible meat. The other side of the bone had some kind of rubbery shit that gave me the heebie-jeebies. I’ll take a New York strip, any day.
Song
“Keep on Lovin’ You” REO Speedwagon
“Free Bird” Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Big Balls” AC/DC
REO Speedwagon was extremely popular during my senior year of high school, and I actually went to see them in Charleston. I can’t remember having strong opinions, one way or the other. I do remember that Kevin Cronin, the lead singer, seemed to have wet lips all the time in their videos. And it bothered me, a great deal. Why would I remember such a thing?
I doubt the “Free Bird” answer was ironic, even though it now feels like it, and “Big Balls” was just a way to get the word “balls” into the yearbook. I’m almost sure.
TV Program
Magnum P.I.
MASH
Dallas
I never saw a single episode of Magnum P.I. or Dallas. I watched MASH, but it was never at the top of my list. I liked Night Flight, and The Cutting Edge on MTV. Those were my favorite shows of the era. Well, those and Alice, of course.
Athlete
Bucky Dent
Earl Campbell
Larry Bird
Bucky Dent?! I always hated him, despite the hilarious name. He was a pretty boy, and this was how I looked. Deep resentment… The other two guys aren’t baseball players, so I don’t know anything about them.
Car
Corvette
Ferrari
Mazda RX7
Yeah, Dunbar, WV was simply overrun by Ferraris while I was in high school. Man, you couldn’t swing a dead river rat without hitting a Ferrari. Stoopid.
I’m sure I answered “Dodge Polyp” or something equally witty.
Singer/Group
Kenny Rogers
Slim Whitman
Pat Benatar
REO Speedwagon
AC/DC
Styx
Slim Whitman was heavily advertised on cable TV channels, and everybody made fun of him. The rest are legit, including Kenny Rogers. I was into obscure-ass British weirdness, but also saw REO and Styx in concert. Go figure. I saw AC/DC multiple times in different cities, but they were too big for us hicks in ’81.
Sex Symbol
Tom Selleck
Dave Woods
Burt Reynolds
Brooke Shields
Jane Kennedy
Christie Brinkley
Dave Woods was an ugly teacher. I don’t know Jane Kennedy, and don’t care. Rocky used to inspect his posters of Brooke Shields with a magnifying glass, trying to find evidence of a stray pubic hair.
I was never into celebrity sex symbols, and that sort of thing. I obsessed about real girls in my hometown instead, and had roughly as much luck as the guys who were panting over Christie Brinkley.
Movie
Stir Crazy
Cave Man
9 to 5
Never saw any of them. Wasn’t Ringo Starr in Cave Man? Oh brother.
Most Hated
Term paper
Administration
School
I probably voted for Bucky Dent, and/or pickles.
Favorite Course
Senior English
Lunch
Break
Senior English? What the hell? Who could write such a thing? Seriously, how is it possible? I suspect shenanigans. Possibly ballot-stuffing by a rogue band of nerds.
Actor
Clint Eastwood
Burt Reynolds
John Holmes
I remember the first time I saw a John Holmes movie. It was more awe-inspiring than my first visit to Fenway Park. It felt like an optical illusion, and momentarily threw off my equilibrium. I nearly fell off the couch.
Actress
Sally Fields
Barbra Streisand
Richard Simmons
You know, because Richard Simmons is a big poofter.
Activity/Hobby
Sex
Parties
Listening to music
Can you imagine “sex” being allowed as an answer in a yearbook today? I can’t. And I have no doubt “parties” is a kinder, gentler way of reporting the actual answers: getting stoned, getting drunk, and getting my shit thoroughly baked. I was doing a lot of number three, while daydreaming about number one.
Place for a date
Figget Mountain
Water Tower
Movie
The first two were notorious party/sex locales. I drank beer on Figget Mountain a few times, but never on a date. I mean, seriously. It was literally a wide spot in the road, way out in the country. On a Friday night during the summer months the debauchery was so thick you could’ve cut it with the neck of a Miller quart bottle.
Current prices
Coke .64
Hamburger 1.09
Small french fries .65
Medium cheese pizza 5.00
6 pack of beer 2.67
Unleaded gas, one gallon 1.53
Postage stamp .18
Jeans 22.98
Dozen red roses 40.00
Some of those seem kinda high to me. Like gas, for instance. And jeans. Holy crap! I don’t pay that much now. And, again, beer would never be listed in a current yearbook. Am I wrong?
There are a few other categories, but they’re kinda boring and inside-jokey. So, that’s going to do it for today, boys and girls.
I’ll be back soon, probably Sunday. See ya then!
Filed under: Daily
a late evening update…
[Reply]
Nice tux, Jeff. You steal that from Tom Hanks after “Big”?
[Reply]
cbrown Reply:
January 13th, 2011 at 11:50 pm
…and I’m the moron that posts before reading further.
[Reply]
Quatro – now to reading the post
[Reply]
Nice lookin’ boy. I’d hammer that shit. Just sayin…
[Reply]
Son of Sam Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 7:57 am
this!
[Reply]
wow top ten and it’s 9:05 pm in California. Love going down memory lane with the old year book, my daughter finds it hysterical!
[Reply]
Cool. I always liked IRS’s the Cutting Edge on MTV when I was in 6th grade and later 120 minutes / post modern MTV or whatever the Hell they ended up calling it.
[Reply]
http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/WVKay/Homecoming.jpg
[Reply]
WVKay Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 12:20 am
I reply to myself. I loved the 70′s. Sex, drugs, and roc and roll.
[Reply]
WVKay Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 12:25 am
Rock and roll, that is.
[Reply]
Knucklehead Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 4:27 am
Me, too. I couldn’t imagine growing up in any other decade.
[Reply]
Skully Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 7:51 am
Absomutherlootinfuckly!
Minimum wage jobs were plentiful. Beer, gas & smokes were not too pricey. Those were the days!
[Reply]
bikerchick Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 8:32 am
Hey WVKay: I especially love the white shoes. I would have made you keep them on.
[Reply]
WVKay Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
Hahaha. I’m not the one with the white shoes on.
[Reply]
top ten!
[Reply]
Top Ten and awaiting moderation!
[Reply]
This makes me very thankful that I was born in 1980. What’s an REO Speedwagon??? (just kidding).
And wasn’t Brooke Shields 12 years old back in 1980? Hell, I’d proudly bang her now, in 2011. Has any actress had a bang-able period that lasted 31 years???
And you’re right… by the time that I graduated in 1998, most of this shit would have been banned from the yearbook. Beer? Make-out point? The only identical items would be jeans @ $22.98, and Brooke Shields. (Sweet, 45-year-old cooch).
[Reply]
chill Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
“Has any actress had a bang-able period that lasted 31 years???”
Raquel Welch, maybe. But you’re right, it’s unusual.
.
[Reply]
johnthebasket Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 8:11 am
Has any actress been adorable for a period that lasted 31 years?
Yes.
Goldie Hawn
Jaye P. Morgan
Susan Sarandon
Sela Ward
Renee Russo
Sally Field
Those just of the top of my head. For the record, I don’t think Brooke Shields is particularly adorable, but to each his own.
jtb
[Reply]
Chuck in Belpre Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Have you seen Goldie lately? It isn’t good.
[Reply]
johnthebasket Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Well, the lady is 65. We gotta let her be a grandmother. However, from ages 21-52 (and beyond) she was a bit of a babe. Thirty-one years and more. I’m just sayin’…
jtb
[Reply]
I see you got hair styling tips from Bert Convy.
Also, how can you have never watched a single episode of Magnum P.I.??!!
[Reply]
Magnum P.I. was a pretty good show before it got old and tired. You can’t really blame them for hanging out in Hawaii for several more years, raking in the dough. WKRP was a great show. I still miss it.
Tacos were pretty exotic in Kansas in the 70s. Pizza was still kind of new for a lot of us, too.
My senior pictures are awful, and not just because of the blue Mister Furley leisure suit. Our class sponsor or advisor or whoever called me on the phone one summer day to tell me to get down to the high school immediately because the photographer was there. Huh? He had forgotten to notify us, and the doofus caught me needing a haircut, which was nothing unusual. We had to sit around in the un-air-conditioned auditorium in Kansas in July till it was our turn. Our class as a whole looked even more, um, rustic than most in our yearbook photos. Not that I cared, really, but the damn things were expensive.
[Reply]
bikerchick Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Speaking of school pics…When my brother was highschool age and younger, the flash of a camera physically made him sick. (Flash cubes in those days). So just about every school photo my parents had of him he is a lovely shade of green, lower jaw retracted and holding back lunch. Literally.
[Reply]
BoMama Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
That just made me cry I laughed so hard. I would pay to see those pictures.
[Reply]
madz1962 Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Mister Furley leisure suit! HA HA HA HA HA. I can vividly picture that.
[Reply]
Some Guy on the Innernets Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
We didn’t know any better back then. We thought we looked cool. This was long before Mister Furley or Herb Tarlek. I sure don’t miss those nasty polyester shirts. If you were silly enough to walk out in the cold without a jacket or something, the fabric would instantly turn freezing cold and it felt like you were wearing an aluminum shirt. They were no more pleasant in hot weather, either. I still avoid polyester like it was radioactive haggis, even though I know the modern stuff is okay.
[Reply]
There was a lot of shit we got away with back then that there is NO WAY they could do now.
The 70s were awesome. No helmet laws, lax drunk driving laws, awesome music, I could go on and on. On the downside – the ugliest decade in human history for clothing.
I have never seen an episode of Magnum PI, either. Never liked that dude. All my friends though he was good looking – I just thought he looked like a porn star.
Happy Friday, Surfers! (It occurs to me that I may be a day ahead of you guys…sorry. I read these in the morning)
[Reply]
That is one ugly looking tux. Nice fro though.
[Reply]
Man, you guys are making me feel OLD! I gradiated in ’79!
[Reply]
tracy in ohio Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 8:23 am
I’ll help ya out. I was born in ’79.
[Reply]
bikerchick Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 9:00 am
Tracy: My boyfriend was born in ’79 too. I was born in ’63. I guess that means I’m a cougar. Meow.
[Reply]
Melissa Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 6:27 pm
I was born in ’79 too.
[Reply]
flamingomom Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 9:54 am
i graduated in ’79. of course back then most of us could legally drink beer by the end of our Sr. year in high school.
[Reply]
Bill in WV Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 11:27 am
I was on the next page of that yearbook. Actually wore the same tux shirt and jacket that JK wore, but near the end of the day, after 125 other sweaty-ass seniors had worn it. I actually think it walked over to me and jumped onto my shoulders. Smelled like the inside of a fisherman’s boot in Newark.
[Reply]
bumblebee Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
There was only 136 in our sr class total and we did have a few girls so 125 sweaty ass seniors hadn’t worn it, lol!!!
[Reply]
Bill in WV Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:57 am
I guess the previous school’s guys had worn it and no wash. But, thanks for the clarification.
[Reply]
icecycle66 Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Eh…em, i graduated highschool in 2001.
[Reply]
sunshine_in_va Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Class of ’81
[Reply]
Valentin Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
2002!!!
[Reply]
WB in OH Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
1985, our class song was Bryan Adams, “The best is yet to come”. That still makes me sad. Of course I don’t want to belittle Mr. Adams, it’s just not my thing is all. Just in case he uses google alert.
[Reply]
Knucklehead Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 1:38 am
Class of ’80 here. I remember they were trying to come up with a theme for the Senior Ball and I suggested “You’re all I’ve Got Tonight” by the Cars. Good times.
[Reply]
WB in OH Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 9:33 am
Oh, I love me some Cars!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sp7gACVs_0
[Reply]
Jeffrey S. Kay, I cannot believe you made such a mistake in the beef category. A New York Strip IS the other side of the T-Bone.
[Reply]
WB in OH Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
I thought I was the only one who wondered what in the heck Jeff was talking about.
[Reply]
The Corvette as a favorite car spans all generations ever since it was first introduced. Jeff thinks he lived in the backwoods of West Virginia. Trust me–the number one car in my hs yearbook was a Ford F150. Favorite activiteis were GROWING pot and MAKING liquor.
[Reply]
Bill in WV Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 11:37 am
Here Here !!!!
[Reply]
Brooke Shields is doing ads for La-Z-Boy. Incredible.
Up here it should be pronounced Lay-Zed-Boy, like Camaro Zed-28, but somehow it gets through the American to Canadian English filter unaltered.
[Reply]
I think the “We’re Coming Out” was intentional and would have been reasonably au currant in 1981.
jtb
[Reply]
Jeff lived in a city in WV. Where I am from in WV, Copenhagen was listed in the yearbook as a food group.
I graduated 3 years later, and we did not have the senior photos all the same deal going on. I guess it depends on where you live. I have scanned a lot of my yearbooks and put them up on my Facebook page.
I never got into the popular music of the time, but everyone owned an AC/DC album.
I was telling someone the other day that when I was in HS, most of the dudes wore a buck knife on their belt. Now, you would be locked up forever for doing such a thing.
[Reply]
m Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 11:30 am
I remember teachers asking if any of the boys had pocket knives to open boxes and stuff, and she would always have several positive responses. You could also spot dozens of rifles in gun racks during hunting season. Guys would go hunting before school. Now either of these episodes would bring out the SWAT team.
[Reply]
Buck Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Ditto on the food, although I was one of the tough guys dipping Copenhagen and chewing Brown’s Mule plug tobacco. Most guys dipped Skoal…which at the time Earl Campbell advertised on TV. He called himself a “Skoal Brother”. Again liberals would stroke out today.
[Reply]
Bert Convy hair – awesome reference Gretchen!
As a member of the Nerd Herd in HS, I didn’t have the opportunity to experience some of the more exotic treats offered up by the wild and crazy 70′s (I graduated in 1980), but there are many photos of my classmates with a Bud in hand, like it was normal for teenagers to drink back in the day.
Oh wait, it was also LEGAL.
Our senior photos featured those ‘drapes’ for the girls too – hella uncomfortable, and made almost nobody look good. Seriously, what’s with the uncovered shoulders thing?
[Reply]
Gretchen Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:28 am
Thanks, Tiff. I was afraid no one would get the Bert Convy reference. Thought it might be a bit esoteric for the younglings.
[Reply]
tiff Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Well, it’s the internet – nothing’s completely obscure. A little research and they’d know of the dimpled one too.
[Reply]
Gretchen Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:49 am
You’d be surprised by the number of people too lazy to use Google.
[Reply]
WB in OH Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
I concur, nothing cracks me up more than someone asking a “who’s this” or “what’s that” when they are surfing the internet to begin with. You can’t believe everything you read online but for chrissakes, do ten seconds of research.
[Reply]
madz1962 Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:50 am
“Bert Convy hair” had me cracking up, too! Tattletales, anyone?
[Reply]
bikerchick Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
I remember Bert Convy being on Match Game with Gene Rayburn. OMG…did I really just admit that?!
[Reply]
madz1962 Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
I wrote a fan letter to Match Game 75!
[Reply]
Knucklehead Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 1:52 am
I used to like Bret Somers. She was ALWAYS hammered.
[Reply]
I graduated in 1981. Our class song was REO Speedwagon’s “Time For Me To Fly”. “Free Bird” was one of the choices too. Our yearbook didn’t have the “favorites”. Instead they had the popularity contest: Best looking, funniest, most likely to succeed…blah,blah blah. The amusing part about that shit was I went to ONE class reunion (never again) and the “best looking” chick still had her beehive hair.
The poor guy everyone tortured for being short, fat, and playing the tuba in the band “grew up”.. He was gorgeous. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Funny how the tables turn.
[Reply]
Bill in WV Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 11:31 am
By the way, Jeff Kay was named “Wittiest” in our class of 1981.
[Reply]
bumblebee Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
shhhhhh, don’t tell everything Bill!!
[Reply]
m Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 11:35 am
My husband and I went to the cemetery not too long ago to put flowers on his grandmom’s grave. A new headstone was there, and I was reading the epitaph thinking “hmmm, that seems familiar…” I’m wracking my brain. Is it Whitman? Frost? when it hits me. It’s Freebird. I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants. And then I realized I was headed for hell because I was laughing at someone’s tombstone. And then I bet my husband that it would be one of his redneck relatives, and when we went to the other side, yep, it was our last name. I married into the quality.
[Reply]
grrltechie Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
You are SO awesome.
[Reply]
I graduated in ’92, and our class song was “Free Bird.” The vo-tech students stuffed the ballot for that one, and I thought it was hilarious.
Jeans were that expensive back then because they weren’t being made in Malaysia or wherever the fuck they are churning them out now at the cost of roughly 2 cents per pair.
[Reply]
Oh…and I was no prize either….especially during the ’70s. Carol Brady shag hair cut. Buck teef…I could eat an apple through a tennis racket. My mother MADE my clothes….polyester bell bottoms and Holly Hobby gowns in elementary school. No wonder I’m phuck dup.
[Reply]
tiff Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Those of us who lived through the 70′s and were not considered old enough to make our own clothing choices now have free reign to wear ANYTHING we want from now until the end of time. Amen.
[Reply]
Gretchen Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:50 am
AMEN!
[Reply]
johnthebasket Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 9:06 am
Chick, I suspect you’ve ALWAYS been a prize.
jtb
[Reply]
What an awesome fluffy honkie fro!
[Reply]
To this day I still love Magnum P. I., the dude drove a fucking Ferrari man, he carried a Colt 1911 and his buddy TC had a chopper (a Hughes 500 I think). I mean I was twelve when the show started so maybe I was just impressionable.
[Reply]
Gretchen Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:24 am
No no, it’s stand alone awesome.
[Reply]
Son of Sam Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 8:10 am
I still watch it on the retro channel.
[Reply]
Reminds me of all the shenanigans each state was playing with the drinking age at the time – I turned 18 (legal to drink) in the UK in 1978, moved to MA when I was 19 (illegal), turned 20 there (legal again) in 1980, moved to IL later that year (illegal), turned 21 there (legal one more time) in 1981. As far as I know I think I have finally overcome this problem.
The weirdest thing about this time period was CT’s drinking age was 18 when MA’s was 20. Strings of bars opened across the state line and drunkoffyerass 18 and 19 year olds were DRIVING home at 2 am every single night. Outrageous when I think about it now, but I only had to drive 4 miles from house to drink legally at 19.
[Reply]
madz1962 Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 9:55 am
I live in New York where the bars closed at 4:00 AM. By 2:15 the cars with CT plates would come roaring into the parking lots.
[Reply]
m Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 11:38 am
I live in a wet county next to several dry counties, and driving to our county line to get loaded is common. I wish the idiots making these laws realized that it doesn’t discourage drinking, it just encourages drunk driving.
[Reply]
Kevindust Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
I grew up in Ontario (strictly enforced drinking age 19, bars closed at 1am) but 10 miles from Quebec (rarely enforced drinking age 18, bars closed at 3am). Needless to say there was a strip of bars just across the provincial border that my friends and I started hitting when we were 15-16.
Eventually someone saw the light, they raised the Ontario closing time to 2am and lowered the one in that particular area of Quebec to 2am. The Hull Strip was dead and gone within a year.
[Reply]
from “my” house….arrrgghhh.
[Reply]
I still watch Magnum P. I. It is on The Retro Channel every night at 8 pm. I never got to see the last few seasons back in the day – as I was in the military.
[Reply]
I graduated in 80 and never saw Magnum P.I., either. Too busy working and hitting the bars!
Jeans were probably that expensive because that started the influx of Calvin Klein, Guess, Gloria Vanderbilt, etc. (remember – nothing came between Brooke and her Calvin’s). And Gloria Vanderbilt’s bottoms, were the top! (It’s a shame to call them jeans! – I still remmeber that commercial with that old hag and her horse teeth.
[Reply]
Good Morning Surf Reporters…..
Gradjeeated high school in 1984. Big topic items; Pony hi-top tennis shoes, jean jackets, mullets.
The big car around was Trans Am or Camaro IROC, usually with a feathered roach clip hanging from the rearview.
Music wise, I was into the classics (Zeppelin, Who, etc), but the big acts were like the Cars, the Police, Prince(funk dat)
The big thrill on the weekend was to drive across the boarder into Ohio and buy a 6 pack of Mickey’s Big Mouths. Oh yeah, we was wild….
[Reply]
Bill in WV Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 11:36 am
Ha! We used to drive 50 miles over to South Point, OH to buy Big Mouth Mickey’s!! Malt liquor at it’s FINEST !!
[Reply]
Skully Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Hell yea, we used to go to Gallipolis, OH to get Mickey’s and 6 point Bud…good times!
[Reply]
Ognir Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
I think had those tennis shoes from Sears – The Winner, or whatever they were called.
[Reply]
I graduated from high school in ’94 and they STILL made us wear those ridiculuous drapes that made it look like we were wearing a nice fancy black dress.
It was basically a black velvet shaw that had a v-neck and draped over your shoulders. Underneath, of course, were jeans with factory-produced holes in the knees and a pair of black Converse.
Drape, smile, click. Pass it on.
I didn’t think about it back then, but ewww! I’m looking at some of the other girls in my class and the thought makes me want to shower. Again. Gag.
And we were the Bulldogs too. Highland High School Bulldogs, Palmdale, California.
[Reply]
This has nothing to do with today’s topic, but a few days ago john the basket mentioned Romeo Void in the comments. And today Debora Iyall responded. Debora was lead singer of Romeo Void, and I think that’s pretty cool. It’s in the comments, here:
http://thewvsr.com/index.php/another-thing-lost-twenty-eleven-the-end-of-the-world-and-more/#comments
[Reply]
Gretchen Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
The internet is a many splendored thing.
[Reply]
Bill in WV Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Cool. Hello Debora !
[Reply]
WVKay Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Nice.
[Reply]
johnthebasket Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 12:47 am
Hi, Deb.
Reporters…Full retrospective of RV coming up later in the comments. Reading is optional.
jtb
[Reply]
Knucklehead Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 2:01 am
Peter lives in Marin now and is one of the bigwigs for a company who makes those recorded tours for museums and such. A buddy of mine used to work with him and I have run into him at several parties while I was still in SF. Pearl Harbour and the Explosions did a fucking AWESOME reunion when Dirk Dirkenson died (the owner of the Fab Mab) a couple years back. I fucking loved Pearl Harbour and the Explosions!
I, for one, am getting that CD.
[Reply]
renn Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
I feel the need to purchase that CD, too. I “found” Romeo Void while in college (1990s), as cool music was illegal in Northern Maine in the ’80s.
The fact that Debora Iyall commented here just makes my heart jump with glee. So I’m a nerd. Whatever.
I hope she returns on a regular basis.
[Reply]
That is pretty cool. I remember that band.
[Reply]
I’ll be damned, never heard of Google Alerts.
[Reply]
I graduated in ’70 and I have to say the decade of the ’60′s was a scary time for me. At times it seemed the entire country was burning or smoldering. Assassinations, Vietnam, campus unrest, Kent State. At the same time many wonderful things were happening. After the moon landings it looked like the space program would take off. (see what I did there?) But it never really did.
Some great musical acts were born during that time: Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Hendrix. Muscle cars and hippies (they were fun to laugh at).
We wore our own clothes for yearbook pics. When did they start with the fake clothes? I never heard of that. How odd.
[Reply]
CADude Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
I’m not sure if it’s due to undiagnosed glaucoma, but JK’s yearbook picture instantly reminded me of his his oft-used “see how excited that makes me” Andrew Jackson picture from the $20 bill. http://www.123rf.com/photo_3080664_president-andrew-jackson–20–twenty-dollar-bill.html
[Reply]
Oh…and hi-top Keds!
[Reply]
madz1962 Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
I had a pair of P F Flyers!
[Reply]
In the high school I attended back in the early 80s, they didn’t take pictures of our shoes for the yearbook. But I think that would have been a pretty good idea.
[Reply]
Cave Man was a CLASSIC piece of crap, which I managed to watch whenever I found it on cable. It actually played to Ringo’s strengths as an actor (seriously). The only line of English spoken in the movie is “SHIT” and it’s by Evan Kim, better known (to me anyway) as the karate guy from “Kentucky Fried Movie”. John Matuszak lends his acting chops, learned on the front lines of pro football. Best of all: Barbara Bach & Shelley Long running around in animal skins. Oh my….
Get a 12-pack and enjoy it some night.
[Reply]
I never heard of or seen the tuxedo thing for class pictures (cut me some slack, I’m from Ohio!)…looks like picture day for the Lawrence Welk Show! A very strange concept, indeed. Perhaps the clothes were borrowed from the local funeral home (since they have no need for the backs of suits either!)
And Jeff, with that ‘fro–it looks like you had PLENTY of hair to whip your hand through!
“Out the Door in ’84!”
[Reply]
It’s understandable that one would assume that 1366 is a word count, since the title of yesterday’s post was, “1366 Words About Visiting an Eye Doctor “. However, once the word count was made and found to be “off”, we should have considered other possibilities. Like year.
From Wikipedia: “(In 1366) the Stella Artois brewery was founded in present-day Belgium. they still brew their Lager the same way to this very day.”
jtb
[Reply]
CADude Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
And any legal scholar of Irish decent knows that the Statutes of Kilkenny were passed that same year in Ireland.
[Reply]
johnthebasket Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Hell, yes. It required a whole new brewery to supply the celebration.
jtb
[Reply]
Nice trip down memory lane. I don’t have my final yearbook-I still hold a grudge against those bastards at the school for not getting it to me. (printers strike, nothing was ready, they where supposed to notify us, found out from somebody else, they “ran out”. Cocksuckers.)
My graduating year (1985) featured beer, a girl flashing somebody, a pair of rifles held on the v.p. who was standing against a wall firing squad style, the chain smoker teacher shown hanging out at ‘the pit’ with multiple cigarettes in his mouth. Yeah… no way that would fly these days. I miss those days.
[Reply]
I graduated in 1978 from Ithaca High School in New York State. The 2 page centerfold spread in our yearbook was of a couple of kids in a marijuana field and the text described some of our favorite related activities. I think the school staff person that ran the yearbook crew got fired the day it was distributed. I think it was reproduced on the front page of the town newspaper too. I wish I could find those pages reproduced online. I have no idea where my copy is anymore.
[Reply]
tiff Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 10:20 am
You have to admit though, there’s not much else to do in upstate NY but get high when you’re a teenager.
[Reply]
And the school mascot at the time was a skunk. Who thought that was a good idea?
[Reply]
Graduated 1987. Don’t have the yearbook handy, but I think the favorite TV show was “The Cosby Show,” favorite food was pizza, favorite beverage was Coca-Cola (yeah, whatever). Class song was something by Bon Jovi. There was a mention of alcohol-consumption in one of the photo captions, but I forget the context. I think it involved one of our large school’s more notorious party animals. I’ve blocked out large sections of my senior year, actually, although I recall the unofficial class rhyme:
“Drugs are great
sex is heaven
we’re the class
of eighty-seven.”
[Reply]
renn Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Sex is great,
Drugs are Fiiiiine,
We’re the class of Eighty – Nine!
[Reply]
Gretchen Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Fudge, nothing rhymes with ninety!!
[Reply]
johnthebasket Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 7:56 am
I think you just need to work the words around a little bit because lots of words rhyme with fudge. Just trying to help.
jtb
[Reply]
Musicians out there.
I just ordered a couple of new guitar pedals, a compressor and a noise reducer. I need to start paring down my gear. I have a Boss Bass EQ (GEB-7) that needs to go to a good home. It’s made for bass, but can really crank out some heavy guitar tones too. It works great, I just don’t use it that much and need to get rid of something off of my floor.
[Reply]
Chuck in Belpre Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Tube Screamer?
[Reply]
icecycle66 Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
What? No.
I have a Boss Bass EQ (GEB-7) to give away.
I play through solid state amps, so a tube screamer isn’t really worth it for me.
[Reply]
Chuck in Belpre Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Just wondered if you had one.
[Reply]
icecycle66 Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
My effects from instrument to amp: Metal Muff, Crybaby Bass Wah, Boss Bass Overdrive, Morley Bass Wah, Boss Flanger, (and coming soon) Demeter Comressor, and isp Decimator.
I have a few other toys, a volume pedal, a chorus pedal, a multi effects processor, and the EQ I wan t to get rid of, but all those are used just every so often.
[Reply]
dto Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 11:53 am
Damn man…I have trouble keeping up with where I put my valve oil and you use all that stuff? I have a harmon mute, a cup mute and a plunger I keep in my case. I also have a straight mute and a bucket mute but if the gig calls for either one of those…I turn down the gig because I know the music is gonna suck.
For you icey…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPTP_JyQpl8
[Reply]
dto Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 11:54 am
Take two….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPTP_JyQpl8
[Reply]
Chuck in Belpre Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Back when I was playing I used a phase shifter, wah pedal and a small overdrive. ‘Bout it.
[Reply]
icecycle66 Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 11:07 am
Yeah, its all used. I play a lot of different styles. It’s easy to play clean, no matter how many effects you have. But it is really hard to turn a clean sound into a strange sound if you don’t have the tools.
Between those two distortions and wah pedals I can go from clean and bright to a fretless sound to a grinding sloggy heavy metal sound to square wave synth action and back to clean with a few footsteps.
[Reply]
I graduated in 87 and Jeff’s list could fit right in.. There were 5 kids in my graduating class (two were twin sisters).. I graduated early and went into the Air Force while the other 4 graduated in June and promptly went to Hawaii haha
I went to North River Consolidated high school in WA ..
We never had a class ahead of us so when we were juniors, we got the proceeds from the pop machine ..so two years of pop machine money paid for 4 kids to go to hawaii.. i got a black hills gold ring.. i can’t remember what the hell happen to that.. i know i lost my class ring in the sands of beautiful Hurlburt Field AFB Florida.. having a mini class reunion in August.. hell we could do it by conference call
[Reply]
according to EVERY BOSOX fan I know, it’s Bucky “fucking” Dent
[Reply]
It’s 0530 in the Great Pacific Northwest, and I need to crash for a couple of hours before embarking on a busy Saturday. I’ll defer my long Romeo Void piece for a while.
However, should you be moved in the mean time to acquire some RV, here’s my recommendation. Romeo Void recorded three studio albums, all of them terrific, all of them a little different, moving from punk to post punk to new wave. Romeo Void also issued a compilation album, “Warm in Your Coat”, six or seven years after they initially broke up. I’m not always a fan of compilation albums, but in this case, it’s a great entry point into RV music. It even contains a cut, “One Thousand Shadows”, which would have been on their next album or EP, which never happened. The song is dark and wonderful and indicates a new path the band might have gone down. If you are so moved, pick up a copy of “Warm in Your Coat”…not just a couple of cuts, but the whole album. You’ll at least get a sense of what a mind-boggling singer and lyricist Ms. Iyall is, and you’ll get to hear a band that, for nearly six years, transformed stages all over the world into places of poetry and and insanely fine music.
jtb
[Reply]
OMG, LAST!??
[Reply]
Not Oprah Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
No.
[Reply]
Jets beat the Patriots? WTF?
[Reply]
Gretchen Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 8:16 pm
A shocking turn of events! Belichick’s arrogance came back and bit him on the ass, FINALLY.
[Reply]
bikerchick Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 9:25 am
Brady’s too! Everyone had them already pegged as the Super Bowl champs. “Humble” leaves a bad taste in your mouth, huh Tom….
Go STEELERS!!!
[Reply]
Gretchen Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 11:01 am
WOO-HOO!
[Reply]
When you’re a Jet,
You’re a Jet all the way
From your first cigarette
To your last dyin’ day.
When you’re a Jet,
If the spit hits the fan,
You got brothers around,
You’re a family man!
You’re never alone,
You’re never disconnected!
You’re home with your own:
When company’s expected,
You’re well protected!
Then you are set
With a capital J,
Which you’ll never forget
Till they cart you away.
When you’re a Jet,
You stay a Jet!
[Reply]
madz1962 Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 9:26 am
If they tried that song now it would probably be:
When you’re a Jet
Ypu’re a Jet all the way
From your first tofu bar
To your last dying day.
[Reply]
Fuck…now I’m pasting show tunes to this place? Two days off in a row and the dog refuses to go to the park which would make her the eighth time.
Sooo…tstorm…say when to the ballgames here in Cincy. I’m living here now and will be through the fall at least. You guys can stay at my place but I’ll need references. Crash on the deck out back if ya want.
More boredum…I just bought a Smokey Joe BBQ from the link here. Two CDs too.
[Reply]
Chuck in Belpre Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 11:26 pm
Don’t feel bad…I just watched “Worst Cooks in America”.
Fuck I’m bored!
[Reply]
Jason Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 10:16 am
I’m also guilty of watching that show. That show infuriates me. Can they not see that the fucking fish is burning black? Maybe turn the fire down, dolt.
[Reply]
A new Mockable.org post is up!!!
http://mockable.org/
[Reply]
Would this be considered an obscene phone call?
I call the library and say..
” I need to get some reference books because I think I’ve developed an over active libido.”
“Wow. That’s terrible. What makes you think that?’
“Wanna fuck?”
[Reply]
I blame you for putting that REO Speedwagon song in my head.
[Reply]
Actually I believe that the “pork chop-sized section of edible meat” on the t-bone is the New York Strip and the “rubbery shit” that gave you the “heebie-jeebies” is filet mignon.
[Reply]