More High School Relics

"Rabo" is more than happy to share other mementos of his. You may be surprised at what he decided to show you.

Over the four years I attended Harrison High School, I saved certain things from those years as mementos. You've already seen a few of them in other G&G Time Capsule articles (my "Farewell to 1987" paper, my senior vice-president campaign flyers, and my academic letter).

Here are the rest.  Back in 2000, I didn't have a scanner, and as for digital cameras, those would have been very expensive and poor in picture quality back then.  Anyway, I thought I'd scan or take pictures of some of my other high school mementos in case you don't have them, forgot they ever existed, or never saw them to begin with.

Some of you may have had Mrs. Sparrow for some English class or another, and a few of you may remember that she was known as the "Ditto Queen." In my A.P. English 12 class, she handed us photocopies of everything from psychological tests to poems to selected pages from a little-known 1983 paperback book, Never Make Love In a Suit of Armor (and Other Undiscovered Letters). That book parodied various literary characters from ancient and medieval as well as modern times. Here are a couple "letters" she copied from that book for us:

One is addressed from Menelaus to Helen of Troy (from Greek mythology). It is based on a line from Christopher Marlowe's play, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, when Faustus says of Helen, "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...?" Menelaus was Helen's first husband.

The other is based on the first scene of the fifth act of Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is addressed from Laertes to the sexton at the graveyard where poor Yorick rests, not so much in peace, but in pieces. (Click on the image below to enlarge it; same goes for other images in this article.)

In '87 and '88, someone put up these cards on the walls--one for each and every student. I'm sure they were in celebration of the Hawks going to the Silverdome in those years (but I'm sure they didn't do it in '89 when they also went to the 'Dome). I don't know who did it--the Student Council, the school administration, whoever--but I thought it was a nice gesture in recognition of Harrison's "12th Man."


Below are the Swing-Out programs from each of our four years.


I designed the one for 1990, but my favorite is the one Neils Schroeder designed in 1988.
Let me talk a bit about my 1990 design:

• The letters in "SWING OUT" appear the way they appear for a reason--not just to emphasize the celebratory atmosphere, but because there was this kiddie game show my little brother and I liked watching together called Fun House (that show was kind of like Nickelodeon's Double Dare). The Fun House logo was one inspiration, to emphasize the idea that graduation time was going to be a fun time for us.  The font used in the opening credits from the 1978 film Grease was also an inspiration.
• One thing I've never told anyone about my 1990 design was that there was something more I wanted to do with it. The top of the "T" in "SWING OUT" was supposed to be formed by two doors swinging open (that's what I thought "Swing Out" meant) and there'd be grads in their caps and gowns rushing out that door and down the "road." Truth be told, I'm not great at drawing people so I just left the "road" empty.

I had three art classes while at Harrison, and while most of the things I made in those classes are long gone, there are two pieces of artwork I still held on to:

Analogous Colors from my Design class (October 1986):


The Design course had a series of projects, and each project had a set of requirements. Most projects were liquid tempera paint on paper. In this project, we had to use the scale shape, use analogous colors (colors that are found side by side on the color wheel; I selected green, yellow-green and yellow), various tints, shades and tones of those three colors had to be used, and the scales had to be divided "interestingly". The scales by themselves were not impressive, the triangle by itself was just a triangle, and the colors by themselves weren't enough, but then suddenly, everything just came together. That's the best thing I can say about this; it's just awesome when everything just comes together.

Michelob from Studio class (September 1988):


Here's an unusual piece that was selected to be displayed at Creativity Springs Alive VI at Harrison High on April 7, 1989. It started with a linoleum cut of the goblets on a countertop, then paint of various colors was applied to the lino cut, which was then "stamped" onto a piece of paper. Then I pasted a Michelob bottle from a magazine ad above it, positioned so the drop would fall into one of the goblets beneath it. Today, it hangs on a wall in my kitchen.

Remember those T-shirts some of us bought at the end of the year?  I still have mine.

Of course, if you're in the Class of 1990, and you want to see where your name is, here's a closer look at that "90" for you:

One more thing: The towel from the All Night Party.  I'll be honest, I haven't figured out what to use it for except to pad/protect my diplomas.  It was too thin to be used for drying off after a shower.