- How would you describe yourself when you were a teenager?
- Grunge, messy, angry, introverted… probably the standard.
- How did you dress and style your hair during your teens?
- Jeans, flannels, combat boots.
- Super short hair but with long, diagonal cut bangs that covered my face.
- Did you hang out with a group or just a few close friends? Are you still close with any of them?
- I had a group of very unsavory fiends. I superficially keep in touch with only one of them.
- Describe a typical Friday or Saturday night during your high school years?
- That would be akin to a written confession. While I am sure the statute of limitations has run out I opt to take the fifth.
- Did you have a curfew?
- Not via my mother. There was a short period during the Satanic panic where the city was enforcing curfews (that no one followed).
- Did you date during your high school years?
- Not really. I did have a boyfriend that was not in high school. There were other goings-on that i would not describe as dating.
- Did you go to any school dances? What were they like?
- I went to a single school dance. I went with my gal pal, which did not go over well. We went in jeans and t-shirts. I think we stayed for less than an hour cause it sucked so hard. The theme song was “If I Close My Eyes Forever” by Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne.
- Who taught you to drive and in what kind of car?
- Mr. Becker at the high school, when driver’s ed was still free.
- How old were you when you got your first car? What kind of car was it?
- My first ‘official’ car, as in not belonging to my mom or immediate family was an ugly brown Ford Fairmont. I think I was 18 or 19 at the time.
- What school activities or sports did you participate in?
- Drama club, did backstage stuff.
- School newspaper
- Forensics
- Choir
- What did like and dislike about high school?
- I didn’t really care either way. But I did take issue with school politics and being given detention for leaving last hour to go to work.
- What were your grades like?
- 9th Grade
- Biology — C\C
- Algebra — C-\D
- Geography — C
- English — C\B-
- Gym — B
- Art — B\B
- Keyboarding — B
- Careers — A-
- 10th Grade
- English — A-\B
- World History — B\B
- Geometry — B-\B-
- Accounting — C\B
- Gym — D\C-
- Shorthand — C
- Independent Living — A-
- 11th Grade
- Reading Enrichment — B+
- French — A\B
- IPS — A\C+
- Economics — B+
- US History — B\C
- Current Problems — A
- Writing for Publication — B-
- World Geography — B
- American Government — B
- I withdrew from school my Jr year so I could work because I needed to pay rent. I took my HSED exam in June of what would have been my Senior year and aced it.
- 9th Grade
- Did you have a favorite and least favorite subject?
- Favorites were Art & English
- Hated math and gym
- What are a few favorite songs from your high school years?
- Madonna, Prince, Cyndi Lauper, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson and Starship were mainstream stuff. I was also loving things like Metallica, Guns & Roses, AC\DC, Ozzy, Black Sabbath and Led Zepplin.
- Write about a teacher, coach or other mentor who had a significant impact on you when you were growing up?
- My Grandparents
- My Drill Sergeant
- Knowing all you know now, what advice would you give to your teenage self? What might you have done differently in school if you knew then what you know now?
- Everything is temporary! High school is not the be-all, end-all of anything. It’s a blip on the radar of life so you should do what you like, hang with people that are actually decent to you and spend more time with your family.
- Just say NO to drugs, alcohol and men. Period, Full stop.
Some interesting things….
- Freshman in 1987
- The Simpsons first aired as an animated short on The Tracey Ullman Show.
- Johnny Depp was the universally accepted ‘hottie’.
- “Platoon” won the Oscar (released in 1986) and I was totally obsessed with it.
- Sophomore in 1988
- Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” was released in 1988. I saw him in concert at the Minnesota State Fair in 1989.
- An awesome book that I read was “Queen of the Damned” by Anne Rice.
- The 1st and quintessential Christmas movie, “Die Hard” was released.
- Cosmopolitan magazine ran a completely FALSE and DANGEROUS article stating that women could not get HIV from men because it couldn’t be transmitted in the missionary position. Just leaving this hear as a reminder to ALWAYS CHECK YOUR FACTS. We didn’t have Google… many people actually believed this crap!
- “Beetlejuice” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” were big in theaters.
- I was probably watching “Growing Pains”, “Who’s the Boss?”, “Night Court” or “Alf” on TV.
- Junior in 1989
- August of 1989 was a personal flection point that I’d rather forget…
- The Berlin Wall came down in Nov 1989! (Technically (physically) in spring\summer of 1990)
- Tell my noisy Baby Bell that this was the year “The Little Mermaid” was first released.
- Seriously though, Johnny Depp was still totally a hottie.
- This PSA gem was first released: “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?”
- I was probably talking about Wayne Gretzky or Janet Jackson.
- Would have been a Senior 1990
- Johnny Depp stopped being a hottie because I hated Edward Scissorhands. 🤮
- Madonna was probably the most famous person in America.
- CERN computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee laid the foundation for the World Wide Web (and the modern Internet). In Dec 1990 he launched the world’s first website https://info.cern.ch/.
- The 1st live action TMNT movie came out!
- I was probably watching “In Living Color” and definitely NOT watching garbage TV “90210”.
- I enlisted in the Army Reserve. I did my basic training Fort Jackson, South Carolina the summer of 1990. I did my AIT at Fort Gordon, Georgia in the summer of 1991. This is when they had split-option training, not sure if they do that anymore. I was assigned to the USAR HHC, 385th Engineer Group in Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
