52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History Week 45 High School

Week 45. High School. Describe your middle and/or high school. Was it a large or small student body? Is the school still in existence today? How has it changed since you went there?

I attended Forest View High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Our mascot was Fergie the Falcon and our school colors were gold, black and silver.  At one point our mascot was stolen but for the life of me I cannot remember when that happened.  It was never found. The school was built in 1963 and had a few additions made to it including a dance room, gymnastic room, indoor track and field house.  The school was closed in 1986 due to declining enrollment. 

The school is now being used as a district office for the school district, houses two different high schools, and is a college campus.

I must admit that I always felt like a misfit in high school.  The school was large.   We had greasers, jock, brains, and everyone else.  My brother was a jock - I was "everyone else".  My favorite classes in high school were Shakespeare and Mrs. Bond's law classes.  I also have fond memories of a lit class in which we read Spoon River Anthology.  The book was a collection of poems, rather epitaphs of the town's dead citizens.  The poems were "written" by the dead themselves.  The exposure to this book may have been the beginning of my cemetery/tombstone addiction.

I did not have a lot of friends in high school but the ones I had were very special.  We often enjoyed playing games, bowling, or going to the movies with the gang.  I went back to Chicago during this past summer to attend the 30th high school reunion of the class of 1981.  I saw quite a few classmates but not very many of the folk's I was especially close to.  I never attended a dance at the high school.  During my junior and senior year's I dated a guy that attended the University of Illinois.   I attended all the Sigma Pi dances at the University, we never attended my high school functions.

I volunteered to keep the stats for the boys basketball team.  I enjoyed it until the one time I caught a ride back on the bus with the boys after the game - man it smelled bad.  I never made that mistake again!

I graduated early my senior year and worked the following semester to build up my bank account for college.  

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts for genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.