MEMORIES

What do you remember about high school?
Use the questions below to jump-start your memory.
Email info@northside1985.com
and we'll post your memories here.
Last Updated: 8/5/05.


What was your favorite/least favorite class?
What did you like/dislike most about high school?
What fashion trends did you follow in high school?
What bands did you listen to in high school?
Where did you hang out after school and on weekends?

Memories

Stacy (Birdsong) Wright Hello all. I found this website last night and don't think I'll be able to make it although I would love to come. My husband has the beeper this weekend but we are still talking about it. Anyway, I only attended Northside one year but it was a good one. I remember Lisa Harrington and I were both new and were inseparable. We went to one of the first football games together and I somehow managed to lock my keys in my car (green VW bug) with the engine running. No wonder Lisa's dad dubbed us Lofty Lisa and Spacey Stacy. I went part-time to school and worked first at a shoe store in the Jackson mall - hated it. Then I worked at Sunflower as a checker. (Lisa worked at the other store) Loved it - lots of cute boys from high school working there. I remember cruising around town in my green bug although I can't even remember the names of the streets. There was this one parking lot (I think where Lisa's Sunflower was located) that we used to drive around over and over again in a big square. It was there that Jonathon Cole staged a reenactment of the shooting of President Reagan using my bug as the getaway car. He was so silly. I remember being out of school for snow and ice for at least a week and taking Lynn Farmer's car (white Celica??) to the high school parking lot and spinning around on the ice. She had a Berlin tape she used to play over and over again. I thought she was such the cool rebel. We played cassettes in my car - primarily Brian Adams' Heaven, the GoGos, Madonna... I remember going to Lynda Blackstock's house, I believe on Christmas Day - she had gotten the new Madonna and we're all dancing to Material Girl. In the spring I believe it was me, Julie, Kim and Rhonda would lay out on the decks of our dome house. We would put the stereo speakers in the window and play The Big Chill soundtrack over and over again. I went to Memphis to get my prom dress - all pink lace and taffeta (what WERE we thinking??) Julie Burkehead came over to get ready with me. I think we were more excited about the prom party at the Timbers (is that right?) clubhouse than the prom itself. All the girls changed out of their prom dresses into sundresses and we danced all night to....you guessed it, The Big Chill soundtrack. (I just had to pull it out and listen to it on the way to work this morning) I remember me, Kim, Rhonda and Julie stealing one of those flashing roadblock thingys, putting it in the back of my bug and taking it into Kim's parents bedroom while they were sleeping. I had a party at my dome house when my parents were out of town. They were highly suspicious when they got home and there was absolutely no garbage. (We hauled all the beer cans and bottles to the dumpster that morning.) I remember Jimmy Key and Russ Ellis, and maybe Randy Perry running around in my basement the day we got our yearbooks and found this big poster of my brother in a Grease production as "Clarence Casino". They thought it was so funny we put it on the mantle at the prom party and I've got pictures of folks toasting him. My brother finds this all very amusing. Well, I could go on and on...I came to Jackson senior year not knowing a soul. Thanks for taking me in and making it the best of my high school years.

Mike Baskin I have always been grateful for a good memory. Remembering the glory days at NSHS is something I do often still. I truly enjoyed those days. I even had the opportunity to do my student teaching at Northside (having lunch with many of our teachers in the lounge as a peer was kind of freaky). Perhaps that is why being a high school teacher is such a joy today. Specifically, I remember riding the bus to East Elementary while listening to "Rapper's Delight" on Donald Yarbro's state-of-the-art "boom box"(Jr. High, but noteworthy), parachute pants, "Panama Jack" t-shirts, the preppie explosion with "Izod" and "Polo", Funland, Malco, GREAT music as the "Solid Gold" dancers defined 80's dance and fashion, true rock groups like Styx, Aerosmith, R.E.O., Eurhythmics (and too many other artists to list), school lunch for $1, being in the Jr. High building our first year of High School, taking Spanish so I could go the High School building, we actually had a smoking area so students could smoke without getting busted, dances at the Lion's club or the V.F.W., Hamilton Hills skate center, Kappa Chi, an undefeated football team, walking home from school, "Gooney Golf", and much more. Generally, I remember the halls of N.S.H.S. being full of friendly, usually smiling faces that would always say "hi" back. We took pride in who we were. The faculty was usually nice and approachable. The exchange students were fun and interesting. The work wasn't as hard as we liked to believe it was. I remember the night before our senior research papers were due for Mrs. Hardin. I had done nothing but notecards. I watched "M.A.S.H." from 10:30-11:00 as always. As the show ended I was in the floor about to fall asleep when a tiny voice said to me, "If you don't get up and write that paper you will NOT GRADUATE!". I jumped to my feet and sat down at the dining room table to write my paper. At 7:00 the next morning I had cranked out twenty-six HANDWRITTEN pages. I accepted the "B" with a great sense of unbelief and relief. Ultimately, we had some great times, great music, and great fun. I know there were some bumps in the road, but we made it. Let's just hope our children do!

Bret James I remember Delano's Teen Disco on Friday/Sat nights. I remember typing term papers for $, late at night at Vickie Glassman's house cause my typewriter broke. I called Vickie (late) desperate and telling her that David Smith's paper was due the next day and I HAD to finish it. She said "sure, come on over". Vickie was always cool like that. Oh yeah, she had a Great Electric typewriter with backspace correction and everything!! lol I remember King Kool and the Pop-O-Matics. I remember the night before graduation going out to Spring Lake with Tony Freeman and Chris Moore. We drank our quota (2 Bartyles and Jaymes' orange wine coolers each) and decided to go skinny dipping.....and did! Then decided to go "VISIT" Machelle accross the lake and tap on her bedroom window...whoops! wrong window! Her dad shot at me with a shotgun thinking I was a burglar. Tony and Chris left in MY CAR! Cops found me cuffed me and stuffed me. Machelle's mom ID'd me. Everyone laughed except Machelle's dad and me. He worried a little when we went out after that, I think. I remember Tom Spiese and his "wind up bug" in Ms. Maynard's Study Hall in the Library. Lesa Mullins was at our table. I remember Stacy Birdsong's family lived in a "Dome House". I remember being shy around Janet Dempsey. I remember burning a half a tank of gas cruising on Friday nights.

Darrell Woodard Let me take you back to the 7th grade. Some of you may remember how we all had to meet in the Jr. High gym every day prior to being shipped off to East Elementary (due to a construction project). Well, on the first day of school while being subjected to that interminable wait in the gym, I sat by a new kid. From his book bag, he pulls out this strange figure that he had fashioned out of a toilet paper core, rubber bands, and electrical tape. He dubbed this figure “Elastic Man” and proceeded to explain and demonstrate to me its super powers. Now…this was no ordinary home-made super-hero action figure. I mean, it had bushy electrical tape eyebrows and everything. So, after getting over the initial shock of being subjected to such a strange exhibit, I asked this new kid his name….he said “Howard.” Howard? I’d never met anyone named Howard before…seemed like such a formal name. Turns out that Howard lived on Fair Acres Cove right behind my house on Rockwell. Sir Howard Kirby Haltom (wherever you are): thanks for introducing me to the Beatles, a cheap Jaco’s acoustic guitar, Junior (the world’s scariest cat), the X-Men, Bloom County, my first glass of wine, and a little wider view of the world. Woody. Another quick memory….whose pictures were taped inside Howard Haltom’s, Randy Perry’s, and Darrell Woodard’s senior locker? Standard bikini-clad large-bosomed fare you guess? Heck no. They were: Fidel Castro (with a big stogie), Richard Millhouse Nixon (I am not a crook pose), and Randy's incredibly detailed drawing of Prince.