Dispatch #37: Spirit of The Week

Senior Photo - 1980

by Lupe Fernandez

We got spirit!
Yes we do!
We got spirit!
How 'about you!

When I was in high school, I loathed spirit week. Too much good cheer. I was the Ebenezer Scrooge of school. Bah! Humbug! I sneered at the participants. "Why do they care? Look at the poor attendance. Silly games. Don't they know we're at war with the International Communist Conspiracy. There's drought on. TV is terrible."

Why? Unhappy childhood. Broken Home. That sort of thing.

This August I am attending my high school's 35th Annual reunion. I've been posting yearbook photos and promotional blurbs.

Fantasy Island TV Show

Tattoo: Da plane, Boss. Da plane.
Mr. Roarke: Smiles everyone. Smiles. Welcome the classes of 1978 through 1983.
Tattoo: That's a lot of class. Heh, heh. I made joke Boss. Get it?
Mr. Roarke: (frowns at Tattoo) They come to relive old times, talk about where they have been, show pictures of their children, talk about their careers.
Tattoo: It's been over thirty years, Boss. That's a lot of talking.
Mr. Roarke: Some Alumni remember those carefree days as if it were yesterday. Some have never left. They dwell on what they have done, what they wanted to do, what they wished had happened.
Tattoo: (wears a Falcon letter-man jacket) What do you think, Boss?
Mr. Roarke: Where did you get that?
Tattoo: E-Bay. Nine dollars. Pretty good, huh Boss? (combs his hair) The girls will go crazy over me.
Mr. Roarke: Alas, some Alumni still yearn for the years that are lost to time. But for the moment, it is as if they have never left.

Why the attitude change?

Spirit Week - Class of 1980

Professional: I write YA. I didn't get out much in high school. I want to know what other people did. How did they feel? What do they remember? I can't despise what I care about, and I care about my work, even if I'm the only one who will ever read the stuff.

Personal: I'd like to say I had a visit from the bitter Ghost of High School Past, but I think it was only a bit of unboiled potato. I'd like to say I had a visit from the Ghost of High School Present. The campus closed in 1990. No teenagers hang out in the halls anymore. I'd like to say I had a visit the Ghost of High School Future. Well...I already live there. I married an Alumni.

Four years of high school is time I can't get back. But for this reunion, I'll show a little spirit. I still won't wear a funny hat or shake a noise maker.

Instead, I'll write what I know and what I don't know.