 |
| The Bishop Lynch Class of 1988 as we were 30 years ago. |
I have made it no secret since graduating from Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas over thirty years ago that the years I attended (1984-1988) were not the best years of my life. Like radio talk show host and conservative commentator, Rush Limbaugh, who has sometimes spoken of his dislike for high school, the one thing I couldn’t wait to happen at the end of senior year in 1988 was that those four years was finally over. To me, it wasn’t called high school, it was called “skrool.”
Having attended the 30th high school reunion last October, however, not only made me reconsider that a few of those days of yesteryear were not as bad as I’ve felt but have caused me to look back on them with a bit of nostalgia, as though I wish I could relive them again.
Among the “highs” I experienced, there was the time I met actors Walter Koenig and Mark Lenard at a Star Trek convention my freshman year in the fall of 1984, both of whom signed my grade school autograph book (there is a picture of me with the two of them in the freshman yearbook).
I rarely attended sporting events at BL but when I did (which was once in a blue moon), my one and only reason for going was to see the brigade perform during halftime at the Friday night football games. Like the typing teacher I was infatuated with freshman year, the BL brigade (which celebrated its 50th anniversary in early 2018), wore and still sport the over-the-knee black and white dancing uniforms except during the years I was there, their attire also included white heeled boots that resembled the Go-Go boots women wore during the 1960s. Earlier photos showed the brigade team sporting black low-heeled boots; the kind actress Diana Rigg wore when she played secret agent Emma Peel in the British TV series, "The Avengers" (1965-1968).
Because of my love for the brigade team of yesteryear, when I posted on the Bishop Lynch Class of 1988 Facebook page how their outfits looked “dominant” or “domineering”, Angela Bardis, friend and Class of 88 alum and former brigade member, responded to me writing, “The power of a Brigade uniform and a plaid skirt. It cannot be denied.” Seeing the brigade perform at the homecoming game last October, however, the uniforms have changed. They look too much like every other high school’s brigade team and are too “politically correct” now.
When it came to journalism, I wrote for the student newspaper, the Perspective, my senior year. My “mark” on the newspaper came on the final front page article I wrote for the May 1988 issue about the handful of teachers leaving that year which was apparently such a hot topic that the school principal, Ed Leyden, had me meet him for the interview outside the campus. When I asked one instructor, Tom Poundstone, why he was leaving BL, he told me “Because you can’t teach ethics in a Catholic school.” Little did I know that comment would reach the powers-that-be who had his quote deleted from the front-page article before the issue went to print. I was stirring up controversy and at that time, I had no idea if I would pursue journalism in college, provided I would even go to a four-year university, or not.
Walking the halls of the high school with a few former classmates again homecoming night, I barely recognized the place with all the new additions. The only remnants that showed the class of 1988 was ever there was a screen house the biology class used and I assume still uses in the middle yard of the school, and was where during the 1986-87 junior year a time capsule was buried. The only other noticeable remnants of the school are the hallway lockers that the students today no longer use. They are just there, apparently, for decoration.
Looking back over the past 30 years, I have found myself envious of the things the BL students got now that I wished we had back then. They have a bowling team, for example, which I would have joined had that been around in the mid-80s and I would have asked not one, but two, woman classmates to prom, depending on who said yes, had I known back then that neither one of them were asked by anyone.
Given the tuition it costs to send one’s son or daughter to BL now (close to $18,000 a year) versus the $5000 a year my parents paid to send me there from 1984-88 at the time I would have paid a hell of lot more attention to my classes back then instead of just settling for being an average student.
“Having two kids there I’d agree,” wrote class of 1988 alum, Greg Campbell, on BL’s Facebook page last October. “The environment there is fantastic and everyone truly has a home there, that much remains unchanged. However, the workload and teacher expectations is huge...multiple hours a night spent on homework including weekends. Sports are a yearlong commitment and a kid can easily spread themselves too thin trying to fit it all in. The tuition is steep but you really do get what you pay for!”
The campus during school hours now resembles a locked gated fortress, minus armed security officers, which is no doubt done to prevent a mass shooting; something not once did we students nor did our parents back in the mid-1980s fathom happening versus what often occurs yearly at various high schools today in Anytown, USA.
In my day, we had no internet, no social media and no cellphones. Things were so much easier back then. I wouldn’t trade what I experienced over thirty years ago for what today’s students got over there now.
“This group of amazing people 30 years ago changed my life,” wrote fellow 88’ alum Von Minor on the BL Facebook page. “BL is a special place. It’s so amazing to know we went to a school where everyone had a place and felt a part, accepted and loved.”
If there is one thing that’s remained a constant over the past three decades it is as alum Craig Vinci wrote on the BL Facebook page, “Our 88’ girls are still the prettiest.”
That much is true. Some things haven’t changed.
©10/10/18
 |
| The 30th Class Reunion: 10/6/18. |
Among the “highs” I experienced, there was the time I met actors Walter Koenig and Mark Lenard at a Star Trek convention my freshman year in the fall of 1984, both of whom signed my grade school autograph book (there is a picture of me with the two of them in the freshman yearbook).
On the subject of who we young “scowls-full-of mush” thought were the most attractive teachers who taught us, the ladies had the hots for the male track coach while the guys swooned over the female theatre arts teacher. My first schoolboy crush on a woman teacher, however, occurred the first day of class freshman year at 8 am first period. The class was typing and rest assured I was not so much interested in learning how to use a typewriter as I was in the woman who taught it for those nine months. Her name not worth mentioning here but I can say her daily business attire a majority of the time was the equivalent of the over-the-knee outfits and stilettos the women anchors, or “Info-Babes” as Limbaugh calls them, on Fox News wear on a weekly basis.
 |
| The BL Brigade as they were 30 years ago. |
Because of my love for the brigade team of yesteryear, when I posted on the Bishop Lynch Class of 1988 Facebook page how their outfits looked “dominant” or “domineering”, Angela Bardis, friend and Class of 88 alum and former brigade member, responded to me writing, “The power of a Brigade uniform and a plaid skirt. It cannot be denied.” Seeing the brigade perform at the homecoming game last October, however, the uniforms have changed. They look too much like every other high school’s brigade team and are too “politically correct” now.
Walking the halls of the high school with a few former classmates again homecoming night, I barely recognized the place with all the new additions. The only remnants that showed the class of 1988 was ever there was a screen house the biology class used and I assume still uses in the middle yard of the school, and was where during the 1986-87 junior year a time capsule was buried. The only other noticeable remnants of the school are the hallway lockers that the students today no longer use. They are just there, apparently, for decoration.
 |
| In memory... |
“Having two kids there I’d agree,” wrote class of 1988 alum, Greg Campbell, on BL’s Facebook page last October. “The environment there is fantastic and everyone truly has a home there, that much remains unchanged. However, the workload and teacher expectations is huge...multiple hours a night spent on homework including weekends. Sports are a yearlong commitment and a kid can easily spread themselves too thin trying to fit it all in. The tuition is steep but you really do get what you pay for!”
The campus during school hours now resembles a locked gated fortress, minus armed security officers, which is no doubt done to prevent a mass shooting; something not once did we students nor did our parents back in the mid-1980s fathom happening versus what often occurs yearly at various high schools today in Anytown, USA.
In my day, we had no internet, no social media and no cellphones. Things were so much easier back then. I wouldn’t trade what I experienced over thirty years ago for what today’s students got over there now.
“This group of amazing people 30 years ago changed my life,” wrote fellow 88’ alum Von Minor on the BL Facebook page. “BL is a special place. It’s so amazing to know we went to a school where everyone had a place and felt a part, accepted and loved.”
If there is one thing that’s remained a constant over the past three decades it is as alum Craig Vinci wrote on the BL Facebook page, “Our 88’ girls are still the prettiest.”
That much is true. Some things haven’t changed.
©10/10/18
