Have you ever wondered what your parents were like in high school? What music did they listen to, what life did they live? What was school possibly like to these old-schoolers? To answer these questions, we received responses from over a dozen GV teachers and staff members, capturing the memorable moments of their teen years, moments that still gleam gaily atop the reservoir of the past. We also requested some teachers and staff members for a photo of them as a teenager; at the end of the article, try to match the photo to the correct GV teacher/staff member!
The ‘80s had just begun. The teenagers were still using typewriters and landline phones, listening to Queen and David Bowie, and perhaps awaiting the next Jaws movie. According to Mr. La Rue, he “went out with [his] friends every Friday and Saturday”
and owned a “1987 Kawasaki 550 jet ski” that he used to ride at Lake Pyramid. Mrs. Pratt, another 80’s teacher on campus,
shares that she was a “punk rocker with a mohawk” in high school, and that she had a telephone with a “12-foot cord”. How insane is that!
The ‘80s teen lingo too was quite the creative mixture. Some of the slang in the early ‘80s according to Mrs. Pratt were Hang loose, rad, and perhaps the greatest epitomization of teen ethos: Have a bitchin’ summer. In the latter years of the ‘80s, some of the popular phrases included Hellacious, Jonesing, and wiggin’ out, respectively to Mr. La Rue. Though it is hard to argue with
Mr. La Rue’s statement that high school in the ‘80s “was probably the best time ever to be a teenager”, the coming generations of teens would surely say the same thing about themselves.
The ‘90s were often known as the “it” era by many, particularly due to the advancements in technology. New trends emerged, and music reached its peak during this time. While interviewing Mr. Gaunt, he highlighted various aspects of his teenage years in the 90s, including the activities he enjoyed. One of his favorite memories was visiting Blockbuster Music. He recalled, “My dad would drop us off there, and you could open any CD and listen to the music. I discovered so many new bands that way.” Some of his favorite music included Weezer’s Blue Album, which he described as his “gateway drug into music.” He also mentioned getting into punk music, particularly the album Energy by Operation Ivy.
Mrs. Foster, who went to high school in the ‘90s, recounted reading a lot during her adolescence. “I read as much as I could get to. A lot of fantasy I suppose. I was also reading things like Gone With The Wind, and I was big into period pieces at the same time.” Her go-to genre in books also ties to the types of movies and shows she was interested in. Period pieces like Elizabeth, and Room With a View were her favorite movies as a teenager.
Her most memorable moments in school are the ones she spent in her theater class. “All of them were affiliated with theater,
because that’s where my passion was.” When asked how her high school experience molded the values she lives by today, she responded with “It really made me have this connection to working hard and really bringing in what I like or what I love into what I do. I remember a couple of key moments where some of my instructors told me things. My color guard instructor gave me that phrase ‘To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late.’ That was in high school, and ever since then that just always sticks with me.”
School counseling administrator, Amada Morgan, also had the grace to share some of her own intriguing experiences and lifestyle in the 90’s. She was apparently a real “goth kid”, and described how in her group, trench coats, Frankenstein-like platforms, spiked collars and studs, white makeup with black lipstick were “really in” for her. Straying a little away from her niche were the
Chuck Taylor All Stars shoes, flannels, and butterfly clips.
A Beavis & Butthead enthusiast, swing dancer, and private schooler in her formative years, Mrs. Morgan remarks, “[Back then,] Teens were more obsessed with MTV music videos and cartoons, and chatting on AOL Instant Messenger”. She goes on to explain how she feels that teenagers in our day and age are now constantly preoccupied with their phones, engaged in large social media platforms that have only grown bigger since their youth. Our school librarian, Mrs. Ann McCann, another 90’s teen, wishes that “teens today didn’t have to deal with social media”, finding that “all teens want to have fun and have a sense of belonging, then and now”, a characteristic of our
youth that seems to be true regardless of generation. After all, why do people in high school eventually fall into their own little groups and cliches anyway? Perhaps it is due to a juvenile need for companionship and community as we course through the difficult ups and downs of high school. Mrs. McCann was also a huge fan of the Weezer Blue Album and loved watching “Dumb and Dumber” as well as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”.
The turn of the century brought with it a myriad of new technologies, many of which would forever change teenage culture going forward. For Mr. Eaton, it was video games like Legend of Zelda, Metroid Prime, and Star Fox that made that period of his life so memorably ‘00’. But why did he start playing video games? The rise of video gaming started with the release of several gaming consoles like Playstation 2, the Xbox, and the Nintendo GameCube, innovations that immediately found itself in the midst of a mainstream teen audience. Now instead of watching TV on the comfortable spot on the couch, many of the early 2000’s kids would start venturing into their rooms, playing video games while chatting up their friends online.
Mrs. Hubbell, GV Theater Arts Director, was one of the handful of students who attended GV since its founding (2004), and since then she has been in love with the theatrical arts. Mrs. Hubbell describes going to GV in its early years as “crazy”, stating “we [didn’t] have any traditions or school culture. We had to make it up as we went along”. As one who has never experienced such a school
environment, I could only imagine how remarkably different and —perhaps– exciting it must have been to be a teenager in that period of GV history.
Mrs. Abrams was also an 00’s teen, and her favorite things to do as a teenager was to drive places with her friends, “usually to TP someone’s house”, play softball, and draw. One of the best experiences for her in high school was be-
ing a part of the softball team, as she “loved being part of a group on campus”.
As the years inch closer to the present, the 2010s were upon the new generation of teens. GV Career Transition Advisor, Salma Taher, described the fashion as wearing ‘SillyBandz’ and Balance bracelets, ‘Miss Me’ jeans, American Eagle, and guys wearing “[beaded] necklaces with plastic clasps”. One special memory Mrs. Taher had from high school was the annual water bottle fights in
West Ranch, where seniors would “sneak in water balloons and water bottles and start a fight with them during brunch” and even “stormed the bathroom and [take] the soap dispensers as souvenirs”. According to Mrs. Taher, “The principal would always come on the intercom to say he knew the seniors were up to no good (it was on social media) and threaten to take away senior activi-
ties but it didn’t work”.
Although the world around us has changed drastically throughout the past decades, we teenagers still do many of the things that Santa Clarita kids did in the past. We still go to Magic Mountain every school break like flocks of sheep. We still go to Mountasia (except now it’s MB2) on the day of someone’s birthday, or for family outings. We still love to do sports and join clubs that foster a community around us. Heck, I still see teens after school on their skateboards, milling audaciously through packed crowds. Though the technol-
ogy we engage ourselves with has changed drastically and has certainly led to differences in teenage culture, the physical and leisure activities that teens frequent today, are not quite so distant from the generations of the past. It’s
like the saying goes, “People may grow old, but the places of our youth stay forever young.”