Mohigan Memories...
...taking a stroll down MHS Lane
Memories to get us started for our 30th Reunion
The thrill of being a senior and not having to wear those oh-so-not-flattering blue clingy gym shorts.
Seeing who had the coolest embroidered name on the blue clingy gym shorts.
Wanting to run and hide when the balance beam and trampoline came out.
Walking the bridge into town every day...cursing those people who didn't slow down when it rained.
Wondering why no one ever asked me out.
Being afraid so-and-so would ask me out.
Being devastated when I thought he was...and he didn't.
"I'm Behind Joedy Gardener" butt patches.
Desperately searching for someone to sit with in the smelly cafeteria the moment I walked in the door....and the instant wave of relief when I found them.
Wishing I was cool enough to be a Keyette.
Wishing you didn't have to be in the band to be a Mohiganette...like I would have tried out!
Envying the girls with the long, shiny, straight, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" hair.
Scribbling your "married name" in the back of your notebook (and crossing out yours and his matching letters and then playing, "Love, Hate, Friendship, Marriage" game).
Adding middle names when it kept coming up "Hate."
Desperately hoping to get enough signatures in your yearbook that you didn't look like a total loser. (And reading them now, thinking "What in the heck did that mean?"
Hmmm...wondering why when I hated high school so much, I enjoy the reunions....
If this sparked memories for you, send them to us!
Previous Memories Shared From:
Doug Bowers
Mark Hall
Bob Joseph and Jay Bachar
Andrea Ice Horton
#10: (This one has a very high BS factor--that would be a "Ben Stout factor", no doubt.) Ben, Bruce, Chris and I playing proms and dances at most of the high schools throughout the tri-county area including St. Francis and University High and realizing we had the best damn class of them all.
#9: The Island Party - Lashing dozens of inner tubes together with a keg 'o' beer inserted firmly in the middle one and floating out into the middle of Cheat Lake. (Having a middle the size of an inner tube so never dreaming of going to Cheat.)
#8: Being a passenger in Mark McIntyre's Camaro - anyone who's shared that experience will know what I'm talking about.
#7: Thinking how cool Fat Daddies must be, then playing there and realizing what a dump it was.
#6: Drunk Brandywine roadie, Mark Thorn, toppling a large speaker cabinet onto a drink laden table at a redneck bar and we being greatly out numbered.
#5: Seeing Genesis perform "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" at Pittsburgh's Syria Mosque and Ben Stout driving us home through a blinding snowstorm. Hey, the stuff really does sharpen your senses!
#4: The Green Demon. (Is this any relation to Kenna's green Hornet?)
#3: Drinking a couple pitchers 'o' grog at Long John Silvers during lunch with John Piribek, Bob Ginsburg and Mark Thorn and missing European History.
#2: Lunching in the auditorium and removing the "C" and "L" from the large "Class Night" hung on the stage backdrop and then hoping that no one would notice until the curtain opened.
#1: Hanging out at the Borden Burger at 3 AM on a weekend night "gooning" on the stoned/drunk college kids.
...with regards from Mark Hall (as always with a few editorial comments by yours truly).
Playing at dances in the gym with Jerome Belton & Steve Bremer. We sucked, but nobody seemed to care. (Wondering what I was missing at the school dances as I sucked down my Tab at home.)
Running to the "smoke hole" and sucking down an entire Marlboro in five minutes between classes, then spending the first 15 minutes of the next class trying to focus through the haze of a nicotine buzz. (Being petrified of the people who hung out in the smoke hole.)
Emilio Petite's cars. You never new which one "Meatball" was going to drive to school on any given day. I remember a V12 Jaguar convertible, an El Dorado, a Corvette and a Volkswagen Thing (?). (Not knowing that Emilio was ever called "Meatball"... probably because being so petrified, I would have only thought of him as "Mr. Petite.")
In chorus class, changing the words of "Gary Indiana" from "The Music Man" to "Gary Albertazzie."
Coach Vic Bonfili ragging me and Pete Marris about our long hair poking out from under our football helmets. I'll never forget the line he always used, "Whatsamatter Hall, your barber die?" (Wishing, with most every other girl in the class, you could BE Pete's barber just SO you could run your fingers through his hair.)
Attending the prom as a junior with a last-minute date (a certain person who shall remain nameless, but you know who you are) and having a great time. She made her own dress on less than a week's notice and looked, to me, like a million bucks. (On a lighter note--attending the junior prom??! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Though at the time I'm sure the it was more like boo-hoo! On a serious note--what a sweet comment, Mark. Now we're all going to rack our brains to figure out who "she" was.)
Attending the prom as a senior with a long-planned date (a certain other person who shall remain nameless, but you also know who you are) and having a lousy time. (The lighter note: Attending any prom???!!! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Seriously speaking...we may rack our brains even harder on this one!)
Piling into a bus with the A Cappella Chorus and driving down to dinky little WBOY in Clarksburg to do a Christmas TV concert every year. (Well, some things never change. I believe WBOY is still technically "dinky".)
Working in a band from 9 to 2 five nights a week for most of the second half of my senior year. I had four classes that semester, the first of which was Mrs. Lohr's sophomore biology class, for which I was supposed to be the student assistant. My personal way of rendering assistance to Mrs. Lohr was to sleep soundly through the class most mornings. She didn't seem to mind.
In my Junior year, through a scheduling error, I was booked into an advanced creative writing class conducted by Mr. Hohmann. I was way out of my league, sitting with the class nerds, listening to this strange little man. To this day it is my favorite classroom experience. I learned more in that class than in any I have ever taken, primary, secondary or college. Years later when I saw "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" it was really spooky how much Mr. Hand in the movie was like Mr. Hohmann. ("Spooky" and "strange" were definitely adjectives I used with Mr. Hohmann...and yet, I too remember more of his assignments (like dissecting and analyzing Don McLean's American Pie)--enjoying them and feeling more challenged by him than by any other teacher.)
I could go on and on. All & all, MHS was a great place to go through my brain-damaged late adolescence.
From Bob Joseph and Jay Bachar
Halter tops and hot pants. (and having a body that could wear them.)
The baja (which I've confirmed for those of you who never "made it" there--and I mean that literally--that this was Morgantown's Mullholland Drive. My own memory is of skulking through (with headlights out) in a car-load full of girls peeking to see who was there with whom and then trying to figure out why no one asked us).
Swilling Boones Farm at the football games...and Southern Comfort after the games.
The mandatory trip to Pizzeria Italia after the game. (Well, there was our problem; we were at Giovanni's...drinking Tab.)
The Circus, the Fox,
2001, Ruf Stone (pitchers were 50 cents), Pizza
Inn, the Castle,
the Blue Tic, the Fishbowl. (Again, I was obviously
at the wrong circus.)
Spending more time at the Mountainlair than the university students.
Stealing gas to cruise--oil embargo; no other way.
The Laredo machine (for those special cigarettes).
The green Toyota, the Superbird, the Charger, and of course the silver Buick. (I was in Kenna's pink Rambler...followed up by her switch to the green Hornet.)
Fake birth certificates, followed by first porno flick. (Swearing no man would ever do THAT to me!)
Fake ID's ( a sharp knife and glue).
Fights at Borden Burger. (Could any of these been prompted by sharp knives and glue?)
Ponderosa Ponds weekends. (Was I the ONLY person who didn't know about this Ponderosa Ponds?!)
Eating at McDonalds and drinking orange vodka ( I bet no one can do it now.) (I bet those of you who have kids wish McDonalds served vodka.)
The county graveyard (for those special dates). (And I thought MY social life was dead.)
The girls of "76." (Ah, so it wasn't St. Francis...)
Debate class (evenings at coach's). We HAD a debate team?
County league basketball ( the "golden bullets"-- the worst of the worst).
European history class (the fall of a president).
Gordon Street. ('Splain Ricky?!)
The Led Zeppelin concert ("I can't remember a damn thing except the dome opening and losing the green Toyota.")
WPEZ
Planting corn in the football field.
Kill ball....escape from kill ball.
Bottle rockets.
Locker mates.
Cruising with 2 guys, 3 girls, and a six-pack of Bud on a Friday night. (Cruising with 3 girls, looking for 3 guys, hoping not to get hit on by anyone named "Bud.")
The following memories were provided by Andy (Ice) Horton, again with editorial comments. See if you remember...
The undefeated basketball team that took us to the semi-finals of the states. (I'll never forget the way Kevin Claudio fell to his knees as we were losing the last game in Charleston.)
The 9-1 football team, the one loss coming in the first game at Buckhannon.
Lunch at Gene's or Cobun Ave. Confectionery or wherever. (Anything to avoid the horrible odors in the cafeteria.)
Guys that cruised the school in their pumped-up hot rods. (Called "hoopies" by some and "gearheads" by others.)
Guys that hung out on the Key Club (or was it Hi-Y?) wall.
Those who hung out in the "smoke hole."
Guys (and girls?) that hung out for too long in their cars in the morning. Were those just cigs they were smoking?
The guys from St. Francis and how cute we thought they were. (And were the St. Francis girls thought of the same way by MHS guys?)
Parties at the old Weirton Mine, where they found the bodies, but not the heads!
Parties at Ponderosa Ponds, and STREAKERS--there as well as other places, like on the campus of WVU and showing their "shortcomings" on the Academy Awards.)
Not knowing that all these parties were going on, and instead sitting in your best friends' bedrooms wondering why no one was asking you out. (And if you were our soul-mate guys, were you sitting in your best friends' basements wondering if so-and-so would go out with you if you asked?)
Fashion. Short skirts, then long skirts; long, straight hair (guys and girls,) or the exact opposite "fros"--picture Paul Roberts, and think "Mike Brady" and "Linc"--; blue (and I mean blue!) eye shadow; green or navy finger nails; platform shoes and clogs; halter tops; polyester shirts and pants; and plaid, bell-bottom pants. (Have you checked out our yearbook lately? I'm surprised the cover wasn't done in plaid!) Now, look at your kids and see how many of the same things they're wearing today.
Music. Led Zeppelin, Doobie Brothers, James Taylor, Rod Stewart, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Three Dog Night, America, and my favorite the Eagles.
World events. The resignation of the President; the end of the Vietnam War.
Favorite teachers. Mary Petropolus, Darrell Asbury, Mr. Straight, Mr. Weber, etc.
Mr. Hart, Mr. Jenkins, and Mr. Ryan "cruising" the halls.
The "Sophomore Alley" of lockers.
Let us know if you have additional memories you'd like to add.
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This page was last updated on 06/16/05.