Thinking Back to Willcox High

I went to Willcox High and Middle School in Willcox Arizona... Today I was thinking about my high school experience... Most was good, but there were some things based on society today that would have been barbaric...



What got me thinking about this is the bullying that is going on and how much this has gotten out of control. Parents are threatening students, other parents, suicidal teens and other things... Maybe we are just paying attention to all of this and thinking times are worse now because it's on the news.

One of the instances I was thinking about was in Willcox High... It was my freshman year and I was so looking forward to high school... All my friends were excited as well...

But the way it went back then and this is in 1979. We use to have what was called slave days... Each freshman was put up for sale or auction and upper class man would bid on you... I was stressing over this whole thing... Then the upper class man can basically tell you what to do and how to dress for the entire day... I was very happy that I got bought by a good friend of mine... So I had a pretty easy day and he was pretty awesome... But not everyone was as fortunate as I was... You would see freshman paraded around in diapers, being treated like dogs and all kinds of horrible things. And if you didn't get bought then you would have to take place in initiation day... Which was a whole other horror for those who wasn't a slave to anyone else...

On initiation day the entire school would have an assembly and those who never got purchased on slave day were called to the middle of the gymnasium and was told what they would have to do in front of the entire school... What got me is that even the principle, teachers and school body thought this was OK and seen nothing wrong with it... I felt so bad for them and then when I heard the names being called forward were good friends of mine... My friends Mary and Curtis was called to the middle of the school gym... They made my friend Mary dress up as a dog and she had to lap water from a water bowl on her hands and knees... I can't remember what they made Curtis do. But there was this other kid that they tied a rope on his gym shorts and had him climb a rope till his pants feel down... Thankfully he had something under his gym shorts. These things went on for sometime and I think out of everything in high school this is what I remember the most... I had friends that were popular and non popular, and I felt really bad for the kids that was not popular... They must have dreaded coming to school...

I don't know where my high school friends are now, but I wonder what they took away from this horrible experience... If I felt bad for them and this many years later, it is still in my memory... I can only imagine what they felt... They were in tears after that, humiliated in front of all the school and nobody did a thing to stop it... It reminds me of something out of Carrie, where all she could hear was them laughing at her. I am sure they no longer do this at Willcox High and if they did, it would be on CNN...

There were some good times, mostly with my church friends and such... I will always remember my 8th grade English teacher Mr. Nelson, who made us listen to Sounds of Silence all year long and figure out what the meaning of it was... I still listen to that song and love it...

Some of the things I remember the most, is Bible Study at the little church across from the school, going to eat Hot Pickles at Rays Market, hitting the El Taco for Green Chili Burritos and anticipating the opening of the very first and still only McDonald's, Cruising and Carters, Tastee Freeze Painting the W, track and field, basketball, Rex Allen Days, and more...

Basically I think that the slave days and initiation days were what set the tone for me in high school and I can only imagine how the others felt that got so humiliated... Wonder who ever thought that humiliation would be a fun activity in front of the entire school...