Though I lived across the tracks from Wasson High School for a couple years as a grade-schooler and later spent three years there (1971-'74), the view of Wasson that Phil was kind enough to post to his Web site is one I seldom saw. I was always coming at it from the other side, from the east. I'd wander down Brady Boulevard, cross Circle Drive, amble along Patrician Way and, finally, cut through the north gate and the athletic fields/tennis courts before passing through the door behind the cafeteria. And there I was -- my home away from home.
And it was very much a feeling of home. I had two older brothers who already had graduated from the school (my younger brother was destined to do so, too), and there were numerous other baby boomer kids at Wasson who found themselves in the same boat -- it was almost like one big, extended family, even if you couldn't exactly remember everyone's name.
For the longest time, the Springs had only one public high school (Colorado Springs High School, later Palmer High). When Wasson was built in 1959, it was viewed as the "new" school in town, and the School on the Hill. As a result of this lofty view of it, the school carried a certain cachet as a school for "rich" kids. I always thought that was funny, considering my family's limited means. As I came to learn, others felt the same way about it. Turns out it was a PUBLIC school, with kids from every class -- some rich, some poor, most of us somewhere in the middle.
Though the school was pretty white-bread, there were a few Hispanics and a smattering of blacks. Seems to me each group usually kept to itself, but not always. When we did mingle, we seemed to enjoy each other, and members of each group contributed in big ways to the school and the esprit d'corps.
And there definitely were cliques: the dorks, the jocks, the cowboys, etc., each with its preferred hangout spot on the school grounds.
I was a hyphenate: a dork-jock. (There are some who would say these terms just naturally go together. But this was not, generally speaking, to be my experience.) For the most part, I really liked my studies, but I was also a big fan of the Thunderbird football program, which was a perennial power under head coach Dick Westbay and had just won the state championship the year before I entered the school. So, even in ninth grade, I found myself gravitating to the athletic department ...
