It's kind of weird because I went to high school there but my parents moved away when I was a senior in college, so now I really have no occasion to go back except for something like a reunion or the occasional wedding.
Anyway, figured I'd share a few pictures from the trip that I hadn't shared earlier.
Notable:
We were surprised at times how beautiful the hills of Kansas were, though these photos really don't capture it at all!:
I don't know how to feel about this. My high school was not in a particularly wealthy suburb, but it wasn't bad. But the area has been hit hard by meth and it's really gone downhill. We lived in one of the nicest subdivisions, but even that has gone down a lot. Most telling of all -- there is now a daycare center in my former high school for babies AND TODDLERS of students. Wow. I suppose it's much better than kids dropping out, but it just shocked me:
Here is the cafeteria, the site of so much of my own teenaged angst:
Our high school gym, the site of more angst (though I did play tennis and certainly others had more angst here than I did):
The classroom that changed my life. It looks like a special needs class in some ways, but it's the debate and forensics room:
An explanation of the 4 kinds of debate that are now offered. "Back in the day" when I was in high school, the only two choices were policy debate (which I did) (a team of two against another team of two creating or attacking a plan based on a single topic that is the year's resolution) and Lincoln-Douglas debate (one v. one debate on more of a moral issue, not using evidence or cites, more persuasive):
The stage in the school's theater was filled with pallets of books since school was just starting, but all the people on our tour who were theater people were very excited to see the theater, even filled with books:
In the hallway, there are little collages of the several theater productions done each year in the past. Sound of Music, Tartuffe, Music Man and others were ones I remembered. I auditioned for Sound of Music but didn't get a part, but I worked behind the scenes on that one.
Our old house, where we lived when I was in 6th grade until 11th grade, then we moved to the house we built that was out of district, but since it was nearby and I was a good student with my own car, I was allowed to keep attending the same school. My room was over the garage, with a window on the side of the house, and a skylight in the bathroom on the back of the house:
The site of my very first kiss:
Driving home, crossing into Kansas:
Welcome to Kansas:
Welcome to Oklahoma:
And finally, welcome to Texas:
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