I stayed home sick Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday, I was over my cold, but the aftermath had settled right into my vocal chords, leaving me pretty much unable to talk. I felt fine, but it does raise the question of how somebody calls in sick if they have severe laryngitis. Alex, of course, took advantage of the situation, by telling other people I had been taken prisoner by a primitive tribe while on vacation and had my tongue cut out. I responded by sticking out my tongue at him. It's so nice to see that we can be so mature at work.
At any rate, all of that reminded me that there are more fun ways to get laryngitis. When I was in high school, we'd inevitably scream ourselves hoarse at things like concerts and baseball games. I suspect parents and teachers thought that was a good thing. Our teachers could certainly always look forward to some quiet on the Monday after that annual event known as Class Night.
Class Night was held on a Friday night in the spring, but the build up to it kept West Hempstead High School busy for several weeks beforehand. The basic event was a competition between the classes. Every class chose a theme and had to make costumes, decorate part of the school, and write songs around that theme. There were sports events, some of which I think were held during the week before Class Night itself. Several of the events were on that night, though. I think everybody competed in the tug of war, for example, and I know there were various races held on that night. I was always on the team for an event called "the brain race." I remember the team consisted of four people, but I don't remember all of the actual competitions. I know one year had something to do with a crossword puzzle and another had us assemble a compass on the gym floor, but I can't remember anything about the other two years.
I should say something about the themes, too. The idea was to select a theme that lent itself well to costumes and decorations. Our freshman year, we did Hawaii, and everybody wore leis and grass skirts. Sophomore year was the peak of 1950's nostalgia and we had poodle skirts. (The costumes were always done large, with drawstring waists, and handed out last minute.) Our junior year theme was Disney on Parade, with Mickey Mouse ears (and t-shirts) for everyone. The Class of 1976 went all out on an America theme (Spirit of '76) for our senior year. I actually still have my three-cornered hat. I don't remember much about decorations, though I seem to think we painted part of the breezeway that connected the north and south buildings of the school.
I do remember bits and pieces of our songs. Part of the idea was to have the song fit the theme, too. There was usually some part in the lyrics which involved mocking the themes the other classes had chosen. Our sophomore song was to the tune of "Rockin' Robin" and started out:
We're the sophomores, we can't be beat
All the other classes we will defeat
They will try to put us to the test
But in the end you'll see that we're the best.
We're the sophs (snap, snap, snap)
We're the sophs (snap, snap, snap)
We're the sophs and we're really gonna win tonight.
The junior year song was to the tune of "I Won't Grow Up" and, aside from that getting turned into "We Won't Give Up" I remember mercifully little of it. Our lyric writing clearly never altered much over the years, as the opening of our senior year version of "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" proves:
We're the Yankee Doodle seniors
We will win Class Night tonight
Aside from things like the song, which everybody participated in (with emphasis on volume over musical qualities), and the brain race, the other event I was always involved in was the class skit. Again, mockery of the themes the other classes had selected played a role, and one year had me as Ginger Rogers (the 1920's was the senior class's theme) dancing a tango with Roger, dressed as Tarzan (the freshmen having chosen "The Jungle" as their theme). My really notorious skit performance, though, had nothing to do with the actual skit but was a sort of television commercial in the middle of it. I did a parody of an actual shampoo ad of the time, dancing in and singing "Halo everybody, Halo." I went on to explain that "I wash my hair three times a day with Halo shampoo, and just feel how soft it is." That led me to brush off the wig I was wearing, revealing a bald wig. It got a great laugh and for weeks afterwards, other kids came up to me at school and sang "Halo everbody, Halo." The stupid part of this is that I cannot for the life of me remember whether this was junior or senior year.
Anyway, each event had some point score. The athletic competitions (and things like the brain race) were straightforward, with each class getting some number of points determined by their placement in the event. But things like costumes, decorations, song, skit, and spirit were more subjective and there was general belief that the judges manipulated these so that the seniors won, the juniors placed second, and so on. There had been some exceptions over the years, but they were rare. Spirit was definitely a subjective category and our theory was that volume was the key to looking spirited. So we shouted out our song and we cheered our class on at the top of our lungs. The inevitable result may have been laryngitis, but we enjoyed the process of getting it.
Copyright 2004 Miriam H. Nadel