Eastern York High School. 1974
Dusting off memories
I think I have this photo somewhere, but this is a photo of the photo posted by one of my classmates to FB. This is the story of Wacky Day.
The brainchild of Wacky Day was Sharon Seiler, my seventh grade English teacher. Upon reflection, she really had a lot of impact on my first year in junior high school. When the USA was still using a 6-3-3 system (elementary, junior high, senior high), and with my high school being a combined junior and senior high, going to school up on the hill with all those "big kids" was extremely daunting. I have to credit Mrs Seiler as helping us break through some of that early adolescent angst and helping us feel more comfortable. I also think the teachers were slowly trying to teach us organizing skills for later in life. We young Americans had a life ahead of community fund-raising! You think all those fire halls just spring out of the earth?
I am guessing we needed to raise money for something - most likely a dance. Upon reflection, a lot of my high school memories are about raising money for things. I look back on it now strangely, actually. We had a free education, yet we had to raise money for anything "extra". In effect, we subsidized all our own extracurricular events. We paid for our own fun. I don't think I ever thought about it in those terms before. Useful skills were learned, but looking back, it does seem an odd system to put 12 and 13 year olds in charge of raising cash so they would have enough money to pay a DJ, get a security guard, have some snacks and decorations, and so on just so they could hold a "dance" (which also charged admission!) That was the system, however. They wanted to get us started early as little income earners!
My recollection has me and TS brainstorming with Mrs Seiler during a study hall or a break about how to make cash. She suggested a "Wacky Day" which I believe is something they tried at Millersville College (it was not a university yet) in order to raise money. The more she explained it to us, the more it seemed possible. Declare a "Wacky Day" and sell tickets that gave permission for students to come dressed ridiculously. She pushed us, but definitely we, the students, made it happen. Heaven only knows what I was thinking in that photo! I was a pregnant South Sea islander perhaps? At any rate, Wacky Day was a success. We sold a lot of tickets, and I guess we had our "dance" or whatever. It does remain a very happy memory of the seventh grade and maybe the breakthrough moment of "joining" the big kids at Eastern York Junior Senior High School.