No yearbook in my high school - it was a half-assed high school, and more than half my class had either been kicked out of another school, or had left for one reason or another. The school year ended when most of the Seniors (including yours truly) had been told to leave school in the late spring, and return only for the matriculation exams, No graduation ceremony, either. Something about a ditch day, during which we all took the bus or hitched to the beach on a beautiful spring day, in a residential high school. Thank god for matriculation exams, which meant that no university even cared which high school I attended, or whether I even attended high school at all…
It also meant that we had no school newspaper or anybody taking any photos at all, and nobody actually had a camera of their own that they brought to school, so no incriminating photos exist (thank the Gods)…
I doubt there’s much in my high school yearbook, though I might pull it out in a day or two to check. I know I occasionally use it to try to remember who “John” was when I get reminded there was such a fellow in my class.
However, my college freshman year yearbook had a fair scandal even at the time when someone - not sure they ever identified who - changed many of the captions for the Corps of Cadets and made them WWII references. I cut out the school newspaper article about it and tucked it in there just in case anyone later looking at it went WTH??? Now I’m wondering what would happen if any of those folks had the pics pop up without the explanation later - or even if the explanation would be believed in spite of it being in print.
I never bought later college yearbooks so I’ve no idea what’s in those. I think after freshman year I realized how much I didn’t actually look at it plus I wasn’t exactly a wealthy college student so there were more attractive things to spend my money on.
In the yearbook for my senior year of HS, there is a page devoted to the “Stadium Club.” The smokers - both students and teachers - went out to the football stadium to smoke, so we all referred to them as members of the Stadium Club. There were so many of us back then (peak of the baby boom) and things were much more lax.
I chaperoned overnight HS trips when my kids were in HS…super strict rules about no folks of the opposite sex in the room, bedtime, etc.
We boomers, on the other hand, had close to zero supervision and pretty much the only rule was to be on the bus at the designated time. One kid - president of the senior class - went home for the night with a college girl and missed the bus. That was a genuine scandal. But I don’t think the teachers on the trip got in trouble for it at all.
Did any of you with nothing offensive in your yearbook go to school in the 1970s? I graduated hs in 1980 and I haven’t looked, and I wouldn’t personally have much of a presence in the yearbook (shy and nerdy), but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there were “offensive/racist/sexist” pictures or statements in my yearbooks. Just it being the era of Saturday Night Live and similar amusements, basically what was popularly considered funny then particularly stereotyping and mocking those who are different than you. Also the idea that a yearbook from your hs would ever be seen beyond the people who went to your hs and possibly if you were unlucky your parents was unfathomable then. I’ve worked in a university archives and seen things in yearbooks and the student newspaper into the 1980s, and probably beyond, that I’m sure many of the student connected with would be horrified if they looked back at them today. Think of how today we warn kids repeatedly about not putting something stupid on social media, and yet kids do. We were no better back then and didn’t have any caution, or thought about anything projecting beyond our limited environment. It’s really an interesting phenomenon.
I went to school in the 70’s, and there is nothing racist in my yearbooks. There is nothing interesting in my yearbooks, either. There are pictures of students, teams, and the “cool kids” (so none of me) - nothing wild. I went to school with Madonna, so that probably makes my sophomore yearbook collectible, but other than that … nothing to see here, folks.
My college yearbooks could be another story - small engineering school, lots of pictures of people drinking. I’d have to look, but I don’t think there is anything that could really get someone in trouble. But then again, when I watch old tv shows and movies, I see things that make me cringe now … and I don’t think anyone batted an eye back in my youth. So who knows.
All I know is, I would never run for office. I may not have skeletons in my yearbook, but I have done a thing or two over the years that I would not want trotted out for the world to see.
However, high school yearbooks tend to be done under teacher supervision, and the teachers may be significantly more restraining in terms of things that may be offensive or even just edgy by the standards of the time and place, compared to social media where people often post instantly without thinking twice. For example, it is unlikely that a yearbook teacher in Baraboo High School would have approved putting the photos in https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/11/12/nazi-salute-baraboo-high-school-boys-wisconsin/1975695002/ in the yearbook.
College or college student organization yearbooks would not be as externally restrained, though the slower pace of production compared to social media posting may cause some people to think twice.
But something that is seen as offensive or undesirable today may have crept in to a yearbook published decades ago because the standards of such have changed since then (e.g. the smokers’ club mentioned in #43).
I graduated in 1973 and there is nothing racist in the yearbook. There are pictures of both the cool kids and the nerds. There’s a picture of me in dance class - the only one whose foot is flexed instead of pointed. If someone looked at my personal copy, one of my friends put devil horns on the photo of the headmistress.
All that said, I’m pretty sure that I have worn a costume or two at a Halloween party that I would not wear now.
My HS had a “slave auction” as a fundraiser for student government or prom or something. Kids could volunteer to be auctioned off as someone’s slave for a day. No racial pix or connotations, except, of course, for the name. I hated the idea and the event, even in the 70s.
What a careful observer of my HS yearbook would notice is the almost totally white student body, given that it was a public school in a town adjacent to a city that was almost exclusively African American. The neighborhoods were extremely segregated, the realtors definitely redlined neighborhoods and there was egregious housing discrimination, many DWBs given by the police.
@“Snowball City” I hope the dudes matured. Teens tend to be a product of how they are raised (parents and others around them). They’re only starting to get their own ideas at that age. There’s no way I’d judge anyone decades later based upon their young life. It’s really no different than judging a grade school student for doing dumb young kid stuff.
Heck, I know some of my views about life have changed in the past two decades. My own kids (youngest is 23) have told me that what I believe now about some things isn’t what I believed when they were younger and they’re correct. One is supposed to modify their views as they make laps around the sun and learn more. Fortunately I was raised well when it comes to racism. H had the most racist parents I’ve met IRL. To call him racist now is 100% incorrect, but he can’t help where the birth lottery put him or the two decades of falsehoods he was ingrained with. Our world is better now because folks like him have broken family cycles. I’d be infuriated if anyone judged him based upon his high school years and assumed that’s who he is now.
It’s those who had laps and are still racist/sexist/prejudiced in any way who disgust me. I’d like to think all are intelligent and can use reasoning to figure things out. I tell the students at my high school I hope their generation can fix the wrongs of those who have gone before them, but some of them also have less than stellar parents giving them their foundation. We have to hope there are other influences that can show them reality and that their minds are open to change.
All I know is some of the kids who I truly disliked in HS who I labeled bullies and sometimes worse appear to have grown up to be fine adults with families and become assets to their communities. People grow and change. Fortunately.
@Creekland I couldn’t agree more. I was raised in much the same situation as your husband, and like him. I have broken the cycle. My wife, on the other hand, was raised in a 100% NOT racist household and has been instrumental in some of the changes I have made to break the cycle. That said, when she was in college (about the same time as the yearbook picture that started this discussion) she dressed as Stevie Wonder for Halloween, complete with darkened skin. I have seen the pictures and the likeness was incredible and at the time no one mentioned it or said a thing, it was such a good costume I’m sure very few people knew it was not only a female but a white female. Racism/blackface was the furthest thing from her mind and based on her upbringing was not even a thought, it was somewhat of a tribute to an artist she admired.
In the last 30 years this costume has rarely, if ever been brought up, it was one night for a 19 year old, that is until this week. She is horrified that these pictures could come back to haunt her, all these years later, viewed through the current lens with no situational context. I have found it ironic that given our very different upbringings she is the one with the racist “skeleton in the closet”. I am sure this weekend will be spent going through old photos to make sure those pictures never again see the light of day. That said, I am sure there are copies floating around that friends or others took that could someday come out. Good thing she is not running for office any time soon but as an educator in a very diverse school system the ramifications could be career ending.
I was part of the yearbook staff (sports) for a year or two in Junior High. I had fun with the crowd shots. If a shot included someone I liked (mainly girls) and was flattering, I’d include it in the layout. If a shot contained someone I didn’t like and was unflattering (e.g. eyes half open), I’d include that too. Bonus points for including their name in the caption so that it would be indexed and they could easily find it!
