80s Day at JMS
As I've mentioned previously, the kids at my little suburban middle school in southwest Washington state have embraced the 1980s as "cool." Yesterday was our first ASB spirit day of the year, and the kids chose "80s Day" as the theme. (Our song playlist for our pep assembly included "Rock Lobster," "Whip It," "Everybody Have Fun Tonight," "The Safety Dance," and, yes, "Valley Girl" (all of which, and I mean all, my 8th grade ASB kids knew all the words to).
8th grade lunch
Check out the photo above - this was taken during 8th grade lunch. Note the fact that the photo is all girls - in middle school, most boys are too cool (read: frightened) to dress up any differently than they do every single day. Not so for the girls. Check out all the Madonnaesque hair bows, the side ponytails, the one hairband (let's hear it for 1982!) and all those bright, bright colors! (Granted, some of them didn't quite get it, but I'm sure we did the same thing to 1950s fashions during our Rockabilly revival in the early 80s).
It really was a fun, fun day. I myself got into it - I modeled my outfit after Bender's in The Breakfast Club - Levi's 501's (legs pegged, of course), black hi-top Chuck Taylors, white t-shirt, plaid flannel shirt, Levi's jacket with vintage buttons and patches all over it, and mesh workout gloves. I walked into the ASB meeting yesterday morning and my whole crew yelled, "BENDER!!!" :o)
My fourth period class
posted by scooter @ 6:34 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
This is so fun. They did a great job of getting the flavor -- especially the girl with the collar cut out of her sweatshirt and tank top underneath. Do any of them have leg warmers and the ubiquitous barbie-blue eyeshadow?
Oh, yes, there's at least one pair of leg warmers in the photo (I can't remember which kid had them on), and simply scads of excessive eyeshadow and other makeup. Most, if not all, of the girls in the 8th grade now hardly wear any makeup at all - in fact, I didn't even recognize one of my kids, Becky, as we were getting set up for that shot outside my room. I kept on asking the kids to "go get Becky! We have to take the picture!" And I finally hear, "Duh, Mr. Rainey, I'm RIGHT HERE!" Dead center of the group. Duh.
Hey bro, I don't mean to be cruel, and I say this with love, but that Bender look's not quite making it with your physical presence and persona. Dontcha think you're a little more of a "Brian"? (Anthony Michael Hall?)
just a quick observation... Where do you live again!!?? I mean is it in "cut off to the world" land?... Not a singal ounce of color... Every kid is of the white persuation... man oh man... interesting...
Yeah, Tim, you're right...our percentage of African-American students is something like .06% districtwide. Out of about 450 kids, I believe there are two black kids in my whole school. But, we *do* have a native Israeli and a girl who just moved from the Philippines, though. Go figure.
Dude, this looks like so much fun. Though I'll never see an 80's day down here. Sigh. I'm going to go look in the garage for my vintage 1984 Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future denim jacket!
BTW, teacher to teacher, if you haven't already, you might want to look into the legal ramifications in your district of posting student images on a website. You might already have had them sign off on a waiver, but I know here in Cali it is a big deal. Peace.
hmm funny you mention black... where I work live it is asian or latino... black too is a rarity... in fact I think the factor at my work is 4% Black, 2% Wite, the rest are Asian and Latino...
Scott,
dude, you actually did dress like that in the 80's. I look at your picture and think....yeah, read hyundai, little caesar's pizza, diet cokes, I remember those clothes.
And being bender is about how one feels on the inside. When I saw that movie he was the guy I most related to, he was soooo angry. But I was always a good kid. A friend of mine said I reminded him estevez's father-enmeshed wrestler (I really did do everything people told me to do); yeah, but really I was anthony hall's tortured geek character, though I underachieved. Or maybe closer, the depressed goth girl, though I didn't dress like that as a teenager.
But that's the point of the movie: we all have all of those characters inside us. Doesn't hall say this at the end?
I'm still with you. Bring back bender. He rules.
t
uh... scooter? i thought you said that you "got into it" yourself? why didn't you dress up, man? i mean, pegged jeans, chuckie-t's and a flannel? that's what you were wearing the last time i saw you! what gives, you party pooper?
maybe you should have worn that black 'n' white checkered suit-thing you used to have. you could have been all mod-like and scanked with the madness jammin' in the background.
just kiddin', dude! looks like you had fun!
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