Going to high school in the mid-1970s in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Last year I decided that I would try to jog my memory of my high school days in Minneapolis in the mid-1970s, with the help of a good friend of mine whose memory is much better than mine. There really was no point to this other than my own edification and entertainment, and we did make some progress, some of which I'd like to share with you here, if you're curious about how things were "back in the day".

I also had a video, which I've long since lost, from which I took some still pics simply by taking a picture of my TV (not the best quality!). And so that's me up there. Looks like I was in the library with another friend of mine, who shall remain unnamed. This is the internet, after all!

Steep hill on 50th, less steep hill on Bloomington

Although Minneapolis is in the middle of a miles and miles of open prairie, Washburn High School was up on a hill. And since I lived on a hill, just north of the Minnehaha Parkway, I had to walk up and down both hills on my way to and from school. So, yes, I walked uphill through the snow, both ways. In the winter my friends and I walked, and when the weather warmed up to melt the snow, I rode my bike. The hill up towards Washburn was brutal on a bike, and I don't miss it. The hill from the parkway wasn't that bad.

It was quite a distance for me, and my friends and I would often walk backwards the whole way to school, against the bitterly cold wind. And if you're wondering if there was a bus, yes there was, and it stopped right right in front of my house. Unfortunately, the one time I rode on it I could barely breathe, the cigarette smoke was so thick, and when I mentioned it to my parents they simply said, "Smoking isn't allowed on a school bus", and that was the end of it. Apparently they didn't believe me. I wonder if Minneapolis ever got that under control? Hopefully. This was the seventies after all, and a LOT of people smoked, and smoking in schools was so common that "Smokin' in the Boy's Room" was a hit song in 1973. I wasn't a smoker, so it didn't appeal to me.

I graduated in 1976, which was the last year of men's gymnastics in the school district. Apparently the lawsuits were getting kinda scary, and they pulled the plug on such a dangerous sport. Personally, I would have considered football to be more dangerous, but no one asked me. By the way, I was the proud captain of the Washburn gymnastics team in 1975 and 1976, and we had a perfect record: we lost every one of our meets. Every one of them!

Speaking for myself, I was never one of the "brainiacs" of the school (I had friends who were!), but I did OK, and took the college prep classes. No one ever talked to us about college, and there were no tests on graduation, we just took our high school diplomas and wandered off. I went to North Hennepin Junior College, up in Osseo, for a semester and then moved to Phoenix, where I finished up my Bachelor's at ASU. 

Because I did the cartoon illustrations for the yearbook for two years I got copies of those, which I still have, and occasionally I page through for a sentimental journey. I scanned in some pics, so here ya go. Good old Washburn! This is all from 1975 and 1976. Millers, Millers, mighty, mighty Millers!







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