I found the photographs from the Kearns High 15 Year Reunion for the class of 1987. We had the reunion back in 2002. Dawni, Penny and I organized it and I found a folder full of photos when I looking through my old stuff. I uploaded them to Flicker:

• Kearns High 15 Year Reunion – a photoset on Flickr

I can’t believe we are heading into the twentieth year this summer. I wonder who is going to organize the 20 Year Reunion. It sure isn’t going to be me…

A couple of people have found me because they were looking for old friends. They were looking for Sceverenia, found my blog and emailed me about her. That’s cool, I forwarded on the emails to her and she’s so nice that she responded to both of them.

Because of all this, I looked on Flickr to see what they had as far as pictures for Kearns High School. Here are some of my favorites:

Home Of The Cougars by williams.mark48 from Flickr

That soaring cougar is just so 1976. I’m glad that it has survived as long as it has. I love the green and gold swoop under the cougar. Seeing this photo just filled me with all the old school pride.

Kearns High lockers by Hailey Baker from Flickr

Every year, I had a green locker. I never really envied the yellow lockers, but this photo looks so pretty I wish I could feel nostalgic about it. I still have vivid dreams about forgetting the location and what the combination of my locker is. Will it ever go away?

kearns high school crest by emmanuel trujillo from Flickr

Don’t step on it or the Seniors with make you clean it with your tongue!

Whats up at Kearns High? Nothing. by erinb.tulips from Flickr

Past, present or future, it’s nice to know that those SAME desks are still there. Those were the perfect desks. I could lean my back over the edge of the chair and it would pop my shoulder right into place. It has taken me twenty years to find a replacement for those perfect desks.

landscapes/ back of kearns high by larissa L from Flickr

This photo reminded me of a picture I took back in 1985 of the same part of Kearns High School. I took it with my beloved 110 camera that my grandma gave me when I was in fifth grade. I cleaned it up a little, but it looks pretty good.

Sunrise at Kearns 1985 by Laura Moncur from Flickr

Okay, I’m done with nostalgia for now. I think I should spend some time and get all my photos scanned. It would be nice to have them all there at my fingertips… err… hard drive.

Discarded Honor by Laura Moncur from Flickr

I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a valedictorian medal at Thrift Town. Jessica L. Eriksson graduated valedictorian from Viewmont High School in 2005 and just gave her medal away to a thrift shop. It made my heart ache to see it there.

When I think of how hard I worked to get as far as I did, it makes me sick to see it. Our school was so competitive that a 3.96 GPA wasn’t good enough. Neither was a 4.0. You had to take all the AP courses that were weighted and still we had two people with a GPA over 4.1. Suzanne Clark and Aracelli Rojas were our valedictorians at Kearns High in 1987. I wonder if they got a nice medal this shiny and clean with their names engraved on the back?

Two bucks. That’s what it cost me to buy a valedictorian medal. Is it just easier now? Did Jessica not care about it? Did it somehow get lost with the old clothes and end up at Thrift Town on accident? If it had been me, there would have been no mistakes. That thing would have been framed and mounted on the wall. There would have been no way for me to lose that accolade.

Jessica, I see you won fourth place in the State Finals for the FBLA in Accounting in 2005:

• FBLA STATE CONFERENCE WINNERS 2005: Who’s Who in FBLA

I also noticed you ran the 5K in 27 minutes and 38 seconds in October of 2004.

• 5A JV Girls 5K Results

You finished in 64th place. Is that good? Is that bad? You beat my best 5K time by three minutes. Three minutes and 0.3 GPA points. That’s the difference between a winner and a loser in these little races of human competition, but how fast do I need to run in the race of life?

Jessica, if you want your valedictorian medal back, you can’t have it. I’m pretending it’s mine now.

After a tour of the school, we’re sitting in the cafeteria. Mr. Treseder is still teaching in the television lab. I found my old locker. They took out the senior bench. The ramp has a huge sign that says, “No Loitering.” The current SBOs say that there are no longer cowboys to sit on the ramp.

I couldn’t help but think of Calvin when they showed us the gorgeous baseball stadium.

I’m glad that we came. I remember dancing with Brian Ard in this cafeteria at a stomp. It’s like I can see ghosts everywhere.

At the reunion last week, they took us on a tour of Kearns High. The first part of the tour was through the auditorium. The school got all new seats and the tour guide was pretty proud of it. She walked us through the dark auditorium. I remember thinking to myself, “She’s not going to turn on the lights? Someone’s going to trip over something in this dark.”

I realized that this was a negative thought and reassured myself that we would be just fine. There was light from the doors leading to the hallways and we had been in the sweltering heat of the auditorium for so long that surely our eyes had adjusted. Just when I neared the end of the trek through the dark auditorium, I felt like I had been worrying for nothing. I could see by the light of the door leading out and we were almost there. I felt stupid for worrying about tripping in the dark and scolded myself for not thinking positively.

Then I tripped on the seam between the floor and the orchestra pit.

As Mike gently picked me up from the floor, I thought to myself, “So much for positive thinking.”

Here is the Kearns High 1987 Video Yearbook. There are only about 1500 people in the world who care about this, but I thought I’d post it here for them to see.

Download this video for your iPod

At the 14:20 mark, you can see me selling Kearn High Towels. I don’t know why they thought those little towels would be better than t-shirts, but we sold an awful lot of them. I still have one stored in my basement. I really need to do something about my hoarding instincts.

P.S. If you look really closely, you can see me wearing my Sir Swatch, complete with the old school Swatch Guard.

Back in November, Maka sent me a CD with the photos and the biographies from the last Kearns High School Reunion.

You can download them here:

• Kearns High School 20 Year Reunion Photos: Powerpoint document – Right click and choose “Save As…” to save this on to your computer.

• Kearns High School 20 Year Reunion Bios: Word Document – Right click and choose “Save As…” to save this on to your computer.

• Kearns High School Memory Lane: Powerpoint document – Right click and choose “Save As…” to save this on to your computer.

To view these documents, you need Microsoft Office or Open Office.

• Download OpenOffice.org for free

There is also a bunch of photos on Flickr from the reunion taken by Catrina Crofts Leffel:

• Kearns High School 20 Year Reunion Photos on Flickr

It was a lot of fun to look through these photos and see how much people have changed (and stayed the same). Sometimes I forget how great it can be to be nostalgic.