BHS IN THE 70s
Collette Jackson
Class of 1970
“We did a lot of horrible things [in high school]. One of the things that was mean — and we weren’t trying to be mean, we were just trying to be stupid…Mrs. Flecky was the Latin teacher, she was in the basement. Those rooms had a door on them that had a closet. She would always go at five minutes before the bell was going to ring to the lunchroom to get her lunch, and she’d bring it back and put it in that little cupboard. So while she was gone getting her lunch, we took the hinges off the door, so when she came in and tried to put her lunch in the closet, the door fell on her. We didn’t expect it, we weren’t trying to be mean. Yeah, it was horrible. She didn’t get hurt or anything, but yeah her lunch went all over her.”
Jim Howell
Class of 1971
"I was Vice President of Thespians [drama club]. So [one day] I've gotta go build a stage for a play, or something. So I was going down the hall, and a friend of mine had got caught fighting, at noon. The principal was, you know, giving him [a talking to]. And so I saw a fire extinguisher there, you know -- the water kind that you turn upside down and they spray after you turn them upside down? I wasn't thinking, [but] I just picked it up and put it in his doorway, and it was spraying in his office and I took off running. I thought I got away with it, you know, and they were announcing over the loudspeaker, 'If anybody [teachers] had a pass during fourth period, to turn in the names.' But the next day, Mr. Standley, who was my senior history teacher -- he was really a good looking guy. He came over, and everybody was supposed to be doing something. He came over to me, put his arm on the back of my shoulder, put his lips by my ear, and he said, 'You know, the funniest thing is, yesterday, during fourth period, I saw someone with black hair running down the hallway.' And I looked up at him, and he said, 'Just between you and me.'"
Diana Nelson
Class of 1977
“[During high school] what we would do is we would actually hitch hike up to Bogus. That was a big thing to do, go to Bogus. We would hitch hike or drive with my dad and my siblings, who also went to Boise High. Sometimes, we didn’t have good snow tires, we would hop out of the car and push it around the corner — and we weren’t the only ones [to do this]. Our dad would go, ‘Get out! Go to the back of the van!’ And if we all got out and pushed we would make it to the top of the hill. And when we got to Bogus we would make ‘Suicides’ — put all the sodas [from the lodge] in one drink. As Boise Braves, a lot of us skied. And if it was sunny out, we would bring our lunches out and sit on the side of the hill and get some sun. We all also would swim at Lucky Peak. In the summer, we’d all swim, and in the winter, we’d all ski. Skiing, that was my sport. Loved it.”
Judy Wong
Class of 1978
“Don’t sweat the small stuff. I wanted everyone to like me, and in high school, no one really cares. And I strived so hard to be a good friend, a good student, a good daughter, a good everything, and — you go off to college and nobody cares where you went in high school. No one cares what your GPA was. They don’t care if you were a shining star. Everyone is kind of level set in college. And I remember people in college saying, ‘Nobody cares!’ In high school it seems like some big deal. Who’s who, who was doing this and that. And it’s such a microcosm, unreality, it’s such a bubble, and it’s so temporary. I wish I had that big picture when I was in high school.“
Pete and Diane went to Boise High and graduated in the same class, but didn't get to know each other until the 10 year high school reunion."I was very shy [in high school], I did a lot of book reading," said Pete.
"We didn't have a relationship in high school," explained Diane, "but we were in a lot of the same classes. I knew him, and that was pretty much the extent of it. He went off to Walla Walla and I went to University of Idaho. We both went to the ten year reunion, and there were about four of us who didn't have kids and who weren't married, that just finished school. There were a small number of us who had just started our careers and we stood there [at the reunion] in a little group staring at all the babies and people who were talking about being divorced, thinking, 'Wow, I haven't even started life yet.' And we hung out together and went on vacations, and when I came home I didn't know anyone so we'd hang out. He'd visit his parents while I was visiting mine, and that was about the extent of it."
Pete Anderson and Diane Soule
Class of 1978
Diane Soule
Class of 1978
“Girls got letters, but only boys got letterman jackets. Because I was a little naive and clueless when it comes to social stuff, I thought, ‘Well, I want a jacket! I wanna wear my B to the games!’ So I went down to Nelson’s School Supply, and I said, ‘I want to order a jacket.’ And they go, ‘What kind?’ And I had all these choices, so I picked one out, and I wore it to school. And they [the boys] were like, ‘You’re supposed to let the school decide the stuff [colors, pattern].’ And I said, ‘Well, I just wanted a jacket. I didn’t know. I don’t need your approval to get a jacket.’ I think after that they [the school] picked a pattern so girls could go down and order. That was just from me being totally clueless about the [social expectations].”
Pete Anderson
Class of 1978
“So I walked into Mr. White’s [chemistry] class one time, and he was sitting in the back of the class behind these tables that had Bunsen burners and stuff. He and three other students were sitting there with their heads down, their noses right on the table and I got down [next to them], and I asked, ‘What are you guys doing?’ And they had this metal tin gallon can that they’d filled with water, and they glued the lid on and put it over a Bunsen burner, they were making a steam bomb. The teacher is sitting right with them! Waiting, waiting, waiting…And it exploded and hit the ceiling tiles! He would’ve been kicked out of the school if he’d done that now.”
Nancy and Jim Kerns
Class of 1978
“Here we were, high school sweethearts, Boise High, and [during our senior year], he [Jim Kerns] came back at lunch time to the school. He’d been downtown, to Hal Davis Jewelers, and he told me, ‘I gotta show you something after school.’ And it’s like, ‘Okay. What are you doing?’
‘I went downtown. I want to show you . something.’
So he took me to Hal Davis, he goes, ‘See that ring right there? I’m buying that.’ And he did! He started buying it, paying for it that very week. And he paid for it, and it was a year later when we became engaged. And then a year after that we got married.
13 months after we got married we had [our son] Ben. 16 years later, we’re at one of his [Ben’s] baseball games [at Boise High]. And Jim says, ‘Let’s go out to dinner afterwards. Go home and get a dress on.' Well he had made arrangements for us to be picked up, in a Suburban, and he made reservations at a really nice restaurant called the Renaissance. And we got there, and he pulled out a Hal Davis box. And inside it was a big solitaire diamond — it was our 16th anniversary. And it was kinda funny, how it was a full circle [to our time at Boise].”
