BHS IN THE 80s
Lisa Steele
Class of 1981
"Coach Carlton, of course [was one of my favorite teachers]. He was a hoot. He remembered me. Like, he came back for our reunion and was outside selling t-shirts and he totally remembered me from all the way back then. And I was like, 'Oh my gosh!' And when I went to back to school night for both my oldest son and daughter who had his class and I got to sit in his classroom. It had never changed, he had all the same stuff."
Bridget Donnelly
Class of 1984
“I used to, after basketball practice, sometimes I’d ride my moped down to a video game arcade we used to go to on 9th. It was called Americade and I still have a token from [there] actually. It was a pretty cool one. Sometimes I’d ride my moped down to the Hideout, which was on 15th where the ice cream store, Goody’s [is] — I think that was the Hideout. It was a video game store. Hyde Park didn’t become the Hyde Park until my senior year. [The Hideout] was much smaller than Americade. That was something I did a lot. Every school had their own little video game place, but towards the end of senior year that started to sort of die out, because we started to get home entertainment systems, [and] video games like Space Invaders and stuff.”
Allison Treadwell, Carrie Simplot, Rosa Urrutia, Tina Michael, Anne Langston
Class of 1987
Tina Michael
Class of 1987
"The pep club officers wore the B-O-I-S-E letters to each of the games. Very similar to today, we stood in the front row next to the cheerleaders and helped lead the cheers and get the crowds into the game. We took a leadership class period during the day and it seemed like all we did was make posters during the class time! There were spools of white paper and red paper stashed in the basement and gallons of tempera paint. We’d roll them out all down the basement halls and paint away. We had our standard sayings like 'Pluck those Eagles' or 'Cage those Lions' or 'Warriors, come out to play.'”
Rosa Urrutia
Class of 1987
“When we were cheerleaders, we had someone write a letter to our advisor. Let me say this, we were a good cheer squad. Boise High, historically, had a great team. Earlier years, especially. So somebody sent a letter that said, ‘The Boise cheerleaders look unkept and one looks like she hasn’t even combed her hair.’ It could’ve been me [she was talking about].”
Carrie Simplot
Class of 1987
“I was glad to see they still do the homecoming parade today. It’s a cool tradition. We did that, and to march down the streets of downtown Boise? That’s kind of a big ask. I’m glad they still do it. Powderpuff was another fun tradition too. The boys dressed up as cheerleaders, and they were coaches. But they would put balloons in their shirts and stuff. I doubt they played me much. I have a feeling I was a bench warmer.”
Anne Langston
Class of 1987
“We [the cheerleaders] used to have a dance called the ‘Goat-roapers,’ that one was really popular. It was like a cowboy dance. Everyone dressed up in cowboy boots, I’m not sure why it was called ‘Goat-roapers.’ In terms of the games, though, even at the Boise Borah game, we were usually chatting instead of paying attention.”
Allison Treadwell
Class of 1987
“My mom made all the headdresses for me, as the mascot. It was really fun. The ones at Boise High, still in the display case [in the front of the school] were made by my mom. And I still have one. We had to wear these suede outfits, it was very fancy. Leather pants, and everything. I had to go through the same elections as the ASB president and the student body president. I had to hang posters and try to get the votes. Everybody had to vote. It was super exciting.”
Bart Davis
Class of 1987
Photo by Easton Anderson.
“I think for me, Boise High was a little different when I was here than what it is today. One of the great things now, and also then, was having the school downtown. It’s just different when you’re in this urban setting, when you’re at lunch you can just go cruise around downtown. I just love the school being surrounded by the city and the neighborhoods. I always really appreciated that. But when I was here, we had every single kind of kid you could get, you could imagine — they went to school here. If you got kicked out of Capital, if you got kicked out of Borah, kicked out of Bishop Kelley, this is where you went. It’s kinda not like that now. We had all the delinquents. The third floor [of the main building] was always where the lockers for the delinquents were. So if you had a locker on the third floor, you knew. A lot of it is the inheritance in the North End, the different types of people that live here, especially back then. You had a little bit of everything. Boise High was a real melting pot in that way, and it still is today.”
Ted Hamlin
Class of 1988
"The boys [cross country] team, we all ran together. We'd go on runs as a big pack. One fun thing we did...We did this kind of our last couple years at Boise High. From the Old Gym, on Washington Street, if you head West, probably about two blocks, there's that parking garage that goes down low, and then up. So we called that "The Gauntlet." And how we did it is, we'd be running along, and then all of a sudden, someone who was daring, would race down, and try to beat everyone who was running up high to the other side, and the guys up top would try to spit on the guy who was running The Gauntlet. The thing to do would be to try and use the element of surprise and take off and beat it so you wouldn't get spit on! And then you just claimed a moral victory."
Andrew Hawes
Class of 1988
Photo by Easton Anderson.
“Every single day — after 2nd period — I would go and get a cinnamon roll from the cafeteria. Back then, it was in the basement. I would buy one from the same lady, probably 110 years old — you know, a lunch lady, right? Hair net, mole, you know. Every day, sophomore, junior and senior year — every day. Back then, it [cinnamon rolls] was great, not whole wheat, it was like Wonder-bread. My last day of school, my senior year, I went up to the lady, to get my cinnamon roll. We hadn’t said one word to each other in three years. I think it was like 10 cents. And the gal stopped and she goes, ‘Son, this one’s on me.’ She gave me that cinnamon roll. I was like, ‘Woah, I’ve had a relationship with this lady for three years but we never said a word [to each other].”