We Are the Class of ’86
Our history began in September 1982 when we entered Shawnee for our first day of high school. We all piled into the auditorium for our Freshman orientation. All of us were dreading “Freshman Crawl Day” the first day of school with all four grades! During our first Spirit Week we were surprised how enthusiastic everyone was and we used the same enthusiasm to make our hall, skit, and first float, “The Cave.” We welcomed MTV into out households, along with Prism and cable, in general. We had a three-tier box that took you all over the dial of your TV, including USA Network.
“Just When You Thought It Was Safe” was our theme for Sophomore year. We were especially proud of our shark. There were many class activities, such as the candy sale, which helped pay for our Senior Trip. We listened to Duran Duran because all the girls loved them. We fell in love with artists we never would have heard without MTV, like Pat Benater, Aldo Nova, Haircut 100, Motley Crue and Billy Squier, among many others.
In our Junior year, everyone showed their class spirit by wearing Hawaiian shirts. We spent months filling out 3 x 5 postcard-sized flash cards and beat out 52 other local high schools and won a FREE Concert by up-and-coming band, The Hooters!
We roamed the halls and huddled en masse in our Members Only jackets, Chess King outfits or preppy ensembles. We wore concert tee shirts to school the day after attending a concert. We drank beers at the Powerlines and crashed every party we found out about. We didn’t have the internet – we heard about it from kids working at gas stations or in class. We had great movies, like “Vision Quest,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” and “The Goonies.”
Senior Year was action-packed. In typical Class of 1986 fashion, we were the first Senior Class in Shawnee history to LOSE Spirit Week! We turned the cafeteria into a castle! Although the SHS Knights skit was fantastic (including feeding grapes to our King, Kiki Konstantinos), we were disqualified because some of the class put newspapers in front of their faces during the other classes’ skits. We were the FIRST CLASS to NEVER win Spirit Week! That was an achievement in and of itself. Remember when half the Shawnee football team couldn’t play in the Thanksgiving game vs. Lenape because they were caught drinking at a party that weekend? By the way, we still beat Lenape:)) Classic movies like “Stand By Me,” “Platoon,” and “Top Gun” were part of the discussion in 1986. On January 28, 1986, at 11:39AM, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on live TV, killing all seven crew members aboard.
Who remembers tagging endless candy canes with personal messages or getting Hershey kisses from your secret admirers? Or the computer matches that showed you who were best matches in the school? Or the Pee-Wee Herman Dance Contest? Our Senior Class Trip to Disney was memorable as well. We all got sunburnt really bad (we only had baby oil back then) and we didn’t get the pizzas we ordered until after 1AM. If you were late for the buses, you had to wake up at the ass crack of dawn for breakfast with Mr. Galtere and the other teachers! There were parties at the hotel and several students either got sent home or had to walk with the teachers the whole time.
While we were skating around the rink, Reagan sent scud missiles into Qaddafi’s palace, unaliving his two sons. We were shocked but unaffected. Remember we had to fight to walk during our graduation? They were going to punish us because of the previous year’s graduation’s use of beach balls and water pistols. We signed a petition and it made the local news. Eventually, the school caved due to pressure. The staff made sure we were not sneaking any water pistols before entering graduation!
Look, we are the first to admit that we were not perfect. But we were also very memorable. This is our history. This is the Class of 1986.