Here are some of our classmates' favorite memories from our high school days. Please submit your memory above!...

Mr. Coppersmith, Composition teacher. He was, without a doubt, one of the most influential people in my life. He taught me how to say what I meant in my writing, without using a lot of unnecessary "clutter." What a difference! I cruised through college English classes with ease, and never once got less than an "A." Even today, I can't tell you what a difference it has made in my life to be able to communicate effectively through the written word. My wife is an English teacher and she passes on Mr. Coppersmith's influence even today.

Senior year is a blur, but one day in spring I was out with a friend and she convinced me to cut my P.E. class with Miss Pariseau and enjoy the beautiful weather in a backyard on Exmoor. I thought all I'd need to do was phone the school and say my car had broken down. Nobody bought my lame excuse and I received detention.

I recall those "I hate girls" and "I hate boys" buttons. What was the purpose of all that? What was worse? The carnation sales! I kept praying nobody would send me a white one. (That meant "I hate you, I believe.)

Where to begin... the football games on a crisp fall day, decorating the locker rooms, teepeeing for big games and graduation, the endless graduation parties, ... I can't believe nobody has mentioned the parties at Pete Goodhart's! Or the Friday morning "breakfasts" at Lake Ellyn the last two months of senior year, which consisted of donuts and screwdrivers! Senior Prom and graduation weekend were a great celebration of 4 wonderful years.

Think back about all of those crisp fall nights and float work. I especially remember all of the nights at Jim Horan's. Clear sky with a million stars and not a care in the world except finishing our float (freshman i think).

We had the honor of being sophomore baseball managers (thank you Mr. Baker) and we forgot the bases for the first practice. (I certainly hope it wasn't a game.)

Out at fox valley mall for a christmas choir concert, chasing kids thru the mall because they were throwing pennies at the choir, and Dick Whitecotton telling a bunch of us to "go get them!"

I'll never forget walking to Glenbard West on autumn mornings in the fall. On more than one occasion, fog from the lake would encircle the school, and only when one had walked beyond the Boathouse would Glenbard West suddenly appear in all its gothic splendor. It was a majestic sight indeed!

With all the talk about out of control students, and a public school system in shambles, I often think back to my days At Glenbard West. I'm not saying we had the most intellectual teachers, but the halls were always safe and everything seemed so predictable at West.

Only once do I remember seeing eyebrow raising behavior in the classroom, and that was when I was a sophomore. One afternoon, as Mrs. Gillespie was teaching German, two masked upperclassmen invaded our classroom and tossed cream pies in the teacher's face. Not surprisingly, the "invaders" disappeared as quickly as they arrived.

While this was not one of my favorite memories, it is certainly one I won't forget. I wonder what type of punishment the two guys received...

Richard Whitecotton, choral director, had a way with his students. I'm not certain how he was able to do it, but he always stocked the choir with a diverse crowd of young adults, who always seemed willing to play his game. We worked hard, we sang well, and we had a good deal of respect for this man.

For me, the pinnacle of the year was always the spring concert held at Wheaton College's chapel. I can still remember the music from those years.

Junior Year! I remember sitting in Mr.Hible's English class. We had recently written compositions, and on that day he decided that he would make comments about each paper in front of the class. The comments were as tasteless as the leisure suit and horn-rimmed glasses he wore.
After he finally critiqued my paper (I had written about stray dogs), he let out two high-pitched barking sounds before going on to the next paper. I had never heard a teacher bark before!
To Mr. Hible's credit, he made us watch these peculiar slides that taught new words in context. Although I had a poor self image due to the comments about my paper on stray dogs, I did indeed increase my vocabulary that year....

Graduation Day...Little did any of us know that in the next few years our school would make to hollywood in "Lucas", on television on two occasions in Fox's reality shows, first about being a Senior in the class of 91 or 92 and being tagged as second chance high in a documentary about gangs. Not to mention GW's contribution in a gentlemen's monthly entertainment magazine. We didn't graduate from just any school, Glenbard West as traditional, as majestic and as proud of a castle as it truely is...was and always will be an institution.

One day in drivers Ed. Lisa Rumple was driving while Sally and I were in the back seat... Mr Burns, who was in rare form that day decided that it was a good day for ONE WAY streets! Poor Lisa, thinking that we were on a ONE WAY street, got into an oncoming traffic lane!!! Mr Burns grabs the wheel and puts the car into the right lane just in time for the stop sign. Just as Lisa stops, a woman pulls along side of us at the stop sign (in the wrong lane) and turns left! Just as the woman completes the turn...Mr. Burns looks at Lisa and says... "Lisa was that your mother?" - Need I say more???

Football games at the lake on a sunny fall afternoon.

Watching the musical "Broadway Melody" in the GW auditorium. Great production....

Listening to the football teams cleats on the street approaching the field--This definitely pumped one up!

Skipping school and going to the dunes...and just hanging with all those people at our parties when kids parents were out of town..Most of all, walking down that hill side by side on Saturday to the field to whup some butt.......

The last day of school -- all that paper on the floor.

One of the last days of school, staying up all night and TPing the school (thanks to the box of 100 rolls of TP we were able to steal from the building where Bruce Robson was the night janitor). Plastering the entire hill with for sale signs that same night.

I particularly remember the last day of classes in 1981...All of us were so enthusiastic about finally being done with high school. In retrospect, though, it was a sad day for many of us, too. Our sheltered lives in the Glen Ellyn schools had come to an end.