Page 18 - Priorities #27 2004-July

Alumni Conversation Alumnus Remembers
Plenty of Fun In The Early ‘70s
sDave Rogers’ photo from the 1970 yearbook.
Editor’s Note: We thought it would be entertaining to have an across-the-decades conversation between two alumni. In this issue, it’s the New Millennium talking with the Early ‘70s--the decade of bell-bottomed pants, shaggy hair, and Flower Power. In the next issue, Liesl’s conversation will be with someone from the decade of the ‘90s.
Uniforms
Dave’s class was the last to experience a strict Priory uniform dress code consisting of black slacks, a button-down white collared shirt, class color tie, and olive green blazer with the WPS school emblem onthebreastpocket. Hisclassattendedschool
on Saturday mornings (the infamous “Saturday School”). Hiswasthelastclasstoexperience “Freshman Day”-- an annual hazing ritual hosted by the Seniors involving such events as rolling down a hill backwards, a tug-of-war through the mud and silence while serving lunch to the Seniors —and, trust me, if this sounds like innocent fun, you should hear some of Dave’s other stories!
The late sixties and early seventies also represented an age that was embroiled by the conflict in Vietnam and personal decisions about the draft. TherewereweekendtripstoSanFrancisco that included free concerts, peace marches and $3.50 tickets to Santana concerts at the Avalon Ballroom. Dorm students would make sure to be back from daily study hall by 4 p.m. to catch the original “Star Trek” episodes on television. It was a time when AYSO soccer rules were changed to prohibit school- based teams after an all-Priory team won the state championship for 15-year-olds in 1968.
High-Jinks
Common to every Woodside Priory class, Dave recalls several memories with smiles and hearty laughs. Among some of the “cheap thrills” he remembers is his freshman class devising a game similar to shuffleboard, involving the breezeway of lockers where parents would pick up day students after school. Using remarkably slick-bottomed book briefcases and a special ability to slide them down the breezeway, they would then pray that the briefcase would stop closest to but not slide over the edge of the slick cement pavement. In the event of such tragedy, the briefcase could tumble down the hill, or worse, spill homework onto the asphalt driveway!
By Liesl Yost, Class of 2001
The period from 1967-1971 can be characterized by student rebellion, questioning authority and social turmoil. Attendance at the Woodside Priory certainly was no exception to
that! Although some of the antics remembered
by Dave Rogers, WPS Class of 1971, were more lighthearted than serious, they were nonetheless just as memorable—and very entertaining.
Today, Dave is a senior wine consultant and lives with his lovely wife in the beautiful Sonoma County wine country along the Russian River. He fondly passes on tales of a very formative time
both in Priory’s history and in his own which he remembers with tremendous personal gratitude and great affection.
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