The following stories were compiled by some of LFHS’ most spirited female teachers. As is evidenced in the stories below, sometimes that Homecoming glow never wears off. Thank you to all involved for their participation and willingness to share.
“I attended the homecoming dance at Glenbard West my junior year with a friend, Jeff Derose. I drove him home after school and as he was getting out of the car he awkwardly mumbled, “So, uh, did you want to go to homecoming together?” Smooth, Jeff. Real smooth. For some reason though, I said yes. Meanwhile all my friends got asked with cookies and balloons…
Homecoming at Glenbard was always a rushed day because our football games were on Saturday afternoons (per Glenbard West’s storied tradition) so I left after halftime of marching band to get home and get my hair done. I still made it to the picture party on time as all of my other friends were in similar band situations.
Jeff just posted on Facebook this week that he, his wife, and their two girls are on their first trip to Disney World. My how the times have changed…”
Ms. Rebecca Schwartz, Mathematics
“I was raised in a small farming community. Unlike my many gal pals who chose cheerleading, my calling was to perform as the Saluki mascot. Instead of trucks pulling homecoming floats, we had tractors. David, a neighbor and classmate, offered to pull the spirit float I rode on, but I had to attend the dance with him as a result. I still remember that old F 20 (Farmall for you city folks). We were voted King and Queen of the dance.
He currently has a medical practice in Texas and we remain friends to this day.”
Mrs. Jacquie Berkshire, Guidance
“I have two good memories:
The first was my sophomore year at Glenbrook North when John Hughes, the awesome movie director, spoke at our homecoming assembly. They were filming Ferris Bueller’s Day off at our school because John Hughes was an alumni. It was pretty cool!
The second memory was running into my senior year homecoming date sitting in the bleachers at the hockey rink while watching my son play. I had no idea that he too had migrated to my community and had a big chuckle when I learned that we live a mere two blocks from one another. My daughter was asking all sorts of questions, so when we got home, I had to find the old photo album and show her the pictures from homecoming wearing a corsage with big 80s hair. We laughed and now, whenever I see my old date (on a pretty regular basis since our little guys both spend an awful lot of time at the rink), I think of those goofy pictures posing with a big red rose corsage on my wrist and his chin resting on my shoulder at the homecoming pre-party.”
Mrs. Laura Flangel, Social Studies
“I went to my freshman Homecoming dance with a boy named Alan Mellovitz. He was a handy person even at the age of 14 –he had built a giant tree house in his backyard and made incredible robots out of legos. We used to listen to Blink 182 together.
He played the drums in a band called Marty McFly that one time wrote a song for me. When Alan asked me to Homecoming he sent me a letter via snail mail everyday of the week and in each envelope was an individual letter eventually spelling out the word “Homecoming”. The most embarrassing moment from this dance: we used to have the school news everyday (instead of announcements), and the Monday after Homecoming there was video footage from the dance and it happened to include me slow dancing with Alan–it actually looked like I was napping on his shoulder. I never lived that down.
Now, Alan is doing some really awesome things: He’s engaged to someone we went to high school with and he works on the electrical grid for Memphis and has a very cool house in Chicago that was hard to find because he had to sound proof it for his drum set.”
Mrs. Laura Stetson, Guidance
” ‘Twas the fall of 1975 and it was my senior year and I was seventeen years old. Mood rings, Rubik’s Cubes, pet rocks, hip-huggers, leisure suits, disco, PEZ candy, magic 8-balls, and the first disposable razor were all significant to who we were. Barry Manilow’s “Mandy” went gold, Bill Gates founded Microsoft, the movie Jaws was released, Muhammad Ali won the heavyweight boxing title, the song of the year was “Love will Keep Us Together” by Captain and Tennille, and the best album was “Still Crazy After All These Years” by Paul Simon. The Vietnam War officially ended and Gerald Ford was President.
Seventeen different events all occurring during my senior year at James Madison Memorial High School in Madison, Wisconsin. Why 17? When you are seventeen, EVERYTHING matters to you and Homecoming was one of those things. Anticipation was building, girls were being asked to the dance, Homecoming Court was announced and my best friend was Homecoming Queen. The football game was uneventful and the dance was finally here! It was all that it was hyped up to be until…….”Stairway to Heaven”, a 17 minute song that felt like 30 minutes, was played and dancing to it was like you were on a slow boat to China! At that point, the dance was like an album with a scratch–repeating and repeating and repeating!
Mrs. Cindy Dell, Special Ed.
“During the fall of 1992, the leaves were falling, and the hallways were electric with blue and gold. Homecoming was a chance for the students to experience the magic of school spirit, to see the pride in the faces of the returning alumni, and to celebrate the one constant in all of our lives – Lake Forest High School.
While some of the traditions remain the same, a few were different in the 1990s.
Since the football game was on a Saturday, the festivities began on Friday afternoon. The pep rally was held on Lindemeyer Field – the football field at East Campus – followed by a bonfire at West Campus that evening. There was even a parade that went through Lake Bluff and Lake Forest so that the entire town would celebrate.
The Homecoming dance was Saturday night, but it wasn’t the production it is today. There were no posters or flowers, and if you were asked to go to the dance, a person simply said, ‘do you want to go?'”
Mrs. Carolyn Konz, English (LFHS Class of 1992)
