Memories from our Senior Year – May 1972
Author: Rob Corns
“Tra La! It’s May, The Lusty Month Of May!”
-Learner & Lowe from the musical Camelot
And a typical month of May it was. The weather had no snow, temps were mainly in the 70’s and there was hardly any rain. Spring had finally sprung! And the senior class of 1972 was down to a precious few weeks before graduation.
We all know what our class motto was, but did you ever wonder where the phrase “Keep On Truckin’” comes from? Well, here’s our history for the month, straight from The Urban Dictionary!
An extremely popular 1960’s hippie saying that was made ubiquitously famous by the one-of-a-kind, extremely esoteric and eventually iconic comic strips and books which appeared and evolved from within the exquisitely unique mind of the mad-genius cartoonist R. Crumb. These three simple words of encouragement reinforced the then-prevailing idea that people should be able to feel confident about staying true to their own chosen life path and not allowing the outside world to get them down or force them to change who they wanted to be.
“Whether or not that peace march you’re going on does anything to stop the war or not, just remember to keep on truckin’!”
And thanks so much to the great and talented Jim Dustin for designing this and subsequent logos for us over the years!
Eighty-five talented singers and dancers tried out for “Fiddler On The Roof” and after all after the dust had settled, Tom Meyrose got the lead role of Tevye and Julie Morris Stewart was picked as Golde, Tevye’s wife. Also in the cast, was Debbie Detwiler-Langenhop as Tzeoyel and Kathy Boruff was student director.
At the time, Meyrose said, “The play is quite relevant, with a generation gap, inter-racial marriages and everything.” It packed the Civic Auditorium and was seen by thousands, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Arthur Moore, B. Neil Davis and Fred Schaufele and choreographer Gretchen Schmalz.
Back in my senior year, I was kind of a “late to the party” kind of guy. While everybody had their driver’s license a couple of years before, I decided to wait until my 17th year to get mine. So, since LHS was offering it, the unfortunate task of teaching me fell on the lap of Mr. Joe Casey. I remember giving up my Saturday morning cartoons driving in the special vehicles that had, luckily for me, two brakes, one for me and one for Mr. Casey. There were usually two other students in the back seat and Mr. Casey would always have the radio turned to WHK-1420 AM. And, no, none of us sang “Bohemian Rhapsody” while driving on the mean streets of Lakewood!
NBA Finals The Los Angeles Lakes with MVP Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain beat The New York Knicks 4 games to 1 on May 7. The Cleveland Cavaliers, which included Austin Carr, record that season was 23-59 and played at the old Cleveland Arena.
This was posted a couple of months ago by Ellen Matheny, but , in case you missed it, the LHS
https://lhs72.com/symphonic-choir/…
I’m guessing by the first of May, most of our class who had applied for the college of their choice had either gotten their acceptance or rejection letters. It was an exciting time for a lot of us, wondering what was going to be in the letter you got in the mail. Hopefully, you were one of the lucky ones and got to go to your first, or maybe second choice, Perhaps at the reunion, you can share with me what it was like!
Although they placed 3rd in the LEL with a 6-3 record, the golf team did compile a 11-4 mark overall. Senior Bob Carpenter held the highest winning percentage among the regulars ay .786 and Dick Tidyman had .750. Don’t ask me what those numbers mean because, quite frankly, I have no idea! Hole-in-One, FORE!, golf tee, yeas. That other stuff, forget it!!
Memorial day was May 29th in 1972
Songs “Candy Man” by Sammy Davis Jr., “Sylvia’s Mother” by Dr. Hook & His Medicine Show, “Oh, Girl” by The Chi-Lites, “Hot Rod Lincoln” by Commander Cody my personal favorite, “Tax”i by Harry Chapin, “I’ll Take You There” by The Staple Singers.
In entertainment news, if you were going to the movies, there was Woody Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam” Robert Redford in “Jeremiah Johnson”, and Charlton Heston in “Skyjacked”.
Also, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was born May 2!
TV Shows The Tonight Show moved from New York to Hollywood this month where iut would stay for the rest of Johnny Carson’s career.
The picture below is an “incident” that happened at Perkins Pancake House involving Earle Johnston and Gary Maulding which I believe is till under investigation and perhaps will be featured on a future episode of “20/20”!
