Artifacts: Junior High

Here's a bizarre artifact from junior high.  Alameda Junior high was originally Las Cruces High School.  You could tell that from the columned facade at the front door.  It's still there, though now the building is the county court house.  The entire rear of the school was remodeled with glass walls for it.  The auditorium is now the main court room, but the big chimney is still standing at the back the hall.  Hard to imagine that they were able to convert the gym into usable space.  The smell of that gym is still carved into my memory. 

I had happy times at the school.  No, no.  Actually I didn't.  I remembered being bullied there (just once, I stood up to them and they knocked it off).  Not to mention, the principal had a novel way of getting kids to class on time.  He went down the hallways, carrying a cricket bat, chasing tardy students.  (I made sure to be on time after only one chase.)  It was a more sensitive time in the early 80's.  All that said, I might rather have re-attended classes than had to return there for jury duty. 

I kept this school newsletter from back then.  No, "Hi-Times" would have had the same connotation as now, but the school administrators went with it anyway.   

I found these Letters to Santa pretty amusing and nostalgic with requests for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and Rick Springfield.

I can guess I kept this for the dedication at the bottom that mentions me and Stephanie (they spelled it wrong).  Alas, that never happened.  She was our real-life Olivia Newton-John being a transplant from Australia.  She was blonde, though I don't think she sang. 

Sketches: Ilya Sketches

I mentioned buying an artbook by Ilya Kuvshinov a couple of months ago.  I finished going through it recently, drawing stuff I liked.  Here's the best of the bunch.  I'm hoping to get another artbook sometime soon and draw from it.  This Eternal book was really an inspiration, and I think helped my drawing more than any how-to drawing book. 

Artifacts: High School

While I grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico, I went to high school in El Paso due to my dad's job transfer.  The first time I saw J.M. Hanks High School at 2001 Lee Trevino Drive, I thought it looked like a large shopping mall.  I might have enjoyed it more if that had been the case. 

I forgot about these.  This was a student directory that was handed out to all the students.  It had the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the students.  I showed this to some of my co-workers and they were horrified that such a thing existed.  It was a more trusting time (with no Internet).  The handwriting on the cover was my weekly comic book search list at the time.  I used to go around the local convenience stores looking for comics. 

There was an annual magazine produced by the school with art, poems, and stories by the students.  My first year it was on heavy paper, but the next three years it was a slick, glossy affair. 

This was the best drawing in all the magazines.  I couldn't decide which scan was better.

This one actually featured a die-cut cover.

Lastly, here are some items from my graduation.  Our mascot was the knight and our colors were black and silver, until another newer school appropriated them.  After that, we went to black, sliver, and red.

Artifacts: Stamps

Mom was a big stamp collector.  She had books and notebooks full of stamps.  She even put some groups of special stamps on felt and framed.  I got this sheet of stamps in a frame for one birthday.  I'm big comic strip fan, so this was a pretty cool gift.  On the back of the stamps are a little write-ups about the strips.

Mom also saved a few other stamps that she thought I'd like.  Here we have some superhero stamps and a few Star Wars stamps.

Artifacts: Postcards

These postcards came with the old pictures from the last post.  (This is also my fourth attempt at doing this post.  There have been technical difficulties.)  This first postcard was from grandma when she visited us when we first moved to New Mexico.  Dad went to Las Cruces to check out his future job there.  Grandma mentioned seeing Charley Pride.  I'm not sure if he was in concert in Albuquerque, or if she saw him on TV.

This is a postcard from Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas.  My aunt sent this card to mom and asked if they'd been there.

This is the hotel my aunt stayed at when her and my uncle went to New York City.

Artifacts: Old Pictures

These are some old pictures dad gave me.  They were from my aunt, who'd sent them to my mom.   

These first two pictures are actually a couple of old postcards that probably belonged to grandma.

After the Storm Green Forrest, AR.

The Blue Hole at Osage.  There was a note on the back of this one that said, "Grandma used to like swimming there."

One of my aunts and her husband.

 My grandma and one of my aunts from back in the day.

Picture of my great grandfather, Charles Bishop.

One of my relatives used to own a drug store.  The soda counter was rescued from the store and reinstalled in a house.  Check out the old phone.  I wonder if it's the same one from the old picture below?

Here's a couple of pictures from my aunt's trip to New York.  She fits right in.

Artifacts: Adorable Nephews

Dad gave me some old pictures he was going through and I was reminded that I have a couple of adorable nephews.  Their proud grandma sent these. 

First, we have some pictures from a neighborhood Fourth of July parade.  What a great place to live where they put on an Independence Day parade in your neighborhood.

Here's a happy sailor-suited patriot.

And here's the unhappiest little patriot.

A couple cowboys ready for the rodeo.

Looking for Easter Eggs in a snazzy hat.

A couple of cheery reindeer.

Their neighborhood also puts on a massive Halloween Trick-or-Treating.  Huge throngs of kids and parents go up and down the street and massive bowls of candy are handed out.

Article from the Springfield News-Leader

Here are the boys dressed as Sherlock and Watson for Halloween.

Okay, this one is my favorite.  The boys are dressed as Hall and Oates.  I don't even know if they know who they are, but this is too prefect.

Lastly, here's my aunt's dog, Tucker, as a puppy.  Yes, he's real and not a little overly cute stuffed animal.