Blast from the Past

A former schoolmate of mine this week sent a few of us who grew up together a relic from our past. He had unearthed an intact copy of our junior high newspaper in his dad’s basement.

After scanning the black-and-white, primitive-looking pages, he contacted us through a Facebook group message with the PDF attached. He wrote in his message that he was sharing this memento in the hopes of bringing us “some fond memories and a few smiles.”

Not only did it feel great to hear from someone whom I had not heard from in ages, but I did also smile to see what those pages contained. I had no memory whatsoever of the “Beaumont Bugle,” as our school newspaper was known. The paper contained a message from our principal, all kinds of school-related information, as well as sports schedules and rosters. From the comments in our group chat about the Bugle, I think what gave us all the biggest laughs was the back section featuring song dedications and a survey of who our favorite bands were.

In addition to enjoying the content in the Bugle, I was fascinated by this reminder of how technology has radically changed since we were kids. Obviously, online news sources did not exist back then, but desktop publishing had not fully emerged yet either. The Bugle back then was partly handwritten, mostly typewritten and probably mimeographed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this walk down memory lane along with the group chat orchestrated by my old friend Neal, reminding me of the post that Julia wrote a while back about not hesitating to reach out–even when it’s been a long time. Thanks for reaching out, Neal! As for our favorite bands, I know Julia would have picked The Police, but I still think Def Leppard rocks!!!