The Zephyrhills News has always been a supporter of education. The News featured a student-written column entitled, School Daze, between 1954 and 1986. A high school senior wrote a weekly news column for the local newspaper as the roving school reporter. These news articles gave a real flavor of school life in each era. The writing styles and expertise vary from year to year. The student reporters assumed the responsibility for the weekly column for the year and took responsibility for selecting and reporting the school news to the community. Throughout time student reporters included: 1954-Shirley Dixon; 1955-Susanne Coolidege; 1956-George Trebour; 1958-Margie Braden; 1959-Dedi Anderson; 1960-Sandra Pricher; 1961-Judy Surratt; 1963-Bobbie June Chambless; 1964-Jere Alston; 1965-Susan Bucey; 1966-Sandra Clark; 1967-Marcia Deming;1968-Jannette Dunnigan; 1969-Kathy Shannon; 1970-Lynn Murphy; 1971-Valerie Wickstrom; 1978-Darlene Roman; 1979-Sharon Hasting; 1980-Nancy Deboe; 1981-Bruce Sofinski; 1982-Lynn Thompson; 1983-Tracy Dunlap; 1984-Jill McDougall; 1985-Kim Kagey; and 1986-Jennifer Sibley.
Throughout the 1960’s and 70’s, the Zephyrhills News also printed the Zephyrhills School Newspaper.To give you the flavor of the School Daze, we have included a few excerpts:
Lynn Murphy wrote on March 19, 1970: “Lock, Stock and Lipstick” promises to be one of the funniest and most exciting Junior Class plays ever performed on the ZHS stage.”
Sandra Pricher reported on January 27, 1961: “The film, Spirit of St. Louis will be shown to all students this week.”
Darlene Roman included in her School Daze on May 24, 1979: “The epidemic known as senioritis, characterized by a lack of interest in studies and extra-curricular activities, drowsiness, and acute apathy has spread throughout the school like wildfire…”
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Countdown to Centennial All rights reserved. Photos © Madonna Jervis Wise |
I remember writing that column each week, what an honor.
What great memories! I remember scrambling to make that deadline every week and we couldn’t wait until Thursday for the paper to be on the newsstands.
Nothing better than remembering all the good times and good people at ZHS. This is a wonderful way to share those memories!
I too, remember the excitement of writing the column and the fear of the deadline. Although you don’t have these dates listed, I wrote the column for the 1987-1988 school year, the year my dear friend Jeanine “the Dream” Boyd and I graduated. Thanks for remembering the column.
Scrambling is right. I remember trying to think of ideas for series, but in the end I largely wrote about whatever I could get a lead on. Good memories! 🙂