Chicopee High School - Memini Yearbook (Chicopee, MA)

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1981 Senior Year 1982 September 9, 1981, the beginning of the end of our years at Comp. It was a big day for us; we finally made it. We were Seniors! Senior year was a time of mixed emo- tions. As we started counting the months, weeks, and days to graduation, we also started to realize that we would be experiencing our greatest changes and challenges. As we were experiencing mixed emotions about our senior year, the world was also having its ups and downs. On September 25, the United States experienced elation with the selection of the first woman Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O ' Connor. Just as justice O ' Connor was proud to be a first, so was our senior class. For the first time the Class of ' 82 wore their zany hats, senior tee- shirts, and above all for the first time we sat in the senior section at our rally. During the summer of 1981 as we started our summer fun, two people started a life together. For on July 29, a spectacular wedding took place. Watched by over 750 million people. Prince Charles of England and Lady Diana Spencer exchanged vows in the most extravagant wed- ding of the century. Another wedding which took place in the summer also received nationwide attention. Laura Webber Baldwin married Lucas Lorenzo Spencer on the number one day time soap opera. General Flospital. Also during our summer, relief came from the terrifying Atlanta murders. Wayne B. Williams was arrested for the murder of two of the 28 Atlanta killings. Ironically, no other murder has since taken place. As one conflict ends another begins. Rejecting a Federal contract, the Air Traf- fic Controllers went on an illegal nationwide strike. Presi- dent Reagan refused to give in; he gave a back to work order which if defied would cause the strikers to be fired and not rehired. The order was defied; consequently, new hiring took place. As we came back for our final year of high school, other people were having their comebacks also. On September 19 before half a million people in New York ' s Central Park, Simon and Garfunkel gave a comeback concert after ten years. Another group came back to give concerts in Worchester, MA., Hartford, Conn., and other major cities. Lead by the famous Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones began to revive their old music and establish their new. Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazer both had comebacks; un- fortunately they were unsuccessful- both fighters lost. A tremendous loss to the world occurred on October 6. During a military parade near Cairo, one of America ' s greatest Mideast allies and a man devoted to seeking peace, Anwar El-Sadat the Egyptian President, was gunned down. In spite of the world ' s turmoil, the greatness of the class of 82 stood strong. We were winners! Again the girls of ' 82 won the traditional Powder Puff football game, and at Christmas time our class out did all others in the Canned Food Drive. Our pride was showing. We demonstrated our enthusiasm by attending many of the football, basket- ball, and other school team ' s games. Senior year was filled with various types of entertain- ment. Not only did the Rubik ' s cube with its 43 quintillion possible configurations make its way into our school but also the punk fads with its crazy outfits, glasses, and hair- dos. The contagious senioritis was spreading fast! We lis- tened to the old songs of the Doors, the Stones, and the Kinks; yet, we also listened to the new sounds of the Police, Pat Benatar, and Loverboy. The movies which en- tertained us were also varied, from the serious drama in On Golden Pond to the comedy in Modern Prob- lems with Venom , Reds , and Taps in between. While startled New England was feeling the effects of many earthquakes from Canada, America was feeling the effects of the loss of Natalie Wood, Paul Lynde, the first woman U.S. governor Ella Grasso, and Moche Dayan. The world was on the move with its scientific develop- ment. The first solar plane was piloted across the English Channel; the first cross-country air balloon. Super Chick- en II, was successfully flown, and in December 1981 - Americans became the surrogate parents to the first Unit- ed States test tube baby. Unfortunately our final year at Comp was not without its tragedies. In January 1982, an Air-Florida plane whose wings had become dangerously covered with ice crashed into a bridge and fell into the Potomac River. After days of searching, divers recovered the 78 missing bodies. Soon after this tragedy another plane accident occurred in Bos- ton. A plane tried to land at Logan Airport but did not quite make it; the plane glided into Boston Harbor. The airport claimed no deaths but a few days later two people were discovered missing. Despite the many tragedies occurring in the world, we at Chicopee Comprehensive will remember senior year as a great year! It was the last year we had together and we made the best of every moment. We celebrated our love and friendship. We enjoyed the excitement of the first HER dance and we delighted in each others company at all the senior activities. We were mighty mighty seniors who were now ready to step into the real world, but we would never forget all the good times and bad times that we shared throughout our high school years.

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1980 Junior Year 1981 Junior year finally came around, and we were no longer underclassmen. We were upperclassmen and in the third year of high school. During this year we faced the pro- nounced effects of Proposition 2 V 2 . Teachers, classes, and extracurricular activities were cut for the end of this year and for our upcoming senior year. However, we still made use of our time by becoming more involved in the activi- ties which remained. Our class actively participated in the Magazine Drive and we met our class goal. We beat the seniors in the traditional Powder Puff football game dur- ing Homecoming Weekend by a crushing score of sixteen to zero. During the Christmas season we once again out- shined the seniors when our class collected more cans than any other class for the Canned Food Drive. “The Best of Times was chosen as the theme for our junior Prom because those four words summed up our feelings toward our junior year. We were now becoming aware of the significance and excitement of our high school years which were passing by so quickly. Prior to entering school in September of 1980, Iran was still holding the American diplomats hostage. Further ne- gotiations and steps were taken to free the hostages but no agreements had been made. On July 27, 1980 the former Shah Of Iran died in Cairo of cancer. During the beginning of our junior year, the United States Congress became involved in the most controver- sial federal investigation of corruption on Capital Hill. Operation Abscam identified 31 federal, state, and local officials as subjects for jnquiry into political corruption. Undercover agents posed as wealthy Arabs or their repre- sentatives who were interested in buying political influ- ence. The congressmen who accepted their bribes were secretly videotaped by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the transaction. Among those convicted in Abs- cam were Democrat Representatives Frank Thompson Jr., John M. Murphy, Michael Myers, Raymond F. Lederer, and John W. Jenrette. The 1980 presidential elections took place in November of our junior year. The election itself and the outcome of the election were unique. For the first time since 1924 there were three presidential candidates; Republican Ronald Reagan, Democrat Jimmy Carter, and Indepen- dent John Anderson. Ronald Reagan was victorious in the election and once again the G.O.P. took control of the Senate. The major issues of the campaign were the Iranian crisis and the hostage situation along with the present economic affairs. On January 20, 1981 Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States; fur- thermore on that same day after 444 days in captivity, the American hostages were released. Throughout the Iranian crisis the patriotism and unity of the United States was the strongest it had been since the 1940 ' s. The release of the hostages was celebrated with enthusiasm and zeal such as was displayed during the New York City Ticker-Tape Pa- rade. In Washington D.C. the hostages were honored at the White House. The Iranian crisis was over!!! During the years of 1980 and 1981 there were numer- ous assassinations and assassination attempts. On De- cember 8, 1980 former Beatle John Lennon was shot out- side his New York City apartment by Mark David Chap- man. In the spring of 1981 John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan outside a hotel in Washing- ton. Ronald Reagan, his press secretary (James Brady), and two security officers were wounded during the incident. Two months later another assassination attempt took place. A Turkish terrorist, Mehmet Ali Agca, shot Pope John Paul II at St. Peter ' s Square in Rome. Fortunately the Pope recovered quickly. Throughout our junior year and continuing into the beginning of our senior year were the numerous murders of black children in Atlanta. The un- solved “Atlanta killings left fear in the hearts of Ameri- cans. Along with the numerous assassination attempts which took place, there were also numerous strikes which were occurring throughout our junior year. The first was a 50 day baseball strike by all the major league baseball teams. Deadlocked negotiations, empty ball parks, and collective bargaining among the players and managers replaced the normal activities of the baseball season. The next major strike was the revolt of the workers in Poland. Approxi- mately 150,000 workers walked off their jobs demanding higher pay, lower food prices, free labor unions with the legal right to strike, abolition of censorship, and freedom for all political prisoners. They organized themselves un- der their strike leader. Lech Walesa, and took on the name of “Solidarity . Despite martial law and threats of Soviet intervention, the strike still continued throughout junior year and throughout senior year. The last strike which occurred during our junior year was the fatal hun- ger strike of Bobby Sands. Sands was the Irish Republican Army leader who endured 66 days of starvation. The pur- pose of his revolt was to force the British government to grant political prisoners status to Irish nationalist inmates rather than treating them as common criminals. Bobby Sands died in vain as Margaret Thatcher refused the IRA ' s demands. On April 12 the United States had a dramatic uplift when the first re-usable space shuttle was launched with success. John Young and Robert Crippen piloted the space shuttle Columbia which made 36 orbits. REO Speedwagon dominated the charts with their number one album “Hi-lnfidelity . On New Year ' s Eve Kim Game ' s song “Bette Davis Eyes was revealed as the number one song of the year. During our junior year the cinemas were playing such popular movies as “Superman 11 , “Arthur , “Raiders of the Lost Ark , “Endless Love , and many others. Junior year faded into the summer before our senior year. We faced the last year of high school and the most crucial year. All the difficulties and problems of our junior year seemed very minimal to the difficult decisions and questions we would face in the last of our high school years. ' V WELCOi back t FREEDO

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SENIORS