Eastside High School - Ram Country Yearbook (Gainesville, FL)

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Community Events Gainesville was an enriched community. A community should be more than a place where people live. It should provide something for its citizens to be proud of, and ours did. The Gainesville community provided entertainment, cultural enrichment, and excellent educational facilities. As far as entertainment went, Gainesville had some of the best. The University of Florida helped provide an incentive for celebrities to appear here. Popular groups such as Pat Benetar and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers drew enormous crowds to the O'Connell Center. Many free concerts were also given, outdoors at the Bandshell. Among those who made free appear- ances were Peter Frampton and The Kinks. Homecoming at the University never fails to draw the largest crowds of the year and provide fabulous entertainment. Gator football was a definite crowd pleaser. Thousands of fans packed Florida Field for each home game, and community spirit was always aroused even when the Gators were away. The University as well as some excellent civic theatres and musical groups provided entertainment and culture. Classical music recitals were often featured. The students of the Universi- ty had a very fine theatre group. Comparable with theirs was the Gainesville Little Theatre, a noncommercial group, and the Hippodrome Theatre, the local professional group. Many good museums and exhibits were also provided year round by the community and the University. When it came to educational facilities, the good of the com- munity again relied heavily on the University. Besides being a full-time school for thousands of students from all over the world, it was also a part-time school for many local residents. Not only did the University provide required courses for de- grees, but it also provided many entertaining leisure courses. Santa Fe Community College also offered educational facilities for its students and the public. The Community College had an excellent adult education program, which provided leisure courses in everything from clogging to civil mind control. With the aid of the University of Florida, Gainesville was a thriving community. It provided all of the things which make a community a pleasant and healthful place for its citizens to live. t l. Riled up University of Florida students celebrate their homecoming while they watch the spectacular Gator Growl show. 2. The Thomas Center, located in the Northeast, hosts a variety of cultural events each year, 2 Community Eventsf 1 7

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ational Events What went on in the world? National events are always an important aspect of our lives. Whether or not they affect us personally, they definitely affect society and influence our lives in some capacity. Americans continually seemed to be divided on such contro- versial matters as the budget cuts of President Ronald Reagan. After a great deal of debate, the across the board cuts were approved in both Houses of Congress. Another event which caused friction among citizens was the air traffic controllers strike. Thejobs of thousands of controllers were terminated and the lives of millions of travelers were affected. The plight of the Mediterranean fruit fly caused California residents to be at odds with Governor Jerry Brown over whether or not to spray infested areas with the chemical malathion. Violence had become a real and growing threat. Nationwide acts of violence included the attempted assasination of President Reagan, and the statistics of twenty-eight murdered black chil- dren in Atlanta. Worldwide, a great deal of trouble lay within Ireland. After eleven years of internal war, the violence still persisted with the added problems of riotous youngsters and hunger strikers. Unrest also continued in countries such as Po- land and Afghanistan. Rome, for a time, was also involved in a violent act when Pope John Paul II was shot during a public service in May. Our relations with other countries were brought to a test with the attempted bombings of American planes in Libya and Korea. Violence and controversy, however, are not the only national events which should be remembered. We must also recall the great technological advancements of our time. An important step for American techonologists was the successful flight and landing ofthe Columbia space shuttle. After several more test flights, the craft should be prepared for outer space transporta- tion and industrialization. With three years of travel behind it, the Voyager II satellite reached Saturn. The satellite sent back thousands of informative observations, and the most explicit pictures of Saturn and its seven moons ever seen. National events of great importance continue to occur con- stantly every day all around the world. Not only do they occur, but they play an important part in our future by, in many ways, altering the way we think and even the way we live. l. President Ronald Reagan calls for action during a nationally televised news confer- ence. 2. Women bang dust bin lids to spread the news of the death of Thomas Mcllwee, the ninth Irish nationalist guerilla to die at the Maze prison hunger strike in northern Ireland. l6fNational Events hfaunf

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pinions L If the fate of Eastside rested in your hands, what changes would you make? I would have more senior privileges and take the chains out of the bathrooms because they make outsiders who come here think that we are criminals. I'd also have a better dress code. Cathy Koon I think there should be more faculty participation. I know their pay isn't the greatest, but the students as well as the teachers would benefit from it. The administration should be more aware of student needs. We could also use more school pride. Mostly, we need participation on the part of the students and faculty. Name withheld , 1...- bww. l 8 f Opinions ..-., ,. . 4 , r . f......---W V ....--v-M.. N g., 1 I I -'-,..3.14vk ... -At a -gl H .up-wav ...M ' MA. . ' Do you think President Reagan is doing a good job? I think Reagan is doing a fantastic job. He is a gutsy man who won't let other countries take advantage of us. Kevin Erwin I think he's doing a good job by building up our military forces, which will make other countries less apt to scoff at us. Roger Cooper I agree with his tax cuts and I think he has done more for us in the past six months than Carter did in four years. Ijust hope he doesn't get us into a war. Kay Roper