Excelsior Springs High School - Tiger Yearbook (Excelsior Springs, MO)

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(right) Students looking for friends, good times and parties fill Excelsior’s downtown streets on Friday and Saturday nights, (bot- tom right) Top film billings draw' many people to the Twin drive-in theatres, lo- cated on Highway 291 near Independence, and other city cinemas. (above left) What to wear poses a daily problem for many, as with Judy O Leary, senior, (left) One of the Springs several wooded areas is explored by sophomore Monty Wise and his dog Missy, (above) Reading the Christmas Gospel of Luke at St. Luke’s Episcopalian Church Christmas program is freshman Sally Waller.

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Nestled in gently rolling hills, with wide expanses of farmland surrounding. Excelsior Springs was a community in which unity and peace of mind seemed assured. The scope of national events seemed to pass us by. This observation changed as our town sought out what it was to be. Although the community boasted an expand- ing center of industry, an extinquished source of revenue (tourist trade) came to life once again with the re-opening of the Elms resort hotel. Emerging from existence as a bed- room community to a full-fledged suburb of Kansas City was viewed as a regression by some and as progress by oth- ers. Locals took notice when Kansas City and the Midwest were swept into headlines spanning the country. In August Republicans journeyed to Kansas City for a national con- vention at which Gerald Ford barely edged out Ronald Reagan for the presidential nomination. A drought scorched the Midwest during the Bicentennial summer and damaged crops. In contrast, Artic-like tempera- tures blasted the heartland during winter, resulting in natu- ral gas shortages and forcing the closing of schools through- out the nation. Nationally, a threatened swine flu epidemic and the elec- tion of Jimmy Carter caused Americans to make decisions that would affect their health and welfare. Viking I and II Mars probes nurtured man’s curiosity as to whether or not he was alone in the universe. Evolution of these events and a metamorphosis of the surroundings we lived in created the need for a new unity, for concordant

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To a person who had a rural mail- ing address, a city phone, and who attended school in Excelsior Springs, harmony may have seemed just an il- lusion. Establishment of an inner tran- quility, however, was discovered to be much more than an address. To some, it was security that they had found a religion, a communication with God, and through this, answers to age-old questions such as, “Who am I?” “Why do I exist?” More pressing at the time, how- ever, were the day to day “crises” that arose and needed to be solved to keep a balanced life. “What am 1 gon- na wear?” “Swift, homework over the weekend and I’m going out!” Students often were not content just sitting around the house and solv- ed their boredom by developing hob- bies, investigating nature in the dwindl- ing wilderness around Excelsior, or by ridin’ through town listening to the radio or tape deck. If no action was found, entertainment was sought in the Kansas City area. Thus, it was discovered that to achieve harmony with the world, first a personal harmony must be found. rtuir©=Iked opening, by Mark Stcrling 5