Rock Island High School - Watchtower Yearbook (Rock Island, IL)

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Arthur Johnson prepores to throw o snowboll or two U.T. students who spent the day at Rocky with the Student Council Exchange. Juanita Henderson ducks and shields her face as Randall Parsons tosses snow at her. 22 Student Life A

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Adjustment-Keynote For Rocks It wasn ' t easy; over half the students who entered Rocky the first day were to¬ tally unfamiliar with the building. During the opening day assembly Senate Presi¬ dent John Shallman proclaimed to the up¬ perclassmen, ”1 stepped on a few fresh¬ men on the way over, The juniors and seniors related to this. With only five min¬ utes between classes and with throngs of underclassmen wandering, hopelessly lost, even those who knew the set-up at Rocky found it difficult to get to class on time. Construction continued far into the first quarter: 227S and the Library shared a new fire escape; double classrooms turned into two single classrooms: Mr. Casey taught in what was once a teachers ' lounge (forcing many teachers to keep their lunches outside on a windowsill) and the student lounge became a deans’ at¬ tendance complex. Two hour parking became a reality shortly after school started. The signs that read, Two hour parking. School days only, eight a.m. to three p.m. popped up on the side streets surrounding Rocky. Stu¬ dents forced themselves to wake and leave for school earlier in order to get the precious few parking spaces on 23rd Ave. Two lots existed for student parking: many disgruntled students, however, refused to park in the lots for access to their cars was prohibited during school hours. Protests en¬ sued; a group of students went straight to Superintendent James Hopson with the problem. The administration stood their ground, locked lots remained, and Rocky students accepted the situation. The lunch schedule changed from four overlapping to three nonoverlapping per¬ iods, and the bullhorn was silenced for good. The Warchrower also changed. When the new adviser, Mrs. Simanek rook over the helm after Mrs. Conrad ' s twelve year reign, the staff decided that a totally new look should follow. They felt that it was unfair to reproduce Mrs. Conrad ' s book, so, a completely different format was used. By the time the school year ended, ever- ything clicked. The halls seemed less hec¬ tic: the lunchroom appeared less crowded; the students look less hassled. Rocky had adjusted: it became a four year public high sch ool, the only one in the Illinois Quad Cities, with an enrollment hovering near 2400. Mrs. Conrod, former advisor of the Watchtower, poses with ten of her twelve Rocky yearbooks. Finding parking on 23rd Ave is often difficult. Students who wont o good parking place usually arrive at school early. Student Life 1

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Chris Weinert cringes as Randall Parsons and Mike McKinley prepare to bomb her with snowballs. Although most of the snow was unpackable, they took advantage of the wet, heavy snow. Drr! Mikkos did it! Faithful General Hos¬ pital Fans firmly believed that the evil Mikkos Cassadine. who single-handedly froze Port Charles with diamond crystals, also sent Rock Island thermometers plum¬ meting. More scientific crews, however, announced the coming of on ice age, and that the weather was due to the align¬ ment of the planets in space. (They are nearly in a straight line, causing the gravitational forces to change.) Regardless of the causes. Rock Island faced its coldest winter of the centruy. Records doting back to the late 1800 ' s fell. The thermostat dipped down to a biting 25 below zero, and if that wasn ' t bad enough, the wind chill sent the tem- pature plunging to nearly 100 below. School was cancelled the 11th of Janu¬ ary, due to the dismal weather. To many students dismay, however, finals went on, as scheduled, the following two days. Also to the regret of many, the weath¬ er seemed to warm up for the week, while they sat in class, and grow colder every weekend, resulting in a disease known as Cabin Fever. New Year ' s Eve was spoiled for many because of the blizzard-like conditions: Blowing snow, low visibility, and slippery roads. As January progressed, blizzard condi¬ tions reigned. Plagued by the icy roads and slick sidewalks, attendance was low throughout the month. The cold weather did have one good point: when it got up to ten degrees, students were estatic because of the heat wave. Srudent Life 23