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

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At Ponderosa, Tom McNamara works hard to earn his spending money. Running the cash register is just one of Amber Norin’s duties at York Steak House. Spending Money 19

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Big Bucks And Whammy “Big bucks” were an important influ¬ ence in the lives of Rocky students this year. Financial needs lead many stu¬ dents to seek jobs to pay for weekend activities, clothes, cars and other mate¬ rial needs. Quite a few students spent a good portion of their time filling out employ¬ ment applications. Hours could be spent at this task and often the effort was quite worthwhile. Many students got the jobs they worked so hard to find but others had to scrimp and forgo the extras as the local employment market still wasn’t very good. When a job was finally attained the horizon may have looked quite bright but it also had its bleak moments. Many jobs involved critical weekend working hours on the very days teen¬ agers so eagerly awaited for their fun and good times. Having to spend the weekend at work could put a serious crimp in a students social life and made the weekend just a boring extension of the week. Other jobs required working school nights. Then students found that many of their precious sleeping hours had to be given up for homework and impor¬ tant assignments that were forgotten or put off until the last minute. On the other hand students may have found themselves with many things that weren’t possible before. They were able to afford those over priced jeans they eyed for so long. They might have been able to save some of their hard earned money to put themselves in the drivers seat of a new car. Or maybe they just spent the money on a date they couldn’t afford before they started get¬ ting paychecks. No matter how hard or long they worked and how careful they were with the money it seemed like “whammy” and it all disappeared as soon as the check was cashed. The sav¬ ings accounts just didn’t grow as fast as they thought or planned. The Rocky work force was made up of everything from box boys to pharma¬ ceutical assistants. Most students were quite content to be employed. They found themselves with extra money, work experience for the future and a lot less television watching time, a sure plus in everyone’s eyes. Jason Bajor digs into his pocket hoping to find some more of the green stuff. Jessie Jackson looks for the perfect pair of ear¬ rings to spend her hard earned money on. 18 Earning Money

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Shellee Showalter throws a side ways glance at Vicki McCleary as she drinks non-diet pop. Ice and snow don’t stop Lisa Waeyaert from keep¬ ing in shape with a healthy jog. Snap, Crackle and Pop? No, just Matt Denten, Scott Atkinson and Anthony Parrish with their answer to the cafeteria food problem. 20 Pigging Out