Stratford High School - Mnemosyne Yearbook (Houston, TX)

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I personally went around to recommended students and told them the benefits of joining yearbook, said Senior Lynn Forthaus. Suddenly, a group of strange faces became a unified staff. Over the summer, three days were spent attending a workshop at University of Houston where I began to realize what we were going to be doing, said Junior Judy Brown, Lynn and Chris had a barbecue and softball game for us to get to know each other. When the new yearbook staff beat the newspaper veterans, we knew we had a special team. The beginning of the school year tested that teamwork. We had announced the distribution of the 1979 books. The date was even on the marquee, when we found out thatthe books would be at least a week late, said Senior Tiffany Doucette. At the same time, staff members were finding out their section assignments and helping to get the underclassmen and senior class pictures taken. Everything went so fast. I applied for the sports editor position even though I didn't know very much about sports. Believe me, I learned quickly! said Junior Becky Schmidt. Everyone learned lessons in writing copy, designing Quad- paks, and cropping pictures. My mom thought I was crazy when I bought a bus tub to keep all my stuff in. But I really needed it, commented Senior Bonny Baxter. Serving food is what brought us together, said Junior Miles Fain. The staff got together and started being like a family when we worked the concession stand for the two-day speech contest in September. Everybody wore the Mr. Bill Publications' shirts we got. I did the voice of Mr. Bill with my other impressions all the time during class, but that one stuck. We used Mr. Bill as the theme for the slide show, commented Junior Lance Morgan. Throughout the year there were some problems, but most of them were pretty small: lost grease pencils, missing pica rulers, broken typewriters and sometimes uncooperative photographers, said Junior Sandra Wauson. Besides learning about responsibilities, we had a lot of Taking a big bite, Junior Becky Schmidt rnunches on an apple while finishing a layout, :P i ' f f 3 li 5 - Ee . 5 I it is Listening carefully, Sophomore Ann Grace leans over her tape recorder to hear an interview. good times too. We tried to celebrate everyone's birthday and on Valentine's Day we all went over to Ms. Schneider's for dinner and watched The Exorcist on television. It scared Miles to death, said Junior Carol Lindsay. Late in March, both the yearbook and newspaper staffs went to the University of Texas in Austin for two days of journalism workshops. We had the best time! said Sophomore Ann Grace. Most of the sessions were pretty good, and we got to walk around campus a lot too. Finishing up the year in May were a softball game against Spring Woods' journalism staffs and a traditional awards banquet at Brennen's restaurant. I neverthought that the year would end, said Sophomore Lisa Sedgwick, especially when we kept working after the last day of regular classes. I was so proud of this year's staff, they made being the editor a breeze, said Senior Lynn Forthaus. Not only did we capture the year for all of the other students, but we also made it very special for those of us on staff. .. - Q xt. Nw . S' i. wh tar It I V I. ggiggyg gg . ,g-nur!! - -, ' ,321-A . . r Q., D J ,... Q Z .. f - ' Looking up from a table covered Checking out the roof, Junior Miles with pictures and rough drafts, Soph- Fain, Sophomores Ann Grace, Lisa omore Lisa Sedgwick and Senior Sedgwick, David Dukes, Seniors Tif- Lyrin Forthaus work on the design for fany Doucette, Lynn Forthaus and the groups' section. Ms. Peggy Schneider step outside. yearbook 55

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Debating about which kind of spe- W U e m O S y cial headline type' she should use for Cries ot Let me seel are heard as senior statt members Lynn Forthaus and Tiffany Doucette look over some recently printed photographs with adviser Peggy Schneider 'Ill-.M DQ. O, Y an I -Sm ff 4,, A, Nag , W 'V X'Z..w.'f'hw gif H, fizzw it K t Q i my at VK - ,,., , 5 ' AV., Statt members Greg Smith, Judi Brown. Miles Fain, Carol Lindsay and Becky Schmidt sit in on the Harris County Journalism Workshop. After climbing up to reach the stor- age area on top ol the cabinets, Sen- ior Bonny Baxter looks for supplies. 54 yearbook If the honors section Junior Sandra Wauson rests her chin on a Chartpak S book. We V G i C9 Ngl'M' Q3 La- Correcting all tour copies, Junior Miles Fain types the teachers' names on a Ouad-pak. , 1 Y 1 2 5 ? 'X' W ,f ,, V V3 1 E L- l f 'V V B W 2,1 :. A me L r Trying tddecide on what to use, Junior Pam Carpenter shuttles through some photographs asking Sophomore Lisa Sedgwick 's advice. Is' -ni

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0 Staffers visit UT campus Q 0 Deadlines create problems Q 0 Paper wins second in state 0 . fi? is - t. . 5 -A me ff- n f 'V .9 at 99 2311! ' - 1' , 3? wi .s 22.2 .rg o Student Newspaper ' Stratford High School ' 14555 Fern ' Houston TX - ' I found that it takes more than time, energy, talent and perseverance to produce a newspaper. lt takes money. And more often than not, we just didn't have enough, said Oracle Editor-In-Chief Chris Wallis. Financial problems combined with the rising costs of commercial offset printing made change inevitable. We switched to a new size of paper called mini-tabloid that is roughly half the size of the old Oracle. And we were only able to publish eight issues as opposed to last year's 12, said Managing Editor Cathy Hudspeth. After producing five issues, the staff encountered the infamous Oracle crisis. lt took us 70 days to complete issue 6, and overall it was very demoralizing. We had the paper ready to go several times, but we simply didn't have enough ads sold. So we had to constantly revise and update, said adviser Ms. Peggy Schneider. A grade crack-down followed the crisis in order to provide some staffers with the motivation needed to complete two more issues. A fast-paced, quick-witted, and sharp-tongued atmosphere prevailed during the fifth period Oracle staff class. With the diversity of people that we had it would have been impossible for things not to be interesting. After all, we had a rabbi-to-be, a vegetarian jogger, a chain- smoking Muppet fan and a reformed druggie, said Feature Editor Julia Joseph. Certain moments really 56 publications stand out in my mind as being especially memorable. For instance, the time when we had a minister for a substitute, and he, Jeff Busch and Jeff Falick held a Judeo-Christian summit meeting, recalled Chris. I remember when every member ofthe staff signed a petition to stop Chris from running the headline, 'Sniff, Flomel, sniff,' said Cathy. And how could I forget when I went to pose forthe cover picture with Santa Claus and found him completely stoned? she said. Due in part to a close friendship between the Oracle and Mnemosyne editors, much of the traditional animosity between the two staffs were abolished. We even ate spaghetti and gefilte fish and watched The Exorcist together, said Junior Brad Todes in reference to one of the combined staff parties. For their hard, if sometimes inconsistent work, the Oracle staff placed second in AAAA newsmagazine competition at the April interscholastic League Press Conference in Austin. Ms. Schneider remarked, Not bad -for beginners. I was trying to come up with some news tips, but there were times when the ideas just wouldnt come, said Senior Julia Joseph. Phone calls often meant advertising money, as was the case in this instance with Junior Jeff Busch.