Valparaiso High School - Valenian Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

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AFTER SINGING HIS self- written song Don’t Say It’s Over” at an October sock-hop. Digital Hair lead singer Chad Clifford pauses in reflec- tion. HEIGHT CAN MAKE slow dancing difficult, but seniors Dan Eichmeier and Jin Jin Charon overcome the problem as they dance to Ber- lin’s “Take My Breath Away.” STUDENTS CELEBRATED OUR 42-7 football vic- tory over Chesterton by dancing at the post-game sock-hop. 16 Sock-Hop Feature

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i r t- “SHORT UNDERTHINGS” PROVIDE a shock to the Gilbreth family as Anne Gilbreth explains to her father why she purchased them. Gil- breth bought them to help increase her chances of catching the eyes of other boys. I Cheaper by the Dozen | Serious Fun In the beginning, on October 26, Alice Gambel knew for sure that she had three things to work with — a play, a cast and a couch. Together, these three things provided the framework for the drama department’s fall production, “Cheaper By the Dozen.” “Cheaper By the Dozen,” a true story written by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernes- tine Gilbreth Carey, is the tale of Frank Gil- breth, Senior’s struggle to raise, and at the same time control, 12 strong-minded chil- dren. Life in the Gilbreth household is typi- cally filled with surprise fingernail inspec- tions, language lessons in the bathrooms and instructions on the most efficient way to take a bath. Although Gambel and her 18-member cast (17 students, one dog) put the show to- gether in roughly one month, preparations for the play began at the end of the 1985-86 school year, when Gambel began reading scripts. “I wanted to do a serious drama. Even though ‘Cheaper By the Dozen’ is a comedy, it has serious overtones,” said Gambel. “It’s a meaningful play because of the realities that are presented in it,” said senior Pete Yelkovac, who portrayed Frank Gil- breth. “The message is in the second to last line of the play. You should spend your time doing what you want to do — ‘where your heart lies,’ as the play says.” After selecting her cast from a field of 83 auditioners, Gambel blended actors, cos- tumes, sound and lights into one final prod- uct. “It’s like building a house. You put up the decorations last,” she said. “Believe it or not, I built almost everything around the couch because I had one definitely picked out. I knew it was rose, and I also knew that at some point in the show, every costume would be sitting on that couch!” Four-and-one-half weeks and $4300 lat- er, the cast gave its debut performance to 1300 middle school students, a group that turned out to be the largest audience of the play’s five-day run. “I was sick over the audience sizes for this show. Maybe it was just poor timing — I don’t know,” said Gambel. “But how can you fight the Bears game?” by Karen Mutka 15 Fall Play

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Hop, skip oncl For VHS clubs, they were huge money-makers. For student bands or DJ’s, they provided active, interested audi- ences. For the typical VHS student, they were just part of the Friday night routine. They were, of course, sock-hops. For those involved in planning these casual dances, however, sock-hops proved to be more than just routine. “The nuts and bolts stuff in planning sock-hops is very important,” said Assis- tant Principal and Director of Student Ac- tivities Steve Cronk. According to Cronk, the “nuts and bolts stuff” of planning weekly sock-hops included “arranging off-duty police offi- cers for security, recruiting faculty to chaperone the dance, coordinating which doors are to be open and which are to be locked and, even, making certain that we don’t violate any fire codes,” said Cronk. The most important element in any sock-hop, the music, is also determined by Cronk. “It’s my job to book the DJ or the band — depending upon the circum- stances.” jump “I usually ask the dance sponsor which DJ or band he or she wants, and then I do my best to satisfy them,” said Cronk. While Cronk feels both bands and DJ’s are good sock-hop performers, he feels DJ’s are more advantageous to weekly sock-hops. “On Friday nights, you need someone who can set up very, very quickly, and a DJ can do that,” said Cronk. Dick Strahm, head VHS custodian, agreed with Cronk: “After a game, you only have about 15 or 20 minutes to get the floor cleaned and ready for the dance,” said Strahm. Cronk also added that DJ’s have an added advantage over bands in being able to “shift gears with music.” Tom Fiegle, DJ for 3-D Music Company, felt that DJ’s are able to accommodate differ- ent tastes in music but are unable to please every sock-hop attendee. “Although satis- fying everyone is extremely difficult, I be- lieve that most people have a good time, and that’s the main idea, right?,” said Fiegle. While DJ’s such as B and B Music and 3-D Music Company have dominated the sock-hop scene, they don’t, according to Cronk, have a “stranglehold on the mar- ket.” Student bands like Blue Elvis and Digital Hair have also graced the VHS sock-hop stage during the 1986-87 school year. According to Digital Hair guitarist se- nior Paul Gold, bands, unlike DJ’s, have the ability to perform original and less- common songs at sock-hops. “Digital Hair feels that playing at sock-hops is great. Digital Hair’s music is geared toward our age group and, at the sock-hops, there are 600 kids who are gonna hear our music. Our main concern is getting our original songs across to our audience,” said Gold. by Pete Yelkovac DUE TO TREMENDOUS crowds, sock-hops in 1986-87 were moved from the gym ' s north balcony to the main floor. 17 Sock-Hop Feature