Weldon E Howitt High School - Hi Life Yearbook (Farmingdale, NY)

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Paper analyzes pot problem Teachers challenge increasing problem Page 8 — Top: Charlie Chaplin star of over 80 well known films died on Christmas day 1977. Bottom: Chris Kwiatkowski reads about how President Carter will tackle a world economic problem Page 9 — Top Left: Elvis Presley, one of the founding fathers and king of rock died at 42. Top Right: In January, the Paper Lion published a magazine supplement concerning new marijuana laws and an old marijuana problem. Bottom Left: Water inside out. as the result of a crippling January ice storm Bottom Right: In February. Heavyweight Champion Muhammed Ali entered the ring in Las Vegas only to be stripped of his crown by former Olympic gold medalist Leon Spinks before a television audience of millions. 9

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Events of 78 Are Now History Charlie The Summer of 77 held the most horrifying event of all. The Son of Sam terrorized the New York Metro- politan area for a year, forcing girls to cut their hair short and stay indoors. Finally, in August, David Berkowitz was apprehended in Yonkers and ac- cused of the shootings of many young people. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. While day to day news and historical events are taking place, most of us are too involved with classes, sports, and clubs to notice. However, after the year is over, our memories somehow bypass these daily incidents and rest upon certain events and fads that have passed. Our senior year contained many such memories involving and evoking reac- tions from each of us. Chaplin Dies at 88 Paitt 3 This year was one containing many tragic deaths. We lost Elvis Presley, the undisputed king of rock and roll; Terry Kath, the lead singer from “Chicago ; Charlie Chaplin, the love- able tramp; members of Lynyrd Sky- nyrd Band; Groucho Marx; Bing Crosby; and Guy Lombardo. Pete Hamill: Chaplin's Legacy: Laughter and Tears For the first time in years Long Island was paralyzed by ice storms and bliz- zards closing school for a total of nine days. Many families were left without heat and electricity, but, somehow the beauty of such snow and the days off from school made up for the losses. The euphoria was short lived, however, when we learned of the Board of Education’s decision to cancel our Spring vacation to make up the lost days. On the sports scene this year, the New York Yankees recaptured the World Champion title despite a sea- son full of turmoil. In the 1978 Super Bowl game, the Dallas Cowboys took the sparkle out of the orange Crush and defeated the Denver Broncos. Leon Spinks scored one of the major upsets in sports history by beating World Heavyweight Champion Mu- hammad Ali in a 15 round split deci- sion. The Brazilian soccer star Pele single handedly made soccer the “in sport with his brief stint with the New York Cosmos. Having achieved his goal of popularizing soccer in the U.S., he triumphantly retired in the Fall of 1977. 8

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The importance of movies, music, and television to the high school student has surpassed that of mere entertain- ment. These popular media influence changes in existing styles as they create new fads, catchphrases. and trends. Saturday Night Fever , starring John Travolta, stimulated so great an inter- est in the disco scene that even the mellow sound of radio station WKTU devoted much air play to the Bee Gee’s soundtrack of the movie. Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind made science fiction and UFO’s frequent topics of conversa- tion, while the theme songs from these movies were also popular sin- gles. Other popular movie songs were You Light Up My Life, which won a Grammy for best song of the year, and Nobody Does it Better, from the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me’’. The popularity of Annie Hall and The Goodbye Girl showed that comedy and romance, even without a music soundtrack, is still a winning combination. Collecting records and attending con- certs of favorite musicians are still favorites among teens. The record 10