Happy Halloween!

Thank You!

I'm excited that Kevin Myatt, a previous "Golden Hurricane" co-editor and writer has agreed to contribute his professional expertise to the JHS Reunion Blog. Kevin now writes for the "Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Virginia and has his own weather blog for the paper. Go check out his blog when you get a chance. Also, thank you to Charles Brinkley who has agreed to post from time to time as well. You can catch him on the web here. If anyone else would like to contribute posts that are related to our reunion or the 80s please email your request and I'll add you as an author.

Those Times were Golden ... or were they?

This ranks among the most surreal moments of my life -- 19 years and 730 miles removed from Jonesboro High School-1988, and I have been retyping a column I wrote for the high school newspaper. I NEVER EVER expected to be rewriting something from the Golden Times again in my life!

At the prompting of the mysterious "mbc," our dear JHS Class of 88 blog queen, from a previous post about the "JHS-We Have It All" bumper sticker, I am posting my column about the bumper sticker that sparked outrage from the principal. (mbc, of all people, should know a little something about how high school principal types react to things) I am going to post it in a comment to keep this from being an enormous entry that pushes Rev. Run off the front page ... so enter the comments section at your own risk. I'm almost embarrassed to dredge this up.

You've probably figured out by now that I'm the second classmate "mbc" referred to that would be helping her with the blog. I'll be doing 2 things in the coming months: (1) retracing the 1987-88 school year from the pages of the Golden Times, which I have for some reason kept in their entirety if for no other reason than to torture myself by rediscovering some of my truly awful writing from the 1980s, and (2) doing a series of short profiles on many of our classmates.

So you might be hearing from me sometime soon!

When Nintendo Was King

This is an Inside Edition clip doing a feature on the Mario Brothers game craze and the influence of Nintendo in 1988.

Hello from Charles Brinkley

Hey Everyone! First, thanks to mbc for letting me blog on the JHS site. It has been fun reliving all the memories from our youth! I wanted to tell everyone about an event I am part of - The World's Biggest Blog Party. A good friend came up the idea to unite bloggers around the world from Oct 27th (Make a Difference Day0 to Nov. 17th (Family Volunteer Day). Check out the posts and sign up to blog about a charity or mission project that you are passionate about. Keep in touch!

Calling All Packrats...

If you have any high school memorabilia or photos that you have kept that you think would be interesting to share, either scan them or take a picture and send it to us as a jpg file so we can post it. Include a short description or story to go along with it. Or maybe the photo itself tells the whole story. :-)

Also, I've enlisted the help of two more classmates to help with the postings on the blog. Keep checking back to see who the "mystery" bloggers will be...

80s Flashback...

Remember the classic 80s band "Run DMC"? Fast forward into the millenium, Reverend Run from the same band has had his own reality show with his family and also has a daily affirmations email you can subscribe to. Here's the link for some great words of wisdom. Here's today's message: "Good morning. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Without kindness, there can be no true joy." Thanks, Ashley. :-)

Do You Remember Junior Prom?

Do you remember junior prom? I do. We worked hard and built an awesome boat (well, PARTIAL boat) and got great decorations for the seniors along with a theme that went along with an 80s song, "Never Say Goodbye". And what do we get senior year? Yeah, we got "Stairway To Heaven" with a few balloons and some streamers. Isn't that song from the 1970s? So appropriate. What do you remember about your junior prom?

Did We Have It All?

Who had this bumper sticker? I think this was one of about five stickers I had on my car (didn't know back then that "less is more"). I remember Kevin Myatt wrote a newspaper article commentary about this bumper sticker that he may or may not have taken some heat for. He might need to jump in and refresh our old "37/38 year old" memories. What do you think? Did we "have it all"?

The 80's Zone

Here's is the video that was made for our ten year reunion. We played it at the Elks Club on that Friday night. I don't think everyone got to see it in full. Now here it is.

VH1's I Love The 80's

Go check out VH1's "I Love The 80's" and see some fun facts of events that happened in 1988. A couple of interesting items: Prozac was introduced to the public and The Greenhouse Effect was discovered. These two items don't necessarily go together. :-)

Classmate Blogs or Websites?

If you have a personal blog or website, just leave a comment with your name and the address or send us an email at: jhsclassof1988@gmail.com and we'll link you to the blog.

Ready For Your Closeup?

On the right hand side of the blog is a survey asking your opinion on posting video from 20 years ago on this blog through YouTube.com. Video could include clips of any high school event that was videotaped (sporting events, pageants, plays, musicals, graduation, etc). We also have the video that was put together at our 10 year reunion. Please vote and let us know your opinion on posting video clips to the blog. Personally, I'd like to see the clip of Ashley Thompson Day during the talent portion of the Sweetheart pageant slicing a pineapple with these HUGE knives that she twirled—now that was impressive. :-) I wonder how she did that?

Memories From High School?

Anyone have any funny or interesting stories or memories from high school that you think are "blog-worthy"? Please email jhsclassof1988@gmail.com and send in memories that you'd like to share with the class. You can be anonymous or you can post your name. Send them in and I'll post them on the blog. The only requirement: Let's try to keep the posts "Positive and PG". (If you really want to be "gung-ho", let me know and I'll add your name so you're able to post directly to the blog) If anyone is listening, I'd personally like to know the "whole story" behind the Big Foot Hoax. :-)

Do You Remember...?

This is pre-high school but still from 1982. Do you remember the premiere of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on MTV?

JHS Graduation 1988

In case you've lost your commencement program from 1988, or simply do not remember your graduation almost twenty years ago, here's a peek at the inside of the program, minus the class list.
DOWNLOAD OR VIEW FILE

133 Class Members Contacted To Date!

Out of our graduating class of 296, 133 people have been contacted at this time. If you have NOT received an email from jhsclassof1988@gmail.com regarding the reunion, we may not have your email so contact us at that address. If you do not have an email address we will send hard copy information at a later date. If you know of someone that started out in our class but did not graduate with us for whatever reason, and you know they would like to come to the reunion, please forward their information as well. We appreciate and need everyone's help in finding everyone's contact information! Keep them coming!

NOTICE: The reunion date is set for the weekend of October 10, 2008. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend!

Classic Movie Clips

No matter how unrealistic this movie may be (Would a principal really leave kids in detention unsupervised? And how could one kid write everyone's essay and get away with it?) it's still a classic. What was your favorite 80s movie?

"When I Was Your Age..."

Never thought I'd be old enough to utter these words.

Who Knew They Still Made These?

I realize this is more around our junior high rather than high school days but I couldn't believe a company still makes these. So if you're in the market for a pair you can grab them at the Parachute Pants Store. You've got to love google and the "internets".