"The Way We Were"

Thoughts drift to another time, before internet and cocaine,

Before herpes, AIDS, Ebola, Global warming and acid rain.
 

When prayers in school were no big deal, and some kids got held a grade;

When we thought Keds and PF Flyers were the best shoes ever made.
 

When two dollars bought a lot of gas, And records were a buck;

Getting an allowance, 3 bucks a week was surely a stroke of luck.
 

On TV it was the Beaver, Ricky Nelson, Father Knows Best;

Today it's Ozzie Ozburne, Eminem, and Jerry Springer's raving guests.
 

And TV ads were Alka Selzer Cheerios and Dentine;

Today they're hawking products for feminine hygiene.
 

When few families took vacations, And houses were built small;

And a 6-foot-tall basketball player was considered tall.
 

We didn't have Internet, Walkmans or cable TV;

And old-run movies at the theaters were all we'd ever see.
 

But we didn't need twelve dollars for a ticket, popcorn and drink;

By shoveling snow on a frozen lake we'd have an ice-skating rink.
 

In summer we'd dive into lakes we'd shiver and shake like fools;

It was icy water or nothing because there were no swimming pools.
 

There was no bottled water, we drank it from the tap;

And you could drive across Anchorage without getting out a map.
 

Arctic Boulevard was in the woods, So was Muldoon and Northern Lights;

From Tudor to O'Malley Road there were only homestead sites.
 

The only body piercing we saw was in National Geographic;

And if you asked, not many of us (except Ron Waters) could define the word pornographic.
 

The Coke Show, Bunn Drive-In Charcoal Burger was the best;

Cruising 4th Avenue doing what kids do, just two high schools: East an West.
 

Smokers weren't pariahs, and air travel was fun;

No one owned purebred dogs, no one used cream to block the sun.
 

When the 1957 Chevy Was the King of all of the Cars;

And sports figures were heroes rather than wealthy Superstars.
 

When you called a company for info, a live person would respond;

There was no such thing as phone mail jail to leave you hanging on.
 

If you spilled hot coffee on yourself having lunch in a cafe;

There were no attorneys, lawsuits, It was your fault... you walked away.
 

Not many parents we knew bought their kid a brand new car;

And a drive to Palmer or Wasilla we thought was going far.
 

Hitchhiking was a common way For kids to get around;

Today it's not seen too much, Anchorage is not the same safe town.
 

State legislators had their differences not unlike today;

But getting things done, not politics seemed to hold more sway.
 

Alaskans were more united we shared a common bond;

There was tolerance and patience from cities to bush and beyond.
 

For sure it was a simpler time Back in 1963;

When we departed West High School To embark on life's journey.
 

So many memories, so long ago, Where do we begin?

Ron Waters' perfect hair? Steve Horvath's fiendish grin?
 

Our song leaders and cheer leaders the spirit of our class;

Frozen in time in our yearbook and now 40 years have passed.
 

And our landmark production of West Side Story:

Mike Keith as Tony, Dick Trudeau, Bernardo And Maria played by Betty Query.

I remember rehearsing the rumble scene, receiving bruises and cuts;

The Sharks and Jets out of control Director McKelvey going nuts.
 

'Smarter, wiser we will be,' One of our time-worn refrains...

It's true we had some classmates with way too many brains.

Ted Trueblood, Doug Strandberg, Neil Koeniger and Patsy Ryan;

Who routinely garnered straight A's without hardly tryin.'
 

Mike Kelly, Linda Lamoureaux, Scholarly for sure;

Paula Robinson, Sally Lasuter, Bill Prosser and Skip Cour.

We had athletes, artists, musicians Larry Cleveland the extraordinaire;
 

But what we remember most are personalities so rare.

The boundless energy of the Andes twins, Bill Borchardt's rapier wit;

Effervesence of Trudy Mielke, Glenda Irving, The radiance of Sharon Vitt.
 

Winton Wilcox the endless talker; Colleen Peters' perpetual smile;

Bill Stevenson, Carl Brady, Joe Prince, and others who dressed with style.
 

Terry Holliday, Ron Cupples, Dick Hartman, of mischievousness and fame;

Al Hayler, Willie Robinson, Kerry Kimura... always in the game.
 

Cheryl Cruver and Becky Stewart, best actresses all around;

Bill Huskey, Susan Koslosky, Margaret Allen we knew were upward bound.
 

So many others, we can't name them all, who left imprints on our lives;

Foster Dyer, for instance, remarried and actually survived.
 

Jay Cross, Don Holland, Chris Gratrix and Vernon Laird;

Roy Huhndorf and Richard Milhouse, now those two made me scared.
 

Kathy Sandison, Kay Edwards Mike Keenen and Dave Hutton;

Tom Johnson, Shirley Mathews, we could go on and on.
 

But I remember the quiet ones too who weren't headlines in West Side' story,

People in the shadows of the ones who reaped the glory.
 

Barbara Kendall, for instance, Carl Dumman, Ken Middleton;

People like Bill Halm, Ben Crawford, we had enormous fun.
 

We're captured in that Anchor yearbook, innocent, carefree;

We won't forget those times we shared back in 1963.
 

And now we're in a different time of conflict and war;

Economic downturn, layoffs, we don't know what's in store.
 

But if we're still the same old class that we were way back when;

We'll smile and hold our heads up high and look to the horizon.
 

And if we can't find things to joke about as world tensions grow more dire;

Cheer up, we needn't look far there's always Foster Dyer.

Frank Baker
April 2003