High School Memories & Stories 2023
Tom Buhler – CHS
Seniors putting chairs and desks on the roof as a prank.
Wendy Smith McCoy – CVHS
Since I have always been interested/active in performing (singing, acting, dancing, etc.), probably the highlight of my time at CVHS was when I was cast as "Martha" in "Arsenic & Old Lace," with Judy Lawyer playing my sister, "Abby." (Judy and I have known each other since sixth grade and, AFTER high school, she even became my sister-in-LAW for a while!) What a GREAT time, fantastic cast, and fabulous director, Gary Christianson!
Dan Butler – CHS
I enjoyed working on several of CHS's plays, often helping with the sound program. One of the performances required the sound of a big splash. In the days before sound effects were readily available online, we had to make our own.
Our first attempt was to drop a large rock into Dixie Creek, which only produced a sloppy thud and a mud-splattered classmate- as well as his disgusted expletive on tape.
Something bigger was definitely needed for the desired effect- like a railcar's heavy coupler knuckle. After I located said item, we lugged the thing down to the swimming pool one night, squeezed it under the cyclone fence and then climbed over. With a tape recorder running, we tossed the rusty beast into the pool for a most impressive splash. The sound was perfect for the play but I have no idea how they retrieved that ponderous hunk of cast iron from the bottom of the pool. They probably had to drain it.
Any surviving janitors now know the 'rest of the story...'
Kirsten Irgens-Moller – CHS
The Tolkien club camping out at the KOA campground in Ashland as we pretended to understand and appreciate Shakespeare. That came later!
Suzanne Dorsey Beals – CHS
A few of my favorite memories are:
-Getting your own locker in the Senior hall
-Dances in the gym
-Cheering at games
-Always carrying a dime to make a call home
-Coke machines with a 5¢ Coke
-Friendships...that have lasted for 50 years
Also songs that can take you back:
-China Grove
-Killing Me Softly
-Feelin Stronger Everyday
-Diamond Girl
-Smoke on the Water
Terry Young – CVHS
During the first week of my sophomore year at CHS I was confused on where my English classroom was, having just moved from Salem Oregon, not knowing anyone but apparently it was obvious to a junior or senior classmate who took pity on me. So this classmate not only told me where the classroom was but he walked me to it. As he was dropping me off, he asked me my name and he then told his, Jon Krakauer. I just thought it was interesting that a now famous author was guiding to my English class.
Larry Konick – CHS
Playing cards with friends at lunchtime
Larry Martin – CHS
Life in Corvallis 50 years ago was memorable!
Our world today is so different, I’m sorry our children couldn’t have had similar experiences today, as we all did back then.
Stephanie (Taffy) Tarrant Martin – CHS
There are SO many fun memories! We had such fun being involved in the plays, folk dancing, Explorer Scouts, hopping trains, skiing at Hoodoo, lunches on and off campus, doing ads for the yearbook at different stores, and so many, many more. I treasure the friendships, laughs, and crazy fun times. Thanks to all who made it such a joy!!!
Don Buckendorf – CHS
On the weekends, Jim and I used to sneak into the old gym (along with other friends) and played basketball dunk games using a slanted trampoline. We put pads under the hoop for softer landings.
Jocelyn Dawson D'Ahmed – CVHS
I remember the first day of the first year that Crescent Valley opened some of the details were missing, including no classroom pencil sharpeners! Very few people arrived to school with sharpened pencils and it was hilarious how many of us were walking aimlessly around searching for someone that had one to borrow! Turned out to be a great icebreaker!
John H. Yang – CHS
1. Getting caught in Chemistry Lab in a squirt bottle fight with Martin Lewis.
*Mr Schaad gave us our only unsatisfactory citizenship grades as a result!
2. I remember my Calculus teacher Mr. Dean T Atwood telling me that I could be or do anything if I put my mind to it.
*He inspired me to never be afraid to take on challenges.
3. Shelling red pistachios upstairs at the new Fred Meyer with Gregg Bailey.
4. Bicycling to Newport with David Skeels in the pouring rain
5. Playing with EKG electrodes on each other in Human Biology class with Larry Konick. It was trouble when we learned that they also gave shocks!
6. Drawing blood when I attempted to attach the corsage at the Sr. Prom.
*no CPR was required fortunately!
7. Working on my 1965 Ford Mustang with Chris Watkins
Carol McCobb Gonsalves – CVHS
I have some general memories:
1) teacher Penny Dolan running down the hall with a mug of coffee.
2) always in the library during lunch period,
3) attended a criminal justice workshop with a classmate in Eugene. Sheriff Dolan drove us down in his cop car and a few of his interns came along as well.
4) the mock political convention. Penny D told me I was a political animal. And those times were with all of you as classmates. Thanks for being there.
Cindy Robinson Campbell – CVHS
On one of our cheerleading trips I discovered I had left my hot rollers on the bus. I couldn't imagine not having bouncy curly hair for the football game. It was late at night and I did not want to wake the bus driver so decided to crawl through the driver’s side window of the bus, which was ajar. Upon entering the bus I somehow kicked the emergency brake off and the bus starting rolling downhill towards the cabins and other cars. It crashed into all of them!!! Oops!! That was the last time the cheerleaders went on a road trip with the football players.
Melinda Lewis Kimlinger – CHS
Enjoyed being in the plays Princess and the Pea and being Tweedledum in Alice in Wonderland.
Favorite teacher was most likely Mr Nawrocki.
Fred Hammerquist – CHS
A shout out to the brave souls who joined the team in putting all the desks on the roof of CHS for the senior prank!
Tom Owczarzak – CVHS
Hanging out in the art room with Norma Lachelle and Roy Robinson and playing music on the quad are two of my favorite memories.
Jan Croeni – CHS
Forgetting my one and only line as The Duchess in "Alice in Wonderland" Children's Play.
Listening to Carole King's "Tapestry" album over, and over, and over, and over while working on the Chintimini Yearbook.
Scott Martin – CHS
At a band concert one evening in the CHS auditorium, we hid a special surprise for our director Harvey Brooks inside his folio on the director's music stand. After greeting the audience, he turned around, opened the folio, and was greeted by a playboy centerfold. Without losing a beat, he gave us a knowing look, then folded it and placed it behind the music. It was a great show.
Susan Hitchcock Arnold – CVHS
One of my favorite memories of high school was playing Mrs. Bascom in the play The Mouse That Roared.
Paul Willis – CVHS
As I recall, the first football game between our high schools was interrupted for a very long while by a dog running around on the field that no one could catch. I believe it rained quite a bit as well. And, as the Crescent Valley center, on one crucial play I forgot to hike the ball.
I would also mention that my favorite class was the Natural History of Oregon, taught by our track and cross-country coach, Jerry Colonna. He took us backpacking and even snow camping in the Cascades
Kent Conrad – CHS
Mr. Malango's sharp-witted commentary while showing photos to the cast and crew of the latest show.
Stanley Baggett – CVHS
The creek in the central courtyard was frozen and we brought chairs out from the cafeteria to slide about on the ice.
Judy Lawyer – CVHS
I remember taking about 7 or 8 of us stuffed into my Mom and Dad's station wagon to see Blazing Saddles at the old drive in on Hwy 20.
Jeff Lyford – CVHS
The first year - no band uniforms! We made revolutionary triangular hats from paper and pulled up socks over rolled up jeans. But we loved our team!
A few years ago, the dad of my daughter's friend was the architect on the new Corvallis HS. I told him proudly that I was in the first grad class from Crescent Valley and what a great new building we had. He replied, "That old place? They're pulling asbestos out it!"
Jean Eberhardt - CVHS
I have really fond memories of learning and singing anti-war protest and political folk songs in the stairwells of the old Corvallis High School with Andy Murdzek and other friends in our sophomore year. I'm sure we were stoned much of the time. I was done with recreational drugs by the end of high school, but I kept singing and playing my guitar... cuz your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore, it's already overcrowded from your dirty little war... Thank you John Prine, may you rest in power.
Continuing on to the new CVHS as a junior, a group of us began bicycling to concerts in Eugene and out to the beautiful Oregon coast on spring and summer breaks. We stretched our wings, found freedom on the road and got high on the wind. Matteo Martignoni, Pam Pritchard, Tom Denison and Andy Murdzek were my rolling rocks. Those friendships carried me through difficult years.
1973: It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.
1973: Roe v. Wade, a watershed moment in the reproductive rights of women in the US
1973: The Paris Peace Accords officially ended the war in Vietnam, the military draft ceased immediately and much of the anti-war movement with it.
1973: The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of Mental Illnesses
1973: The Watergate burglary is exposed, goes through the courts and takes President Nixon down the next year
1973: The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, SD to protest corruption on tribal leadership at Pine Ridge and to challenge the US government's failure to honor Native treaties
1973: The US CIA directly supported the brutal overthrow of a democratically elected government in Chile on 9/11, resulting in a dictatorship that lasted for 17 long years
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