1977-1978: Year Long Presidency, New Mural & Dramatic Monkey House

1977-1978

As I was looking through this year's book finding stuff to highlight, I couldn't stop snapping pictures and writing things down. The 77-78 school year was ripe with interesting tidbits and the yearbook staff, including editor-in-chief Arlene Boyd, did a great job of documenting the year and really focusing on the fun side of school life.

STUDENT LIFE

ASB Pres/VP

The Associated Student Body Constitution was revised this year and as a result, the A.S.B. President and Vice President served full year terms, rather than changing out each semester as had been the procedure previously. The year-long President was Lisa Wilson and Vice President was Debbie Felix.


Homecoming Week included Bee Bop Day, a Holiday day, Slave Day--which followed a slave auction the previous week in which students apparently "bought" other students (the book doesn't explain exactly how this worked, but based on other pictures, perhaps the Homecoming Court was auctioned off to raise money for the senior class), Old Folks Day and Halloween Day. The 1977 Homecoming Queen was Linda Iribarren. 

The now annual tradition of Powder Puff resulted with a tie game of 6-6 between the juniors and seniors. The faculty coaches this year were Mr. Molino and Mr. Horst. 

In a sign of the changing times, the yearbook details the disbandment of the Ski Club due to insurance policies preventing them from traveling to Utah. Instead a parent booster club was formed, which allowed the skiers to make their way to Utah during Easter week. The yearbook concludes, "Although the ski club is no more, it is still one of the most popular clubs on campus."


On the Cheerleaders page, we get a glimpse of a mural that was donated by the Class of 
1977, which included a collage of images related to QHHS. Confederate images seen in the mural were phased out in the 1990's and have not been used in conjunction with the Rebel mascot since that time. 



During this school year, a Modern Dance Show was performed. Groups were responsible for the choreography of their dance, facial make-up, costumes, lighting and props. They were given time during their P.E. classes to prepare, as well as after school and on weekends. 

The F.F.A.- Future Farmers of America organization continued to thrive at QHHS this year. Activities they were involved with included Judging and Field Days, leadership training, National FFA Week, project competition and Greenhand Initiation (first-year members). Wayne Sides' lamb won Grand Champion and Lynn Wyman's lamb won Reserve Grand Champion at the A.V. Fair.

The Winter Ball was themed "Today's Dreams are Tomorrow's Memories." Lana Young and Barry Blagg were announced as Queen and King, respectively.



The Drama department continued to be very active during the 77-78 school year. The fall play was produced in the Quartz Hill High School theater, also known as the 200 Cafeteria (a tradition that still continues today due to the lack of an actual theater on our campus). Mrs. Muriel Mouring, the drama teacher, directed Welcome to the Monkey House. 


The 1978 Prom was held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on June 2. Leanne Manis was crowned the Queen. 










SPORTS

"The 1977 Rebel Football Team opened this season at the newly opened Nicholson Field."  The team ended the season with a 5-1 Golden League record, once again their only loss to cross-town rival Antelope Valley High School. To make matters even more heart-breaking, that game came down to a 26-26 tie with the Antelopes scoring with only :27 remaining in the game. 


Wrestling continued to rack up the wins bringing home their 8th Golden League title.










OTHER STUFF


Dr. Dale Johnson continued as the Principal of QHHS this year. The yearbook also included some fun student quotes about Dr. Johnson, the school board, vice principals, the Career Center and counselors.




NEWS OF THE WORLD

The Cavalier Yearbook staff also provided an interesting section called "News of Our World" in which they highlighted six key news items happening around the Antelope Valley during this school year. Included were Lancaster finally becoming an official city in November of 1977 along with its first mayor Stan Kliener and city councilmen Timothy Hayes, Dr. Forrest Hull, Ronald Jackson and Fred Hann. 

The first space shuttle, the Enterprise took off and landed from Edwards Air Force Base and some QHHS students were fortunate enough to be bused to the base to view test runs and landings. 


Flash Floods hit the AV during the winter and spring of 1978 after two years of drought. The article states that as of March 4, 10.88 inches had fallen in the A.V., well above the average. 

Teachers in the AVUHSD worked without a contract for 6 of the 9 months of school. The article mentions that foreign language teacher Mrs. Dashiff missed over 300 hours of her classes while she served on the negotiation team. 

Machine and aerospace workers went on a three-month strike for "the longest corporate strike against Lockheed California Co., Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., Lockheed Air Service, and Lockheed Georgia Co." on October 10, 1977. 

And Names in the News mentioned the arrival of Prince Charles of England, the passing of Myrtie Weber, long time AV resident and owner of the Western Hotel at the age of 110, and stunt dare devil Evil Kneivel spent some time in the AV as a resident of the Mira Loma Correctional Facility after beating his manager with a baseball bat.