Dobson High School: Class of ‘85

 

Kenneth in the (602)

As the 40th anniversary of my graduation from Dobson High School approaches, it seems fitting that I would wake up to this yearbook inscription I wrote four decades ago to a girl I tutored. (A big thank-you to Michelle for thinking of me and sending. I stand by my advice to "stay away from fractions and stoners" -- and bonus points if you can identity the song lyrics I quoted ... because I was 17!)

If there's a 40-year reunion in the works, I'm not aware of it. (In the top post on the Class of '85-specific Facebook group, someone named Rachel Davis writes: "DHS 85 Alum....just sent out the official Evite for 30th reunion. If you didn't get it, please message me your most current email address. Thanks!") As a Catholic-born closeted-gay agnostic at a massive school of Mormons, I was always more ripe for a fish-out-of-water afterschool special than becoming a reunion organizer. So it wouldn’t really surprise me if I somehow missed the boat. 

At 17: Going up?

But I did recently find these photos on the school's Facebook alumni page, which believe it or not are now the only pictures I have from my commencement ceremony. 

(Disturbingly, I found the images directly below the news that current Dobson football coach Richard Godsil had been arrested for sexual exploitation of a minor.)

It's never the coach you want it to be

It's no secret that Molly and Gary took laissez-faire parenting to the max. As such, no photos were taken that day -- not even of me in my gray honors cap and gown (as opposed to standard-issue blue ones). Four years later my parents knowingly skipped my college graduation ("there'll be so many people there you won't even know the difference," my mom said when I protested their conflicting travel plans), and I have no recollection of their being at my high-school ceremony. Perhaps my memory is wrong about this -- I do remember our going to Swensen's for ice cream with my grade-younger friend Kristen at some point to mark the occasion -- but suffice to say graduation day wasn't the big milestone occasion it was for so many others. 

P.S. My tutee-cum-gal pal also shared this, which may be of interest to fans of the Sonic Thrills, who narrowly missed the notable alumni section on our school's Wikipedia entry:

Michelle writes: 

Remember the band I hung out with in school and they came over to Suzanne's apt. And she screwed my crush, Tony? I found Jim Monarch, the lead singer. They sung at the Mason Jar. He was lead vocals for New Born South, The Voice and Sonic Thrills. I found my yearbook this morning.😁🤗memories!!! 

Another song. Jim's the vocals.❤👍i used to be semi cool for about 2 years.😂

Read HERE.

Jim Monarch weighed in on Mesa's own Hollywood Alley, aka "Arizona's Only Ultra-Chic Pissant Hip Dive Bar," HERE.

P.P.S. 

Just stumbled upon this 2022 film that is apparently so low budget they couldn't afford an apostrophe. Has anyone watched it? 

Writer/director Kyle Misak's movie is set in Southwest Michigan and tells the story of "an unorthodox high-school teacher with an outlandish persona [who] helps his small class of nine students get a better understanding of life."

Related: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

UPDATE:

A friend saw my post and then noticed this on FB, which prompted this exchange!

Song of the Day: 'Mental Hopscotch' by Missing Persons

Maybe everyone feels this way about their era. But it's hard to beat  the Go-Go's, Pretenders, Clash, Motels, Stevie Nicks, Stray Cats, Missing Persons, Pat Benatar, Cheap Trick, ELO and, um, hepatitis(?) getting shoutouts in your high school yearbook!

 #DobsonClassof85

#ThrowBackThursday

#TBT Ditching class at Dobson High to do some shopping at Judy's at Fiesta Mall, circa 1985. From HERE.

Boots by Judy's; parachute pants of unknown origin.

I Ran (So Far Away)

I don't know what's more horrifying -- that my 30-year high school reunion is next month, or that there is a provision for people bringing their grandchildren?!!! 

Pitcher This

Was looking at the Wikipedia page for my high school and noticed one of my actual classmates -- whom I remember! -- had gone on to be a pitcher for the California Angels. He's NOT THE ONLY notable alum from Dobson, but he's gotta be the hottest. 

Tell me your star classmate in the comments!

Music Box: Marilyn

It was the first week of 1984 and Newsweek had a Technicolor Boy George and Annie Lennox splashed across the cover proclaiming the second coming of the British Invasion, yet all my sexually confused 16-year-old eyes could see was endless possibilities. He looked like a chick. She looked like a dude, sort of. I specifically remembering staring at the cover while listening to the Eurythmics' haunting song "Jennifer" and feeling completely sick to my stomach thinking, maybe I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

This was the year before I went all Trapper Keepers
Like many gay people growing up during the '80s, the new wave explosion was a welcome escape from the boy-girl society around us, a convenient way to hide our sexuality behind the fashions and styles of the time. (I'm not sure what I'd have done, say, in the '70s or '90s.) And with each passing year someone new came along to push the boundaries. From Visage, Culture Club and Eurythmics to Haysi Fantayzee and Dead or Alive. But of all the artists of that gender-bender era, none garnered my affections the way Marilyn did.

I'll never forget seeing the 12" single of his debut song, "Calling Your Name," in the bin at Zia Records on Mill Avenue in Tempe, Ariz., with his glamorous blond dreadlocks tossed to the side, perfect makeup and his exposed chest. After tearing up the U.K. charts with that one he never had another real hit even in his homeland, so the singles and subsequent album, "Despite Straight Lines," were never even released here in the states. But that didn't stop me from snatching up every new thing he released (my friend Laura Thomas even had the picture disc of "Cry and Be Free" with the rare b-side "Running" on it, which I promptly taped!) and every No. 1 magazine and Smash Hits that he appeared in. (That's him in the bottom lefthand corner of my English folder from Dobson High. Can you name the others?) Was I sexually attracted to Marilyn? No. But I was definitely drawn to him in some strong way. Looking back I think it was his ability to have enough self-confidence to be who he was with no apologies that made me admire him, despite his increasingly obvious lack of musical abilities. (His outsider within the group of outsiders status was certainly something I related to, too.) When Boy George brought the era to life in the show "Taboo"a few years ago it was Marilyn's biting oneliners that stole the show, of course. And every so often I'll dust off my homemade Marilyn CD of everything he ever released (none of which ever made the leap to the digital age officially) and play it with fond memories of the pretty boy who wasn't afraid to be himself.


"Calling Your Name"



"Baby U Left Me (in the Cold)"

Awesome Songs

Empty Walls Lyrics Serj Tankian	I Miss You Lyrics Hannah Montana
Stop Sign Lyrics Beyonce Knowles	Misery Business Lyrics Paramore
Corona And Lime Lyrics Shwayze	No One Lyrics Alicia Keys
Thinking of You Lyrics Katy Perry	Miss Independent Lyrics Ne-Yo
A Very Special Love Lyrics Sarah Geronimo	Beat It Lyrics Michael Jackson

Get your free list here.

Ronnie Spector: "Tonight You're Mine, Baby"

When I was a senior in high school I got a part-time job working at the local AMC movie theater. The job paid $3.35 an hour -- so when you factored in the costs of the transportation, the white dress shirt, the black polyester dress pants, and the black leather shoes, it probably would have been cheaper for my parents to continue to allow me to watch MTV all day and play tennis all night (it was 115 during the day, after all).

Despite this, I made a lot of friends and sometimes managed to have fun working there (well, except when that cotton candy display fell from the ceiling and knocked me unconscious behind the concession stand). But more than anything, it was the free movies that seemed to make the job worthwhile. With the exception of "Desperately Seeking Susan," I don't think I enjoyed one other movie that showed at Fiesta Village more than "Just One of the Guys." Shown endlessly on cable these days, there was something about the tale of Ralph Macchio Joyce Hyser as a cross-dressing high school journalist who lives in suburban Phoenix that I found so appealing. It helped that much of it was filmed in places I frequented (the prom was shot at the fake ocean wave park not far from my house, called Big Surf) and that one of my classmates had a small part in the movie (Dobson High's resident drama queen Anthony Galde played the Anthony Michael Hallish Ralph in the film, although when Tony rubbed it in my face talked about it in the yearbook the year before I was so jealous I could barely see straight, the film was known as "Lady's Man." That role should have been MINE!!!)

But the thing about the film that I liked best were the closing credits. When you worked as a usher, you learned exactly what time each film ended because it was your job to be waiting inside the theater to then spring the doors open and urge people out. When "Just One of the Guys" ended, suddenly these oh-so-familiar everything-but-the-kitchen-sink drums would begin clanging and soon the sweet sound of Ronnie Spector's voice would start singing "Tonight You're Mine, Baby," a nearly perfect '60s throwback written by the legendary producer Narada Michael Walden just for Ronnie (I think Ronnie's contractually obligated to only sing songs with the word "baby" in them.) That Paul Shaffer produced the track in a perfect Wall of Sound but you'd swear Ronnie's lunatic ex-husband was at the controls.

So yesterday I was reading The Daily News and noticed tickets had gone on sale for Ronnie's annual Christmas Party (I won't even get started about how wonderful her contributions to the Phil Spector Christmas album are), which got me surfing the Web looking for other Ronnie news. Sure enough I quickly came across a message board of obsessed fans who were desperately looking for that beautiful song from "Just One of the Guys"! Ronnie responded on one message board telling her fans that she too finds it horrible that "Tonight You're Mine, Baby" is out of print -- and that it was never issued on CD to the best of her knowledge (mine, either).

So for all of you fans out there, today I offer an early Christmas Gift for You: my very own homemade (not-so-perfect) vinyl transfer MP3 of that classic moment from 1965 1985, Miss Ronnie Spector singing "Tonight You're Mine, Baby." Enjoy ...

GOOGLE-AIDED UPDATE: Is my former schoolmate now spending his nights on Broadway?