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Mighty Fine Funzies
(and other Abyssmal Pasttimes)

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Remember the Flaming J that launched (and still does) the commencement of each home football game?

The Flaming J was "born" in 1974, with the Student Council acting as sponsor and Paul Verheyden (then president of the student body) and Lucy Swanson Farmer (then vice president) as the catalysts for the pre-game tradition. 
 
Metal was formed and welded into the letter J, which was then wrapped in old newspapers donated by the Daily Progress (conveniently located across from the Tomato Bowl). The newsprint was covered in cheesecloth secured with twine. The "J Crew" -- an all-boy cast until the first girl joined in 2004 -- would prepare the J after weekly pep rallies. The same crew would be on-site at the games to light the diesel-soaked J during the school song. It was once suggested by the JHS Ag team to create a J that would feature quick-ignite gas jets.  It was decided that the loss of the camaraderie in building the J (about a 2-hour venture) each week far outweighed the convenience of a newfangled design. The Dallas Morning News cited our Flaming J tradition at JHS as one of the top ten high school traditions in the state!

When we attended games as students of JHS in the seventies, the Tomato Bowl lights were switched off to lend greater effect to the Flaming J. That option became obsolete when the stadium fixtures were converted to halogen lighting, which illuminate too slowly to make a quick reappearance.
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Don't We Love This?

Get yours here

Sights, Sounds and Snippets of '79

OUR HEADLINES

  • The first known cases of AIDS were reported by The Center for Disease Control
  • Saddam Hussein was elected president of Iraq and chairman of Revolutionary Command Council
  • Oil spills pollute ocean waters in Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
  • Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University shootings

  • Post-it notes are invented

  • Israeli forces retaliate for a terrorist bombing of a Jerusalem marketplace with a strike into Lebanon killing 40 Palestinians
  • Israel and Egypt sign a peace treaty at The White House, named "The Camp David Accords" for the U.S. presidential retreat, Camp David, in Maryland where the agreement was hammered out
  • Sony introduced the Walkman
  • There was a major nuclear accident at the facility on Three Mile Island outside of Harrisburg, Pa.
  • ESPN started broadcasting
  • The American Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km
  • The first gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, DC, involving perhaps as many 100,000 people
  • The Susan B. Anthony one dollar coin is introduced in the US
  • In Vienna, President Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement limiting strategic weapons. Both sides abide by its terms even though the The U.S. Congress would ultimately fail to ratify the treaty
  • The U.S. Department of Education was established by Congress
  • John Wayne dies of lung and stomach cancer at age 72
  • Billie Jean King recorded her 20th Wimbledon championship title
  • The NBA adopted the three point shot
  • Mafia boss Carmine Galante is gunned down in a "mob hit" in a Brooklyn, N.Y. café
  • The Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series, defeating the Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 3
  • Shah leaves Iran after year of turmoil and after 37 years on the Peacock Throne
  • Revolutionary forces under Muslim fundamentalist, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, take over. Khomeini had returned after 15 years of exile to establish a socialist Islamic republic
  • Iranian Militants seized the US embassy in Tehran, Iran taking more than 100 US citizens hostage. They demanded the Shah of Iran be returned for trial. The Crisis would last for more than a year
  • Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Pope John Paul II travels to the United States, the first time a pope has set foot on American soil
  • Lee Elder became the first African American to be a play for the US in the Ryder Cup (golf)
  • Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. Later she was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in the final weeks of his term
  • Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister
  • Nelson Rockefeller died as a result of a heart attack during an "intimate encounter"
  • The Congressional Committee concluded in their report that a conspiracy was probable, but Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shot that killed John F. Kennedy
  • South Korean President Park Chung Hee was shot to death by his close friend and Korean Intelligence Agency (KCIA) director Kim Jae-kyu in an apparent coup attempt

OUR POLITICS

President, Jimmy Carter  |  Vice President, Walter F. Mondale

OUR MUSIC

"Bad Girls", Donna Summer

"Hot Stuff", Donna Summer

"Ring My Bell", Anita Ward

"My Sharona", The Knack

"Babe", Styx

"Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", Rod Stewart

"Reunited", Peaches & Herb

"Escape (The Pina Colada Song)", Rupert Holmes

"Too Much Heaven", Bee Gees

"Gotta Serve Somebody", Bob Dylan

"Heartache Tonight", Eagles

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", Michael Jackson

"Deja Vu", Dionne Warwick

"After the Love Has Gone", Earth, Wind & Fire

"Boogie Wonderland", Earth, Wind & Fire

"I Will Survive", Gloria Gaynor

"The Gambler", Kenny Rogers

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia", Charlie Daniels Band

Grammy Award for Best Record

"What a Fool Believes", Doobie Brothers

Grammy Award for Best Album

"52nd Street", Billy Joel

Grammy Award for Best Song

"What a Fool Believes", Kenny Loggins & Michael McDonald, songwriters

Grammy Award for Best New Artist

Rickie Lee Jones

OUR MOVIES

Kramer vs. Kramer

The Muppet Movie

The Electric Horseman

The China Syndrome

Love at First Bite

The Main Event

Manhattan

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

OUR TELEVISION

Laverne & Shirley

Taxi

Dallas

Mork & Mindy

Charlie's Angels

OUR TOYS

Big Boggle


Star Trek: The Motion Picture figures

Big Trak

Computer Perfection

Intellivision

OUR PRICES
Bread: .30/loaf
Milk: $1.50/gal
Eggs: $1.32/doz
Car: $6,847
Gas: $0.88/gal
House: $71,800
Stamp: $0.15/ea
Avg Income: $22,316/yr
Min Wage: $2.90/hr
DOW Avg: 839

Peruse the profundities of the Prophecies and sarcastic sentiments of the Senior Wills, excerpted from the school newspaper, The Drumbeat, Volume XIX, published May 18, 1979:

Senior Wills PDF (484 KB)

Prophecies PDF (1.1 MB)

If needed, download the free Reader:

PLEASE NOTE:
If, for personal reasons, you prefer that references to you in these documents be blurred out, please let us know by email at tomdeb1835@yahoo.com.
And now, for something really fun!
(thanks to Dwayne Bolton for sending)
How many of these familiar faces can you identify?


Click image for larger view (size: 244 KB)
Did You Know ...

... that the fiberglass Indian which stood atop the cafeteria during our high school years (he's since been relocated) was a project of the 1975-1976 student council in celebration of the nation's bicentennial (1776-1976)

... that the Indian Mascot received the monikor of Chief Cherokee Pride as the result of a contest to "Name the Mascot" (Joan Daughty submitting the winning name)

... that the rousing JHS school song was set to the popular 1926 melody of "When Day is Done" a popular tune in 1920s Europe, composed by Dr. Robert Katscher and ranked #973 of the top 1000 jazz standards.

The original tune has been recorded by several famous artists: Art Tatum (early Jazz), Coleman Hawkins (Jazz), Al Cohn (Jazz), Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Jimmy Durant, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Bobby Darin

It was used in the motion picture “Strike Up the Band” (Paul Whiteman Orchestra), as well as several barber shop chorus groups

The original recording featured the following words:

When day is done and shadows fall,
I dream of you.
When day is done, I think of all the joys we knew
That yearning returning to hold you in my arms,
Won't go, love, I know, love,
Without you night has lost its charms!
When day is done and grass is wet with twilight's dew,
My lonely heart is sinking with the sun.
Although I miss your tender kiss the whole day through,
I miss you most of all when day is done.

As for the origin of the words for the JHS school song, several individuals over the years have made unsubstantiated claims to having WRITTEN the verses.

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