Great 40th Reunion Zoom Chat

It was so good seeing some of our American High (Hialeah, FL) classmates via Zoom last night! Kaylois Henry loggged in from Cambodia where it was 7am. Jarrod Coe logged in from Cayman Islands where he was on the air live playing disco as a thirty-plus year DJ. I feel so very humbled and blessed to know all of you. Constructed around the time of our country's bicentennial in a cow pasture, our school truly represents even now the best in humanity no matter the headlines. Youtube slideshow here. If you need the actual file because the video is blocked in your country, just find one of us on social media and someone will be happy to share! Be well and stay happy everyone. And be safe to all classmates traveling on the multi-class and multi-school reunion this weekend. Love you all!

Hall of Fame - flashback

I was cleaning out an external hard drive and happened upon this screenshot of a Facebook post by American High Class of 84 President Michael Shelley. I understand the Hall of Fame wall is no longer up at American High. It was hard then to grasp how much time would pass before the school would run out of space lest the entire building be covered in photographs. I am grateful that I was at American between 1981 and 1985, or less than ten years after the school opened. Being there allowed me and others to see the generous attempt at capturing the faces and names of some of the people who walked through those school doors via this wall. If memory serves, it is in Central Plaza where a skylight likely offered enough sun in to make the photos fade faster. My photo is right under the words Hall of Fame. To my right is fellow Class of 85ers then-Kim Andrews (Lang) and to her right, Kaylois Henry. Oh, what memories. Click on the photo to make it bigger. My four years at American were some of the happiest of my life. I see my faded photograph and those of others in this screenshopt, and I remember the past joy and sadness. Time flies. Some of us are here. Others are not. My brother Duane Garcia Andrews who wasin the Class of 84 passed away in January 2023, or a year or so ago. Next year will be the fortieth anniversary of my high school class graduation. Wow! I celebrate my 57th birthday today remembering my brother, my classmates, staff and teachers. Hope everyone is well.

rest in power to all of our classmates

As Tonja Nunnally from the Class of '83 generously works with other American High classmates to prepare for the July 23 picnic, which begins at 8am at Amelia Earhart Park, I had to look for the names of our classmates from the Class of 85 who have passed away as a tshirt is being made for our now-gone cherished friends. I realized I never did a salute to Lisa Jones Gutierrez who passed away in 2018. She was on our Lady Patriots basketball team which was the only team to go undefeated in regular 84-85 season. The starting players were Nilka Carter, Carol King, Lisa Starks, Lisa Jones and Fatima LaFond. I later saw Lisa Jones at the University of Miami where we were both students. We also attended Lake Stevens at the same time. Rest in power, Lisa.

Rest in peace to all of our classmates who have crossed over including Lisa, Delone Mathis, Warren Burney, Keevin Gillard, Bryce Dudley, Mark Raines, Anthony Crawford, Linda Dorn, Willie Graham, Milton Ivory, Greta Jordan, Terry Houston, Wanda Lamar, Dorothy Myers Bolm, Monica Poole, Derick Stanley, Alfred Heaton, and likely more. Here's to our shared past together.

Great 30th Reunion!

Thanks to all of our classmates and friends up showed up in spirit and person to our 30th high school reunion at Murphy's Law Irish Pub. Patriots forever! See video highlights here.

"Papa Smurf," you will be always be in our memories.

Rest in peace, Coach Jimmie "Papa Smurf" Parrot. I just learned about his passing. He had planned to come to our reunion this July. Here is a story on him and his recent retirement. Cherish every moment, Class.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, American High graduates, among them my own dear Class of '85. We're seven months away from our 30th reunion. If you haven't purchased your tickets to the July 18th Happy Hour at the Marriott in Hollywood Beach, please do so soon! Details are to the right of this blog. Coach Charlie Yanda who led our football team to many wins is our special guest speaker. Other coaches have also been invited. In the meantime, here are a few images that might bring back some memories. I just pulled out of my memory book and saw my much neater handwriting offering the following: Favorite Movie: Beverly Hills Cop Favorite Group: New Edition (I actually added a slash and wrote Lionel Richie). Favorite Movie Star: Eddie Murphy Favorite Sport: Football Favorite food: Pizza, subs Favorite car: Cherry apple red Nissan Favorite television show: The Cosby Show The only thing still true is favorite sport. It's still football. And Roll Tide even though I must watch those Oregon Ducks duke it out with Ohio State tonight. In memory of the latter's win over the University of Miami in 2002 owing partly to a bad ref call, I'm going for the ducks. What about you? Sharony

Coach Yanda will be special guest at reunion

Coach Charlie Yanda, head football coach at American High during our days there, agreed to be our special honored guest at the American High Across the Years Happy Hour Reunion. Today is his 74th birthday. Listen to this hearty Patriot hello recorded via phone today with him. We are blessed to have him with us and just blessed to have known this man. Addendum: I just spoke to Coach Jimmy Parrot who worked with Coach Yanda and others and he said he will attend as well and will see if he can get other coaches to do the same. It will be an honor to see them all.

that building could have been anything

I don't know about you, but I never thought too much about the physical structure of our high school when I was a student there. But I think about it now as I get older. Architecture figures into my lesson plans, but also my favorite television shows, among them House Hunters and House Hunters International. I now wonder about how from afar American High looked like it could be anything: a factory, a correctional facility, an office complex; heck, even a spaceship. It was, however, just a school. Save for one skylight window, I don't remember any windows. Was that deliberate? Did someone want us to stay focused on the schoolwork before us? Were they trying to minimize the energy costs by keeping out the sunlight? If so, what were the costs? For a time during the 1980s any release from the postmodern, sterile look of our high school came from the energy of the people inside (and that brightly-colored mural of birds on the Central Plaza stairwell. Remember that?).

true story

I just caught up with an old friend who I have known not only since my years at American High, but the years some of us attended Lake Stevens Jr. High. She ended up going to another high school that shall remained unnamed. But she said she was always a Patriot at heart. In fact, she told me a story that I believe is true even though I can't recall a single thing about the particulars. Remember those ribbons we used to wear on game days? The ones that came in red, white or blue and said something along the lines of how American High was going to beat this team or that team? I think they cost 25 cents a piece. Well, this dear friend said she asked me to buy a few so she could wear them to school right before American's football team played her team. In fact, she's convinced she's the reason why her school's team beat us badly. According to her, she walked by some coaches and football players during football practice. They saw her American High ribbons. They were not happy. They got so mad, she said, they whupped American. PS It is funny thinking about the many meaning of "patriot" after thirty years. This fall I will learn a lot about American's patriots - 1770s-style - while teaching a course I have never taught before. No matter, Go Patriots!

the class of '85 across the years

Here's a look at the Class of '85 in 1985, 1995 and 2005. How many people do you recognize? Just tap on a photo to enlarge an image. By the way, the image for our graduating year is massive so I digitally split it in half for our 20th reunion. Maybe by the time of our 30th next year, I'll figure out a way to present it in an easy-to-see single photo. As you can see, the Class of '85 is sponsoring a multi-year reunion for our 30th, a trend that is not uncommon in recent years. Fewer people attend reunions for many reasons including travel distance, financial obligations like putting kids through college (hence, our wish to keep the reunion ticket prices down), but especially the ability to stay in touch via Facebook and other social network sites. But there's nothing like seeing people in person, too. For sure, it was good getting together with some of our classmates last December to start planning this reunion. Celebrating with other classes is also appealing because as we get older many of us are probably realizing we have more shared memories than not. We grew up in the same neighborhoods, have siblings or children who know each other or people we know, and so on. For example, last week one reunion activity required me to speak with someone who knew Fred Bertani - the principal at the time the Class of '85 attended American - when he was the principal at North Miami Beach High and even when he was an assistant principal at Miami Norland. Discovering as much led to a more lively connection between me and the person to whom I was speaking. I bet you have had a similar experience over the years, haven't you?

finally....reunion happy hour tickets are available for purchase

The American High Across the Years Reunion is officially underway. What better time to start than on the eve of the Fourth of July given our mascot and school colors! Graduates from the Class of 1980 through 1990 and their guests are invited to a Happy Hour at the Hollywood Beach Marriott in Hollywood, Florida on July 18, 2015. To purchase tickets, go to our Etsy shop. Pay by September 1 for the Early Bird rate! Thanks to the following classmates for their early interest in reunion planning: Kim (Andrews) Lang, Miriam (Cabrera) Mier, Pam (Phillips) Bryant, Cormella Murray-Bryant, Felecia (Scott) Jenkins, Getty (Diaz) Tune, Glen Campbell, Barbie (Lopez) Lapon, Tania (Alvarez) Pettenger and Terri (Ginsburg) Lopez. Stay tuned for details about a banquet hosted by Pam and Cormella and the group rate code for a room at the Marriott! A shout-out to Francie Santana and the Class of '84 for your recent get-together at the Hard Rock! Now, spread the word via Facebook, Linked In, Classmates.com, and other sites. And if you haven't already, take a musical walk down memory lane by seeing this video!