Michele Zuvela by John Anton
Michele Zuvela (1968-1972)
Michele Zuvela attended Cascade High School, and graduated in the class of 1972. When she entered Cascade, it was a huge culture shock for her, because she came from St. Mary Magdalen, a private Catholic school. Being as nervous as she was, she didn’t really participate in many school activities. In her years at school, cooking and art classes were a big part of her education, and as for fun, she liked to cruise Colby with her friends. On a more national status, she remembers the Vietnam War, but she wasn’t old enough for it to really affect her too much. Now, many years later, she is happily married, and is living in Lake Stevens.
I was twelve when I heard about it. I don’t remember what year it was, and I was at St Mary Magdalen, but the biggest thing we heard at school was when they landed on the moon, and they brought in TV’s, and they never did that, and we got to watch stuff on them. There wasn’t a lot of video back then. I remember in my history class was the first time I heard about the Holocaust. I don’t know why we didn’t ever hear about that earlier, when I was going to a Catholic school, and it was devastating to me to think that anyone could do what they did to those people. I cried in class… that was awful. We had some sort of video in history that talked about it. When I came home and I asked my parents and said we had never heard anything about it. I don’t think they heard a lot of it, because they didn’t watch a lot of TV. So, I think they knew stuff went on, but they didn’t all really tell them or anything. Communication wasn’t the biggest thing. Something happens now, you know, we’ll know in no more than a few seconds. Back then it took a long time for them to make a film over something like that.
We’d call long distance once or twice a year. Very, very seldom. Only if it was something Earth shattering, or a holiday or something. Then we’d have party lines, we could talk to our friends on the telephone, we had one phone, so we had a time limit. In my case, my dad had an egg timer, and when those 3 minutes were up, you were supposed to be off the phone. We did write more letters if we had more friends or relatives who weren’t close by. Nowadays we never write a letter. Send a text, or email.
At the high school there was a jazz band and I think like symphony or something. You know, there wasn’t that much music… I think when I got into high school they just were starting to have guitar and drums and stuff. Other than the marching band, you know, there wasn’t a whole lot, but there were people starting to get into different music.
I didn’t actually go to prom, because I didn’t get asked by the person I wanted to go with. Also because it was expensive, and coming from a big family, we couldn’t afford it. I mean, I would’ve loved to gone, but I didn’t want my parents to make my parents pay for someone who wasn’t the right person.
The food drive was going on; I remember that, I did that. The whole gym was full of cans. Everyone brought stuff, and people went out like you guys did, at Safeway, and got food, or got some stores to donate. Then we’d put it all together and take it to different families. I remember going to different families. Oh and another thing, we were allowed to bring homemade food. So I remember making popcorn balls, and they sold them at different things, and went on different activities, and the money went to some sort of charity. But you can’t do that anymore. It has to be packaged or they think it’s poisoned.
When I started over there in the 70’s, it was the first year for girls to wear pants to school, and the hair could go over the ears because before that time they had very strict dress codes, and guys hair couldn’t touch their ears, shirts had to be tucked in, and a lot of different things. And if you didn’t abide by these rules, you got sent home. You missed school. That was kind of a biggie.
Suspension was a big deal. Yeah, and there was a smoking hill, I don’t know if the smoking hill’s still there, because I think that’s up where the Burger King is up there on the highway. It was behind the school. And the people that smoked used to go up there. I didn’t go since I didn’t smoke. They used to hang out up at the smoking hill which was a big deal since you weren’t allowed to smoke on campus of course. You could get in trouble for that. Skipping school also wasn’t allowed, and we had a closed campus.
I remember the day, and I remember where I was at, and everyone was crying when Kennedy was killed. It was a big deal, the president of the United States being assassinated. That was awful. Yeah, we were Catholic, so that was the devil in work. But I actually have heard a lot more about it since now, because of all the shows they have made on it. You know, we heard that he died; we heard he was shot, but we heard of it over the radio, so we weren’t seeing the pictures or anything like that.
Ah the best music in the world was during that time! You know, we saw Jimmy Hendrix. And there was a place down in the Seattle called the stadium. It’s not there anymore, but they used to have outdoor concerts, like festivals. So we saw the Steve Miller Band, back from Vietnam, and Hendrix was there. You know, music back then was the best. The Doors, gosh. It was great. I loved it. Still like it. That music has really never grown old… people still love it, whereas some of this other stuff comes and goes.
Homecoming was way different back then. It was just a dance after the football game on Friday night, and people didn’t really dress up. They wore jeans or whatever they wore to the football game and then they just came to the dance afterwards. So it was a real low-key, a lot of fun, and I don’t know where, or how it changed, somewhere along the lines. When my kids went to school, there was like a formal affair on a Saturday.
Football was big of course. Girl’s sports and all weren’t a big thing about then. Women didn’t want to be too athletic back then, because guys would see us as dykes, that’s what I thought about when I was in school. Which is way different than now, and I’m glad. I’m glad it got changed.
I mean the biggest thing that ever went on was the guys in the class above mine would get kegs of beer, and they would have parties under the power lines, you know, and charge everyone to come and drink. I don’t know how they got it. I didn’t drink, so I’d just go down and watch everyone… puke? So yeah. It wasn’t like now… everything seems so mild now compared to what you guys are going through.
I had Mr. O Neil was my history teacher and my art teacher, and I loved art and I loved history because of him. And I had Mrs. Weber for cooking. My friends and I had taken all the cooking classes, so she was actually able to get more classes added, like one where we got to pick out what we got to make… things that you never made, I mean you heard about them, but had never gotten to make. So we had a lot of fun with that. I enjoyed it. There were a lot of fun English classes, one of them was taught by Sharol March, and there was one teacher who owned a place down on Hula that was an underage dance club and was called the Watermelon Sugar, and they had painted it with like black light paint. They had bands come and play, and like everything else underage, somebody probably bought alcohol which brought the club down. But it was fun while it lasted.
Michele Zuvela attended Cascade High School, and graduated in the class of 1972. When she entered Cascade, it was a huge culture shock for her, because she came from St. Mary Magdalen, a private Catholic school. Being as nervous as she was, she didn’t really participate in many school activities. In her years at school, cooking and art classes were a big part of her education, and as for fun, she liked to cruise Colby with her friends. On a more national status, she remembers the Vietnam War, but she wasn’t old enough for it to really affect her too much. Now, many years later, she is happily married, and is living in Lake Stevens.
I was twelve when I heard about it. I don’t remember what year it was, and I was at St Mary Magdalen, but the biggest thing we heard at school was when they landed on the moon, and they brought in TV’s, and they never did that, and we got to watch stuff on them. There wasn’t a lot of video back then. I remember in my history class was the first time I heard about the Holocaust. I don’t know why we didn’t ever hear about that earlier, when I was going to a Catholic school, and it was devastating to me to think that anyone could do what they did to those people. I cried in class… that was awful. We had some sort of video in history that talked about it. When I came home and I asked my parents and said we had never heard anything about it. I don’t think they heard a lot of it, because they didn’t watch a lot of TV. So, I think they knew stuff went on, but they didn’t all really tell them or anything. Communication wasn’t the biggest thing. Something happens now, you know, we’ll know in no more than a few seconds. Back then it took a long time for them to make a film over something like that.
We’d call long distance once or twice a year. Very, very seldom. Only if it was something Earth shattering, or a holiday or something. Then we’d have party lines, we could talk to our friends on the telephone, we had one phone, so we had a time limit. In my case, my dad had an egg timer, and when those 3 minutes were up, you were supposed to be off the phone. We did write more letters if we had more friends or relatives who weren’t close by. Nowadays we never write a letter. Send a text, or email.
At the high school there was a jazz band and I think like symphony or something. You know, there wasn’t that much music… I think when I got into high school they just were starting to have guitar and drums and stuff. Other than the marching band, you know, there wasn’t a whole lot, but there were people starting to get into different music.
I didn’t actually go to prom, because I didn’t get asked by the person I wanted to go with. Also because it was expensive, and coming from a big family, we couldn’t afford it. I mean, I would’ve loved to gone, but I didn’t want my parents to make my parents pay for someone who wasn’t the right person.
The food drive was going on; I remember that, I did that. The whole gym was full of cans. Everyone brought stuff, and people went out like you guys did, at Safeway, and got food, or got some stores to donate. Then we’d put it all together and take it to different families. I remember going to different families. Oh and another thing, we were allowed to bring homemade food. So I remember making popcorn balls, and they sold them at different things, and went on different activities, and the money went to some sort of charity. But you can’t do that anymore. It has to be packaged or they think it’s poisoned.
When I started over there in the 70’s, it was the first year for girls to wear pants to school, and the hair could go over the ears because before that time they had very strict dress codes, and guys hair couldn’t touch their ears, shirts had to be tucked in, and a lot of different things. And if you didn’t abide by these rules, you got sent home. You missed school. That was kind of a biggie.
Suspension was a big deal. Yeah, and there was a smoking hill, I don’t know if the smoking hill’s still there, because I think that’s up where the Burger King is up there on the highway. It was behind the school. And the people that smoked used to go up there. I didn’t go since I didn’t smoke. They used to hang out up at the smoking hill which was a big deal since you weren’t allowed to smoke on campus of course. You could get in trouble for that. Skipping school also wasn’t allowed, and we had a closed campus.
I remember the day, and I remember where I was at, and everyone was crying when Kennedy was killed. It was a big deal, the president of the United States being assassinated. That was awful. Yeah, we were Catholic, so that was the devil in work. But I actually have heard a lot more about it since now, because of all the shows they have made on it. You know, we heard that he died; we heard he was shot, but we heard of it over the radio, so we weren’t seeing the pictures or anything like that.
Ah the best music in the world was during that time! You know, we saw Jimmy Hendrix. And there was a place down in the Seattle called the stadium. It’s not there anymore, but they used to have outdoor concerts, like festivals. So we saw the Steve Miller Band, back from Vietnam, and Hendrix was there. You know, music back then was the best. The Doors, gosh. It was great. I loved it. Still like it. That music has really never grown old… people still love it, whereas some of this other stuff comes and goes.
Homecoming was way different back then. It was just a dance after the football game on Friday night, and people didn’t really dress up. They wore jeans or whatever they wore to the football game and then they just came to the dance afterwards. So it was a real low-key, a lot of fun, and I don’t know where, or how it changed, somewhere along the lines. When my kids went to school, there was like a formal affair on a Saturday.
Football was big of course. Girl’s sports and all weren’t a big thing about then. Women didn’t want to be too athletic back then, because guys would see us as dykes, that’s what I thought about when I was in school. Which is way different than now, and I’m glad. I’m glad it got changed.
I mean the biggest thing that ever went on was the guys in the class above mine would get kegs of beer, and they would have parties under the power lines, you know, and charge everyone to come and drink. I don’t know how they got it. I didn’t drink, so I’d just go down and watch everyone… puke? So yeah. It wasn’t like now… everything seems so mild now compared to what you guys are going through.
I had Mr. O Neil was my history teacher and my art teacher, and I loved art and I loved history because of him. And I had Mrs. Weber for cooking. My friends and I had taken all the cooking classes, so she was actually able to get more classes added, like one where we got to pick out what we got to make… things that you never made, I mean you heard about them, but had never gotten to make. So we had a lot of fun with that. I enjoyed it. There were a lot of fun English classes, one of them was taught by Sharol March, and there was one teacher who owned a place down on Hula that was an underage dance club and was called the Watermelon Sugar, and they had painted it with like black light paint. They had bands come and play, and like everything else underage, somebody probably bought alcohol which brought the club down. But it was fun while it lasted.