Reese Wegley by Mark Armsberry
Reese Wegley (graduated in 1986)
Reese Wegley graduated from Cascade High School in 1986, and he pursued higher education at the University of Washington. He finally majored in law, and then moved to work at Microsoft. He lived a very active life, whether it be from his job, his passion for skiing and running, or his intense efforts in school affairs. During his high school career, Mount Saint Helens erupted, an assassination attempt occurred, and the Olympics.
Childhood
Okay, so I was youngest of four kids. I grew up in Eastmont. I went to Jefferson Elementary School, and Eisenhower Middle School, then Cascade. My siblings all graduated from Cascade High School, and then I went to the University of Washington after graduating from Cascade in 1982. I majored in International Studies and graduated in 1986. Then I took a year off and went skiing in Taos, New Mexico. And then I went to law school at Hastings, which is the University of California’s law school in San Francisco for ten years, and then I moved back to this area in 2000. I went to work in the commercial real estate industry for about, I guess it was eight years. And then I started to work at Microsoft in 2008, and that takes me up to now.
After school activities
Clubs were big… I was in debate club. But I don’t really remember what other clubs there were at the time. I know I did debate all four years. I did participate in the student government. I was class president of my freshman class and then I was vice president of my senior class. Cabinet! Yeah, I was in the cabinet.
Rivalries
Everett High School was the main rival, and there was only Everett and Mariner in this area then, but for sure the main rivalry was Everett High, just because of the history. There was always a big spirit rally before the Everett/Cascade game. There was a coach there who was also a teacher named Pat Sullivan, who was instrumental in I think the Cascade men and women’s soccer.
Teachers
I had a track coach named Mr. Beacons, who was really influential on me. I had some great teachers, but none that left a huge impact on. I didn’t have any teachers that I really disliked. Some were nicer than others, certainly. I don’t remember any teachers being mean. Some were a lot more difficult and assigned a lot more homework than others, and some gave herder tests than others. I had an uncle who was a teacher there, who I actually had, which I always thought was weird. I really enjoyed the English class with Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan was a very popular teacher. He was an English Honors teacher, and a lot of students really liked him. There was Honors English, Honors History, and Honors Math most likely. I don’t think they were actually called “AP” back then.
Physical interests
Well, I ran a lot. That was my thing in high school. So when I was in cross country that consumed a lot of my time. I participated, personally, in cross country, basketball, and track. I think. I did cross country and track all four years, I did basketball my freshman and sophomore years. So I was averaging sometimes between 70 and 80 miles [of running] a week, sometimes. We ran in the mornings and in the afternoons, and in the off season, in winter time, except for the years I played basketball, I ran and skied a lot. I was pretty passionate about skiing back then, so I skied a lot and hung out with friends. Probably not unlike what you guys do now. Except we had no cell phones, so there was no texting. There’s no e-mail. The phones were attached to the wall. At least in my house. It made conversations much shorter when you had to be in the kitchen with your parents. I played pickup sports games, mostly. Basketball, football, soccer. Just played in my neighborhood, but I think looking back on it, all I did in high school was run. That’s all I really remember doing. I was running.
Exciting memories
I remember the first day I actually drove to school was a big deal. That was kind of exciting. That kind of changed everything once you kind of got your license. Back then people would go “cruising” on Colby Avenue for fun. That meant Colby Avenue downtown would just turn into a giant parking lot of cars, with teenagers in them, partying. The police would try to clear it out, but every Friday and Saturday night, everyone would go down to Colby Avenue and cruise in their car. I didn’t find it all that enjoyable, and I didn’t have a very hot car, so I didn’t really feel like I was too cool to go cruising down to Colby Avenue in my light blue Ford Pinto.
National Events
When I started Cascade, Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States, and right afterwards, my freshman or my sophomore year there was this Iran hostage crisis, some Iranian students took some hostages from the US embassy in Iran, and I remember that was a big event. They showed it on the televisions in class as it was happening live because it was the first time someone had taken American citizens hostage. Shortly after that, the Soviet Union, as it was called then, invaded Afghanistan, and that was another event that I remember being on the televisions, the Soviet tanks rolling into Afghanistan. That caused the US to boycott the 1980 Olympics, and I guess I was a... Sophomore then. And the Olympics were to be held in Moscow, Russia, or the Soviet Union then and the US decided not to go, in order to protest the Soviet’s invasion in Afghanistan. Many other countries decided not to go too, but that was the first Olympics the US didn’t attend, and that ended up being a huge bummer because I always look forward to the track and field events in the Olympics, and it was really kind of a non-event, because half of the countries didn’t go to the Olympics. Another big thing that happened that I remember them turning on the televisions and showing the eruption of Mt St Helens. We saw the mountain blow apart. We even got ash from the volcano here in this neighborhood. The other big events that happened while I was in high school: Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1981, but before that. John Lennon was shot, that was in 1980. Someone shot John Lennon outside his house, I remember going to school the next day and everyone was just kind of really upset at the fact that someone shot John Lennon. The Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981, and that was when I was a junior, and then someone tried to shot him and that was another one of those “turning on the television” kind of events at school, because it happened, it was in Washington, DC where he got shot, so it was a few hours ahead, it was breaking news. “The president has been assassinated” and “there’s been an assassination attempt on the president”. He was fine, it turns out.
Entertainment
I looked up the top three billboard songs of my graduating year; “Physical” by Olivia Newton John, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, and “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett. That is lousy music. I didn’t really remember, I do now after hearing those, I remember hearing those over and over and over on FM and AM radio in my car. Major celebrities at the time? I was a big fan of the Rolling Stones when I was in high school, so they were my world. They were all the music I really listened to, was the Rolling Stones. Obviously a lot of people listened to Olivia Newton John. I didn’t. Movie stars were big at the time was Sylvester Stallone, the “Rocky” series of movies Rocky I, II and III all came out while I was in high school, so we dominated the movie scene. A movie called “E.T.”, Extra-Terrestrial came out when I was in high school, and “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”. That came out my senior year as well. The Sonics won the world championship in 1979. The Seahawks and the Mariners started in the late 70s, so Seattle got a professional sports boost right before I was in high school, and then during high school.
Apparel
Clothing was atrocious back then. I had really big hair. Everyone did. Girls and boys wore their hair big, wild, large fashion. Farrah Fawcett was a very popular celebrity at the time, so all the girls kind of emulated Farrah Fawcett’s kind of big hairdo. And long hair was pretty in fashion with the boys. No one wore buzz cuts back then, since everyone sort of had long hair. There were two kinds of really quirky fashion trends that I recall back then. There was a movie called “Flashdance” with Jennifer Grey in it, and so the 80s Flashdance look was big. The off shoulder sweatshirts for girls, with headbands and leg warmers and tights, etc. And the other thing that was big then was the preppy look, like top-slider shoes and crew neck sweaters kind of look for the guys. Those are the two major trends I remember. It’s kind of goofy looking back. Yeah, that’s basically it.
Cliques
I was probably one of the weird kids, so I don’t know. I had friends across the whole school, so I never really had to differentiate. Like I said, I was in the debate club. Oh, the chess club! I forgot to mention I was in the chess club. The debate club and the chess club, so I had more brain kids in those two classes. And I also had lots of friends from sports so I hung out with people from different groups. I really liked that about Cascade. It didn’t really seem like it was a clique-y place then, everybody just kind of got along.
Violence
In the school, there wasn’t any strife. There was a lot of conflict among the schools. Among mariner and Everett, there were a lot of fights. I didn’t think there was any kind of gang activity, there was just a lot of lock kids fighting with each other from different schools. But I don’t think there was much. I don’t remember any bullying issues or fighting issues at all in school. There weren’t any police or anything like that around the schools. I don’t remember any kind of security or anything like that.
I wish I could come up with something eloquent and sage here. I guess what I would say to my kids who are in high school now too is “Really enjoy that time, because those are some of the best years of your life, and some of the most fun years of your life, and you know, after that, life gets a lot more complicated, so enjoy the fact of it being uncomplicated, and try not to make it more complicated than it needs to be, because the rest of your life gets significantly more complicated. So I’d just say yeah. Enjoy your time. It’s fun.
Reese Wegley graduated from Cascade High School in 1986, and he pursued higher education at the University of Washington. He finally majored in law, and then moved to work at Microsoft. He lived a very active life, whether it be from his job, his passion for skiing and running, or his intense efforts in school affairs. During his high school career, Mount Saint Helens erupted, an assassination attempt occurred, and the Olympics.
Childhood
Okay, so I was youngest of four kids. I grew up in Eastmont. I went to Jefferson Elementary School, and Eisenhower Middle School, then Cascade. My siblings all graduated from Cascade High School, and then I went to the University of Washington after graduating from Cascade in 1982. I majored in International Studies and graduated in 1986. Then I took a year off and went skiing in Taos, New Mexico. And then I went to law school at Hastings, which is the University of California’s law school in San Francisco for ten years, and then I moved back to this area in 2000. I went to work in the commercial real estate industry for about, I guess it was eight years. And then I started to work at Microsoft in 2008, and that takes me up to now.
After school activities
Clubs were big… I was in debate club. But I don’t really remember what other clubs there were at the time. I know I did debate all four years. I did participate in the student government. I was class president of my freshman class and then I was vice president of my senior class. Cabinet! Yeah, I was in the cabinet.
Rivalries
Everett High School was the main rival, and there was only Everett and Mariner in this area then, but for sure the main rivalry was Everett High, just because of the history. There was always a big spirit rally before the Everett/Cascade game. There was a coach there who was also a teacher named Pat Sullivan, who was instrumental in I think the Cascade men and women’s soccer.
Teachers
I had a track coach named Mr. Beacons, who was really influential on me. I had some great teachers, but none that left a huge impact on. I didn’t have any teachers that I really disliked. Some were nicer than others, certainly. I don’t remember any teachers being mean. Some were a lot more difficult and assigned a lot more homework than others, and some gave herder tests than others. I had an uncle who was a teacher there, who I actually had, which I always thought was weird. I really enjoyed the English class with Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan was a very popular teacher. He was an English Honors teacher, and a lot of students really liked him. There was Honors English, Honors History, and Honors Math most likely. I don’t think they were actually called “AP” back then.
Physical interests
Well, I ran a lot. That was my thing in high school. So when I was in cross country that consumed a lot of my time. I participated, personally, in cross country, basketball, and track. I think. I did cross country and track all four years, I did basketball my freshman and sophomore years. So I was averaging sometimes between 70 and 80 miles [of running] a week, sometimes. We ran in the mornings and in the afternoons, and in the off season, in winter time, except for the years I played basketball, I ran and skied a lot. I was pretty passionate about skiing back then, so I skied a lot and hung out with friends. Probably not unlike what you guys do now. Except we had no cell phones, so there was no texting. There’s no e-mail. The phones were attached to the wall. At least in my house. It made conversations much shorter when you had to be in the kitchen with your parents. I played pickup sports games, mostly. Basketball, football, soccer. Just played in my neighborhood, but I think looking back on it, all I did in high school was run. That’s all I really remember doing. I was running.
Exciting memories
I remember the first day I actually drove to school was a big deal. That was kind of exciting. That kind of changed everything once you kind of got your license. Back then people would go “cruising” on Colby Avenue for fun. That meant Colby Avenue downtown would just turn into a giant parking lot of cars, with teenagers in them, partying. The police would try to clear it out, but every Friday and Saturday night, everyone would go down to Colby Avenue and cruise in their car. I didn’t find it all that enjoyable, and I didn’t have a very hot car, so I didn’t really feel like I was too cool to go cruising down to Colby Avenue in my light blue Ford Pinto.
National Events
When I started Cascade, Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States, and right afterwards, my freshman or my sophomore year there was this Iran hostage crisis, some Iranian students took some hostages from the US embassy in Iran, and I remember that was a big event. They showed it on the televisions in class as it was happening live because it was the first time someone had taken American citizens hostage. Shortly after that, the Soviet Union, as it was called then, invaded Afghanistan, and that was another event that I remember being on the televisions, the Soviet tanks rolling into Afghanistan. That caused the US to boycott the 1980 Olympics, and I guess I was a... Sophomore then. And the Olympics were to be held in Moscow, Russia, or the Soviet Union then and the US decided not to go, in order to protest the Soviet’s invasion in Afghanistan. Many other countries decided not to go too, but that was the first Olympics the US didn’t attend, and that ended up being a huge bummer because I always look forward to the track and field events in the Olympics, and it was really kind of a non-event, because half of the countries didn’t go to the Olympics. Another big thing that happened that I remember them turning on the televisions and showing the eruption of Mt St Helens. We saw the mountain blow apart. We even got ash from the volcano here in this neighborhood. The other big events that happened while I was in high school: Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1981, but before that. John Lennon was shot, that was in 1980. Someone shot John Lennon outside his house, I remember going to school the next day and everyone was just kind of really upset at the fact that someone shot John Lennon. The Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981, and that was when I was a junior, and then someone tried to shot him and that was another one of those “turning on the television” kind of events at school, because it happened, it was in Washington, DC where he got shot, so it was a few hours ahead, it was breaking news. “The president has been assassinated” and “there’s been an assassination attempt on the president”. He was fine, it turns out.
Entertainment
I looked up the top three billboard songs of my graduating year; “Physical” by Olivia Newton John, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, and “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett. That is lousy music. I didn’t really remember, I do now after hearing those, I remember hearing those over and over and over on FM and AM radio in my car. Major celebrities at the time? I was a big fan of the Rolling Stones when I was in high school, so they were my world. They were all the music I really listened to, was the Rolling Stones. Obviously a lot of people listened to Olivia Newton John. I didn’t. Movie stars were big at the time was Sylvester Stallone, the “Rocky” series of movies Rocky I, II and III all came out while I was in high school, so we dominated the movie scene. A movie called “E.T.”, Extra-Terrestrial came out when I was in high school, and “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”. That came out my senior year as well. The Sonics won the world championship in 1979. The Seahawks and the Mariners started in the late 70s, so Seattle got a professional sports boost right before I was in high school, and then during high school.
Apparel
Clothing was atrocious back then. I had really big hair. Everyone did. Girls and boys wore their hair big, wild, large fashion. Farrah Fawcett was a very popular celebrity at the time, so all the girls kind of emulated Farrah Fawcett’s kind of big hairdo. And long hair was pretty in fashion with the boys. No one wore buzz cuts back then, since everyone sort of had long hair. There were two kinds of really quirky fashion trends that I recall back then. There was a movie called “Flashdance” with Jennifer Grey in it, and so the 80s Flashdance look was big. The off shoulder sweatshirts for girls, with headbands and leg warmers and tights, etc. And the other thing that was big then was the preppy look, like top-slider shoes and crew neck sweaters kind of look for the guys. Those are the two major trends I remember. It’s kind of goofy looking back. Yeah, that’s basically it.
Cliques
I was probably one of the weird kids, so I don’t know. I had friends across the whole school, so I never really had to differentiate. Like I said, I was in the debate club. Oh, the chess club! I forgot to mention I was in the chess club. The debate club and the chess club, so I had more brain kids in those two classes. And I also had lots of friends from sports so I hung out with people from different groups. I really liked that about Cascade. It didn’t really seem like it was a clique-y place then, everybody just kind of got along.
Violence
In the school, there wasn’t any strife. There was a lot of conflict among the schools. Among mariner and Everett, there were a lot of fights. I didn’t think there was any kind of gang activity, there was just a lot of lock kids fighting with each other from different schools. But I don’t think there was much. I don’t remember any bullying issues or fighting issues at all in school. There weren’t any police or anything like that around the schools. I don’t remember any kind of security or anything like that.
I wish I could come up with something eloquent and sage here. I guess what I would say to my kids who are in high school now too is “Really enjoy that time, because those are some of the best years of your life, and some of the most fun years of your life, and you know, after that, life gets a lot more complicated, so enjoy the fact of it being uncomplicated, and try not to make it more complicated than it needs to be, because the rest of your life gets significantly more complicated. So I’d just say yeah. Enjoy your time. It’s fun.