Robert Larson by Daniel G. and Jayde A.
Robert Larson (1972-1976)
Robert Larson was born in 1858, and is 53 years old. Robert also goes by the name Bobby. Bobby went to elementary school at Madison Elementary. When Bobby was younger he lived in the Silver Lake area, but went to Cascade High School because there were not many schools in the area. Bobby attended Cascade High School for four years from the years 1972 to 1976. After high school Bobby decided to like in Mexico for a couple of months and also attend a couple months of further schooling. Bobby also decided to go tuna fishing for a while in San Francisco. Bobby then made his way to an island called De La Pedro. At this island he stayed in a small hut for only 75 cents a night. Today Bobby works for Kimberly Clark Paper Company on the water front in Everett.
I went down to live in Mexico for a couple months and I went to school for about the same amount of time, and I went tuna fishing for a while, and spent some time in San Francisco. But the big thing I did was lived down on a little island called Isle de la Pedra right outside of Motsen staying on the beach in little huts for $.75 a night. I am now an employee of Kimberly-Clark corporation on the waterfront in Everett. During high school I worked for Tri-City Foods in Standwood, I would drive a tractor on the weekends in the summers at nights and I worked for an old auto parts store that's not around anymore. It was called Al's Auto Supply. I wasn't very good at it, ‘cause I wasn't a gearhead, so I'd give wrong parts to people and there was only a few of 'em around and sometimes people came from Arlington which was WAY out there then, though of course nothing like it is today. I mean it was way out there then and if you'd come into north Everett Broadway here to Al's and I gave 'em the wrong part and they drive all the way home and find it was the wrong part then they came back angry and it wasn’t good.
[Robert explains how politics and the Vietnam War affected him during his high school years]
Well, we had Watergate going, Richard Nixon, the war in Vietnam was coming to an end... the oil embargo. There used to be huge lines at all the gas stations out into the streets... and you had the Apollo program, landing on the moon, are ending about the time I went into high school. The year I graduated the President was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Nixon had resigned, and there was Gerald Ford. During Jimmy Carter, you know we had the oil embargo going on then, that was more of a world thing. We were in a big recession, so 'course you know that affected a lot, money was tight, a lot like it is right now, actually. Probably not quite as bad, and I don’t know what gas prices were but the problem was that you know people would run out of gas, and then they just didn't have any gas, that was the thing. When you're that age, I don't think you always have your parents as a buffer for stuff, but you know you see what your parents go through and that's how it affects you, I don't know if it really gets you or if you really realize how much affects you when you're that young.
Vietnam: It affected me because I had a half-brother that was there for two tours and actually got shot, came home, got a purple heart... his picture was in the Herald and everything. I think he was out or ending his second tour, and he went back after he got shot and did another tour... I think that was when I was a little younger, maybe '68 to '70, but you know of course it was always a discussion in our family, because my half-brother had been over there. It was a huge thing on the news every single night, and also, you know I think we all got actually notified of what our numbers would be, if we were drafted. But I think they shut down the draft by the time of the fall of Saigon. That was in... '74? '75? That’s when the real end was, but they had been tryin' to pull out then for years and I know we all got numbers, where we would go if we were in the draft but I don't think we got actual draft notices even though all my friends older brothers and stuff got it... so, it was on your mind, whether you were gonna have to go over there or not.
[Robert talks about sports and fun activities he did during high school]
I was involved in baseball and intermural basketball for all four years but baseball only till I was a sophomore and then I went to work to save money for a car. We went to all the dances; everybody was either involved or going to sporting events, and we didn't care if it was gymnastics, basketball, baseball, or you know football of course was huge, as well as all the dances. I personally did a lot of skiing after school when I was in high school; I've always had seasons passes and in the winter I always headed up to Stevens' Pass right after school. I did some scuba diving too after school but mostly skiing after school, ‘cause if it wasn't a school activity, and there wasn't a game going on, we were heading up for the mountains.
[Robert explains the significance of radio and television at the time]
We listened to radio all the time, and you know TV. I don’t know how it was with everybody’s family but I had one of my best friends who never had a TV in their house 'til he was a freshman in high school; so you know they would sit around and I would play piano, and they were a real Christian family. I didn’t watch nearly as much TV - not nearly as much as today. We were outside doing stuff, riding motorcycles which we did a lot or skiing.Your parents were watching what they wanted to watch…me and my brother didn’t have TVs in our rooms, we had one TV in the house. So it’s a lot different….I have three TVs in this house so it’s a lot different back then as far as watching TVs. Radios we had all the time… albums and stereos everybody was into their music back then like you guys are. I don’t think it’s much different. We were listening to vinyl albums or 8 tracks which you haven’t seen for a while, and those were big in our cars. I don’t know how much it has changed but everyone was into their tunes.
[Robert talks about his tunes]
Led Zeppelin was big back then. I liked Deep Purple, I liked Rush, a band called Montrose, and a couple of my friends were in bands, and you know Queen was really popular back then. We actually used to dance to them and see their concerts in the parks in Seattle they used to be called White Heart, at the roller the old roller fair, there were always dances there on the weekends.
[Robert, on trends of the time, his style, and what made someone "in"]
Trends: Well you know, Cruising to Colby was a huge thing going on during my high school, that was just huge then... the Cascade crowd would hang out at the south Herfy's, and I don't know what it is now. Yeah, and then this Oshi's down on Broadway used to be a north Everett Herfy's, and that's where all the Everett guys would hang out. And of course, you know, we'd try to trash each other's schools and tar and feather the bear out front and we'd wait on top of the roof with BB guns and then we'd throw paint on their school up here, red and grey paint, and it got a little ugly every once in a while. Disco was coming on the east coast, but still, all the bands we always had at our dances were Rock'N'Roll bands and there were some good ones then but you know, everybody's always excited about driving, more so than they are today. A lot of my friends' kids don't even really mind if they've got a license or not but you know that was just huge to get our license when we were 16 then. One of my friend's kids says 'oh he's not gonna get his license till he's 18' and I'm just going 'wow'.
Style: My mom would always take me shopping, so I was lucky. My mom worked at Boeing and my dad worked down at Scott Paper. I always got to pick out what I wanted…. You know bellbottoms…real UGLY block heals on your shoes. I mean look at my picture…look at my shirt… I LOOK LIKE A GIRL! Long collars and puka shells and you can see everyone has the same stuff…. At school it was more relaxed. I think bell bottoms were still in then…. But I was more of a Levis guy I think. I wore what I was comfortable with.
"In": You know I think everybody was "in" their own crowd, like I said me and my friends got along with almost everybody. I had friends that were vice President, ASB Presidents and friends that, you know, were real quiet and were bookworms. I kinda ran with what was the popular crowd but I don't feel like I did anything different than anybody else. Like I said, I felt like I ran with the "in" crowd but everybody thought they were probably the "in" crowd, whoever they ran with. We had a pretty large, diversified student body, like I said; we were a big school, and you didn't talk to everybody every day at school... you were going to class and doing your thing when you got out or whatever. If you're on the sports team and stuff of course you were more involved with those guys, or if you were in band you were involved with those guys but I don't really think there was an actual "in" crowd. We definitely had cliques though - you had about four different cliques, you had the greasers, you had the dopers and then you had the jocks, and then my clique was with the guys that were involved in sports, and I think I pretty much got along with all of them. So it didn't really affect me too much in the school because I was friends with a lot of people and most of my friends got along with everybody.
[Robert explains the surroundings of Cascade at the time]
The movie theater was still right behind the school then- right down by the baseball fields there was an Everett Motor Movie; it was right where the shopping mall is now, just a big huge parking lot with the motor movie. Casino was nothing like it is now and K-Mart was up on the side of the school, and I think there was a McDonald's there. We always had to go farther usually to eat, and we'd go to Wienerschnitzel because we could go off campus for lunch. K-Mart was there, and Boeing was just coming in, so it wasn't anything like it is today. I'm not gonna say it was rural, because there was a lot of houses around there, but Casino wasn't huge and the traffic wasn't like it is, a lot of times we would just walk across the street to the little store over there.
[Robert explains the rules and codes and teachers of the 1970's Cascade]
Rules & Codes: There should have been some clothing codes 'cause we had ugly clothes back there, bell bottoms, really flowery shirts and big-collared shirts and stuff but we didn't have a closed campus. It was an open campus, we could take off for free period and lunch; we could get in our cars and go.
Teachers: I think the teachers were good at Cascade High School, but of course it's the only high school I ever went to. I think they treated you fairly with respect if you respected them. I enjoyed my coaches and teachers and I think they were good. I can remember some of them: Mr. Prichard taught a law class and Mr. Emory, we used to call him "Mr. Green Jeans", taught culture. I can remember a lot of my coaches and P.E. teachers... Mike Mileckey, Garry Marsh, Jack Kraus, for baseball coach... and they were all teachers too, ‘cause they all had classes.
[Robert discusses how people he knew turned out and people he is still in touch with]
If anyone was going to be ultra successful it was going to be Gregg; he went down and tried out for Cowboys, he was going to be successful at whatever he did. Some of the girls that were kind of rowdy are nurses now which kind of surprised me….I thought they would be more likely to be stay at home house wives…everyone that I have ran around with have been quite successful…..a couple of friends have died - one died in an auto accident, Jack Sanbeck... you know they get spread out like you say, but my core group of friends still see each other quite a bit.
I still have some of my best friends from when I started school when I moved out at Silver Lake Elementary, still a lot of best friends. Most of my best friends in school were all from high school today. I have a couple from work but almost all my friends are still friends that I went to school with even before high school so yeah, I stay in touch with them a lot.
Robert Larson was born in 1858, and is 53 years old. Robert also goes by the name Bobby. Bobby went to elementary school at Madison Elementary. When Bobby was younger he lived in the Silver Lake area, but went to Cascade High School because there were not many schools in the area. Bobby attended Cascade High School for four years from the years 1972 to 1976. After high school Bobby decided to like in Mexico for a couple of months and also attend a couple months of further schooling. Bobby also decided to go tuna fishing for a while in San Francisco. Bobby then made his way to an island called De La Pedro. At this island he stayed in a small hut for only 75 cents a night. Today Bobby works for Kimberly Clark Paper Company on the water front in Everett.
I went down to live in Mexico for a couple months and I went to school for about the same amount of time, and I went tuna fishing for a while, and spent some time in San Francisco. But the big thing I did was lived down on a little island called Isle de la Pedra right outside of Motsen staying on the beach in little huts for $.75 a night. I am now an employee of Kimberly-Clark corporation on the waterfront in Everett. During high school I worked for Tri-City Foods in Standwood, I would drive a tractor on the weekends in the summers at nights and I worked for an old auto parts store that's not around anymore. It was called Al's Auto Supply. I wasn't very good at it, ‘cause I wasn't a gearhead, so I'd give wrong parts to people and there was only a few of 'em around and sometimes people came from Arlington which was WAY out there then, though of course nothing like it is today. I mean it was way out there then and if you'd come into north Everett Broadway here to Al's and I gave 'em the wrong part and they drive all the way home and find it was the wrong part then they came back angry and it wasn’t good.
[Robert explains how politics and the Vietnam War affected him during his high school years]
Well, we had Watergate going, Richard Nixon, the war in Vietnam was coming to an end... the oil embargo. There used to be huge lines at all the gas stations out into the streets... and you had the Apollo program, landing on the moon, are ending about the time I went into high school. The year I graduated the President was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Nixon had resigned, and there was Gerald Ford. During Jimmy Carter, you know we had the oil embargo going on then, that was more of a world thing. We were in a big recession, so 'course you know that affected a lot, money was tight, a lot like it is right now, actually. Probably not quite as bad, and I don’t know what gas prices were but the problem was that you know people would run out of gas, and then they just didn't have any gas, that was the thing. When you're that age, I don't think you always have your parents as a buffer for stuff, but you know you see what your parents go through and that's how it affects you, I don't know if it really gets you or if you really realize how much affects you when you're that young.
Vietnam: It affected me because I had a half-brother that was there for two tours and actually got shot, came home, got a purple heart... his picture was in the Herald and everything. I think he was out or ending his second tour, and he went back after he got shot and did another tour... I think that was when I was a little younger, maybe '68 to '70, but you know of course it was always a discussion in our family, because my half-brother had been over there. It was a huge thing on the news every single night, and also, you know I think we all got actually notified of what our numbers would be, if we were drafted. But I think they shut down the draft by the time of the fall of Saigon. That was in... '74? '75? That’s when the real end was, but they had been tryin' to pull out then for years and I know we all got numbers, where we would go if we were in the draft but I don't think we got actual draft notices even though all my friends older brothers and stuff got it... so, it was on your mind, whether you were gonna have to go over there or not.
[Robert talks about sports and fun activities he did during high school]
I was involved in baseball and intermural basketball for all four years but baseball only till I was a sophomore and then I went to work to save money for a car. We went to all the dances; everybody was either involved or going to sporting events, and we didn't care if it was gymnastics, basketball, baseball, or you know football of course was huge, as well as all the dances. I personally did a lot of skiing after school when I was in high school; I've always had seasons passes and in the winter I always headed up to Stevens' Pass right after school. I did some scuba diving too after school but mostly skiing after school, ‘cause if it wasn't a school activity, and there wasn't a game going on, we were heading up for the mountains.
[Robert explains the significance of radio and television at the time]
We listened to radio all the time, and you know TV. I don’t know how it was with everybody’s family but I had one of my best friends who never had a TV in their house 'til he was a freshman in high school; so you know they would sit around and I would play piano, and they were a real Christian family. I didn’t watch nearly as much TV - not nearly as much as today. We were outside doing stuff, riding motorcycles which we did a lot or skiing.Your parents were watching what they wanted to watch…me and my brother didn’t have TVs in our rooms, we had one TV in the house. So it’s a lot different….I have three TVs in this house so it’s a lot different back then as far as watching TVs. Radios we had all the time… albums and stereos everybody was into their music back then like you guys are. I don’t think it’s much different. We were listening to vinyl albums or 8 tracks which you haven’t seen for a while, and those were big in our cars. I don’t know how much it has changed but everyone was into their tunes.
[Robert talks about his tunes]
Led Zeppelin was big back then. I liked Deep Purple, I liked Rush, a band called Montrose, and a couple of my friends were in bands, and you know Queen was really popular back then. We actually used to dance to them and see their concerts in the parks in Seattle they used to be called White Heart, at the roller the old roller fair, there were always dances there on the weekends.
[Robert, on trends of the time, his style, and what made someone "in"]
Trends: Well you know, Cruising to Colby was a huge thing going on during my high school, that was just huge then... the Cascade crowd would hang out at the south Herfy's, and I don't know what it is now. Yeah, and then this Oshi's down on Broadway used to be a north Everett Herfy's, and that's where all the Everett guys would hang out. And of course, you know, we'd try to trash each other's schools and tar and feather the bear out front and we'd wait on top of the roof with BB guns and then we'd throw paint on their school up here, red and grey paint, and it got a little ugly every once in a while. Disco was coming on the east coast, but still, all the bands we always had at our dances were Rock'N'Roll bands and there were some good ones then but you know, everybody's always excited about driving, more so than they are today. A lot of my friends' kids don't even really mind if they've got a license or not but you know that was just huge to get our license when we were 16 then. One of my friend's kids says 'oh he's not gonna get his license till he's 18' and I'm just going 'wow'.
Style: My mom would always take me shopping, so I was lucky. My mom worked at Boeing and my dad worked down at Scott Paper. I always got to pick out what I wanted…. You know bellbottoms…real UGLY block heals on your shoes. I mean look at my picture…look at my shirt… I LOOK LIKE A GIRL! Long collars and puka shells and you can see everyone has the same stuff…. At school it was more relaxed. I think bell bottoms were still in then…. But I was more of a Levis guy I think. I wore what I was comfortable with.
"In": You know I think everybody was "in" their own crowd, like I said me and my friends got along with almost everybody. I had friends that were vice President, ASB Presidents and friends that, you know, were real quiet and were bookworms. I kinda ran with what was the popular crowd but I don't feel like I did anything different than anybody else. Like I said, I felt like I ran with the "in" crowd but everybody thought they were probably the "in" crowd, whoever they ran with. We had a pretty large, diversified student body, like I said; we were a big school, and you didn't talk to everybody every day at school... you were going to class and doing your thing when you got out or whatever. If you're on the sports team and stuff of course you were more involved with those guys, or if you were in band you were involved with those guys but I don't really think there was an actual "in" crowd. We definitely had cliques though - you had about four different cliques, you had the greasers, you had the dopers and then you had the jocks, and then my clique was with the guys that were involved in sports, and I think I pretty much got along with all of them. So it didn't really affect me too much in the school because I was friends with a lot of people and most of my friends got along with everybody.
[Robert explains the surroundings of Cascade at the time]
The movie theater was still right behind the school then- right down by the baseball fields there was an Everett Motor Movie; it was right where the shopping mall is now, just a big huge parking lot with the motor movie. Casino was nothing like it is now and K-Mart was up on the side of the school, and I think there was a McDonald's there. We always had to go farther usually to eat, and we'd go to Wienerschnitzel because we could go off campus for lunch. K-Mart was there, and Boeing was just coming in, so it wasn't anything like it is today. I'm not gonna say it was rural, because there was a lot of houses around there, but Casino wasn't huge and the traffic wasn't like it is, a lot of times we would just walk across the street to the little store over there.
[Robert explains the rules and codes and teachers of the 1970's Cascade]
Rules & Codes: There should have been some clothing codes 'cause we had ugly clothes back there, bell bottoms, really flowery shirts and big-collared shirts and stuff but we didn't have a closed campus. It was an open campus, we could take off for free period and lunch; we could get in our cars and go.
Teachers: I think the teachers were good at Cascade High School, but of course it's the only high school I ever went to. I think they treated you fairly with respect if you respected them. I enjoyed my coaches and teachers and I think they were good. I can remember some of them: Mr. Prichard taught a law class and Mr. Emory, we used to call him "Mr. Green Jeans", taught culture. I can remember a lot of my coaches and P.E. teachers... Mike Mileckey, Garry Marsh, Jack Kraus, for baseball coach... and they were all teachers too, ‘cause they all had classes.
[Robert discusses how people he knew turned out and people he is still in touch with]
If anyone was going to be ultra successful it was going to be Gregg; he went down and tried out for Cowboys, he was going to be successful at whatever he did. Some of the girls that were kind of rowdy are nurses now which kind of surprised me….I thought they would be more likely to be stay at home house wives…everyone that I have ran around with have been quite successful…..a couple of friends have died - one died in an auto accident, Jack Sanbeck... you know they get spread out like you say, but my core group of friends still see each other quite a bit.
I still have some of my best friends from when I started school when I moved out at Silver Lake Elementary, still a lot of best friends. Most of my best friends in school were all from high school today. I have a couple from work but almost all my friends are still friends that I went to school with even before high school so yeah, I stay in touch with them a lot.