High School T Shirts

High School T Shirts 02/22/2009

I was reminded by an email from one of my good friends in High School about some of the t shirts I designed or help design for the theater department at Deer Valley High School in Glendale, AZ during the years 1988-1992. She has had shirts from the shows she has been in transformed into a neat quilt! Her mom actually made the quilt - and I am sad that I don't have all these shirts any longer... I still have the "Into The Woods" and "Grease" shirts - if I had more I'd make a quilt of my own... but years have passed... I have moved many times... and I don't know that I'd be able to get ahold of any of these so many years later. I appreciate having the images, though... it's nice to look back and remember...

Here's Kristen's quilt - I helped design five of the shirts on here - it touched me that she shared these images with me... I had forgotten about some of them!

I designed this on the bus on the way to school the day the submissions were due... a quick sketch - turned into a shirt... it could have been better, but I love that it has survived... this has been almost 20 years ago... can you believe it??

This one is a modified version of the sketch I used for the backdrop for this show... when doing the backdrop, I accidentally lowered the wrong drop and the day after sketching the design in magic marker (the drop was about 20' x 30') I was informed that I had lowered the wrong drop and instead of doing it on the seamed backdrop, I had drawn on a quite expensive lighting backdrop that was seamless.... a major mistake that was not repairable... I still have this shirt, thanks to my dad (rest his soul) who had saved it for years and years...

it's funny that I don't remember if I was in this play or not... I THINK I had a line or two at the end of the show. I DO know I designed the shirt... some people may find the image of the bedroom window familiar - it's my bedroom window from the house I lived in as a kid... New Middletown, IN - I did a painting of it recently...

My favorite times in High School were on stage or rehearsing or spending my Saturdays working on sets... I don't know for sure if I had much to do with this shirt - I think I may have drew the knife... but that'd be it if anything... on the back, however, I did sign my name along with the rest of the cast - we all wore black and white for this play - with one accent of red somewhere on our costume. (I wore red socks) - I was Plato in this play.... loved it and miss the fun of theater...

We go together... like ramalamalama da dinga de ding a dong... oh yes.. I was in Grease... I was asked by our director, Ms. Surloff, what role I'd want to play (we were all asked) and instead of saying, "I'd like some sort of lead - anything with a solo, please" - I said "I want to be the Teen Angel!" - I loved the song, Beauty School Dropout and knew it was a solo... what I didn't know was that it was the only time the Teen Angel appeared in the show... so I got what I asked for, and was annoyed a bit that I didn't have a larger part... but I was onstage... in the background, dancing on top of "Greased Lightnin'" and having a GREAT time with my friends... especially Kristen, who shared a "picnic" with me on stage during the show... every show we packed our prop lunch boxes with a real picnic and I loved drinking Yoo Hoos during the shows.... aah the memories.

I did the lettering and ring border for this design, and the comb I had added was removed to add the boy and girl in the car, drawn by another student... the collaboration worked really well and it's now a bit of history.

I have this show on videotape - and I have played it to remember the fun times... I have Grease, Into The Woods, Rebel Without a Cause and Brigadoon from Deer Valley High (on VHS converted to DVD) - I wish I had these shirts still... but the photos mean even more because my dear friend Kristen has reminded me of the fun I had in High School.

On another note, I was also in the Positive Force Players (sponsored by Planned Parenthood of Central and Northern Arizona) for I think 4-1/2 years and even though during that time I had probably 20-30 t shirts with the logo, I don't know that I have one any longer...

So there you go.... bored yet? anyone reading about my High School t shirts? I know, I know... it's not knitting... not clay... not painting... but it's part of my life... and remembering the moments that still make us smile is important... so there you go...