During my senior year at Forsan High School, I was editor of the school newspaper - The Forsan Stampede.

In those days, it was common for small schools to publish their student newspapers using a device called a mimeograph machine. Forsan, however, did not have such a machine so we were forced to publish ours on an even more primitive device call a 'ditto' machine.

I won't go into the painful details of producing a weekly newspaper with ditto machine technology. Sometimes I wonder wistfully what we could have accomplished with the desktop publishing we commonly use today.

In the weeks prior to our class reunion in August, 1996, I came across a dozen or so copies of The Forsan Stampede from our senior year. As I read them I marveled at how they captured the spirit of those innocent years.

The gossip section of the paper is like a coded transmission - understandable only to those of that particular slice of time. When I showed an issue to one of the reunion organizers who had graduated in 1958, she admitted that it was clear that "you really had to have been there" to understand.

Please select topics from below for a sampling of what student life was like (as we reported it) in 1970-71.

The Smoking Habits of the Class of '71
Wow! School Board Drops Dress Code!
Women's Lib Movement Hits Forsan!
The School Cafeteria Story!
Senior Trip Article!