March 13, 2013
4 of 65
WHERE WERE WE IN ’63?
I was a student throughout the 1960s – first elementary school, then junior high, then high school and finally college. I got my bachelor’s degree at the end of the 1969-70 school year. In many ways, the ‘60s seem to have started for me when I started high school. I seem to meet a number of people these days who grew up attending Catholic schools. I never really wanted to do that, but my parents thought, for some reason, that I should try it. Regis Jesuit High School was the closest Catholic high school to our house – though it was still more than 10 miles away – and it had an excellent academic reputation. I took the entrance exam and was accepted and I attended Regis during the 1962-63 school year. Besides being far away, the tuition was expensive and all of my childhood friends were still going to public schools. I mentioned to my parents that although it was interesting to have spent my freshman year receiving a Jesuit education, I would rather go back to a public school and save them some money. As luck would have it, a brand new high school was set to open for my sophomore year, and it was only a couple of miles from home. I could walk there if necessary (which I did that several times), and my parents agreed that I should transfer.
Although I still think of it as a “new” school, Arvada West High School (Go, Wildcats!) is preparing to celebrate its 50th Anniversary. The first school year for Arvada West began on September 3, 1963. Continue reading