Back in Time - "The Rock"

"The Rock"
Wheatland High School
Wheatland, WY
1978
"The Rock" stood guard in the courtyard just outside my classroom, and I never knew from one day to the next what color it would be. Each year it grew in size until one summer it was sandblasted to remove the layers of paint added over the decades.

"The Rock" was a large boulder the senior class emblazoned with its graduation year; that is, until another class or alumni slipped in under cover of darkness to stake their own claim to "The Rock."

I admit to painting "The Rock" with a '69 one night before I left Wheatland.

Did your school have a similar tradition?

Comments

  1. We had Senior Skip Day--a day where the seniors were actually on campus, but not in class. We hung out in the courtyard, played games, acted silly and felt like we were getting away with something. It was tradition that was not officially sanctioned by the school, but tolerated.

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  2. My class did try to do something, but the administration was pretty strict on anyone doing anything "bad". I can't even remember if they did anything at all. I know I didn't :)

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  3. That's a pretty cool tradition. At least it's not harmful or people or property!!

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  4. Cheyenne Central had "The Rock" also. Of course it wasn't only the seniors or other classes painting it; the school rival Cheyenne East would sneak over around cross town rival games and paint it their school colors. We did the same to their rock. On year my brother and other swimmers got some chickens and colored their feathers blue, and then released them at a game.

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  5. Hehe the Rock out here means Alcatraz! Need to take the family on a tour :)

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  6. Great tradition--I love it. I graduated in Yuma, Arizona, the home of Yuma Prison so the sports teams were called the "Criminals." There was a huge medallion of a rough looking criminal in the walk outside of the administrative building, and it was tradition to kiss him goodbye after graduation. Mostly it meant a kiss on the hand and a pat on his face. I don't think I ever saw anyone actually get down and kiss him. Fun days!

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  7. I graduated here in Colorado in '69 (class motto: We Feel Fine) and some kids were know to paint the old water tower west of town. The tower was torn down years ago, so I don't know what the students do now.

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  8. The rock is a wonderful idea! Some of the Classes in the early 1960's used to pain Class of Whatever on the highways. I found out my sister in law was part of a goodie goodie group that did this! Some painted on the old bridge that was a fishing spot. I never painted on anything:)

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  9. You REBEL!!!! LOL

    Our high school had a tradition of repainting the side of the train bridge with the new graduating year. Not exactly a SAFE thing to do, but it has continued on through the years.

    Our class gifted our school a rock. It's carved with the "class of '73" on it. Really? A rock???? As you might guess, they didn't ask MY opinion of a rock for a class gift. LOL

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  10. A school down the road has a huge concrete apron leading to a drainage area on the highway. It gets repainted by every class.

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  11. Too funny. We had a rock too, but I never had any parts of painting it.

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