Since the start of my 7th grade year, I’ve been wearing this old purple zip-up hoodie I found in the foyer closet of my home. I began to wear it and I loved it; it helped me survive the frigid cold classrooms. Now it’s my senior year and I still wear the zip-up hoodie. A year or two ago my father mentioned that this hoodie was the same one he wore in high school as an unofficial-official jersey. And that sparked a question—what was high school like for him? How different was Cartersville in the 80’s compared to now? 

When I first conjured up this profile, I was a bit worried I wouldn’t have much to work with. My father usually responds in hums of acknowledgment. I knew that could be a challenge but surprisingly enough when I asked him for this interview, he seemed willing to go along. 

After dinner I managed to get my dad to sit down and get ready for the interview in the room of the house we call ‘The Office’. The first few questions felt a bit forced. 

“What year was your graduating class? Do you remember anyone from your graduating class?” I managed to ask after stumbling on my words an embarrassing number of times.  

“1984.” was all he responded with.  

“Dang, 1984?” I asked, to which he just hummed in response. “I thought it was like, maybe 1986.”  

“Nope, it was 1984.” my dad said again.  

I asked him if he remembered anyone from his class and he listed off a few people who still lived here after graduation.  

“Richard Daniel, Jeff McBee, Lisa Dixion, Roy Glass.”  

I then asked the question I was most curious about, the layout of campus. 

“Well, the auditorium was where it is now. The Main Building was the Main Building that it is now. But to the left, where the new three-story building is, was a gymnasium.”  

“I do remember on open house of my Freshmen Year there was a kind of gymnasium.” I commented, “But, it looked kinda old.”  

“The cafeteria was in the back, where the humanities building is now.” My dad added.  

I then asked him about extracurricular activities. I remembered my dad briefly mentioned one time that he was in both Football and Band at one point during his time at Cartersville High School. 

 “Well, all we had (was) football, golf team, tennis team, basketball team.” He listed off a few, taking pauses towards the end to recall what some of them were.  

“Weren’t you also in Band at one point?” I asked. My dad nodded with a small hum of acknowledgement. 

“I played football for two years until I hurt my knee, then I was in band.” He responded. He began to sit back more in his chair, taking a more relaxed stance than before.  

“Do you remember any of your classes?” I asked. This was when my dad became ‘locked in.’ He was more enthusiastic about his responses.  

“I remember two classes,” He leaned back more in his seat, “Two teachers I remember the most was Mrs. Smith, who was my art teacher. And Mr. Sneed. He was the science and physics teacher.” He responded.  

I asked him how it was getting around school on crutches, since there was no elevator.  

“It was difficult, I was carrying books.” 

“Those stairs, the stairwells, I don’t think those have changed.” I commented. He nodded in agreement. “I don’t think they have either.” He remarked. 

“And the funny thing is, those stairs in the main hall look way better than the stairs in the humanities building.” I added. My father chuckled at my remark and nodded. 

Eventually we got to the question about lockers and class change, and my father mentioned that they had enough time to go to their lockers in between classes.  

“We barely have enough time to get across campus with the class change time now.” I remarked. We eventually got onto the subject of just class change times overall. Turns out that when the campus was barely a quarter of the size it is now, they had longer class change times. 

We got onto the subject of class size; how many people were in each graduating class from Cartersville. I was expecting there to be maybe at least 200 students in his graduating class, so you can guess how shocked I was when my dad told me there was only 100, give or take. I don’t know how many there are in my year [Class of 2024] but I estimate around 500 to 1,000. 

Eventually after some more time of chatting we got onto different topics about what the High School experience was like for my dad in the 80’s.  

“There was a Dairy Queen behind the stadium.” My dad mentioned.  

I asked about where the stadium was, and he said it was in the same spot it is now.  

“Everybody would hang out at Dairy Queen before the game.” On where people would hangout before and after games, he added “Mainly the Capri restaurant and Dairy Queen. Also, the Plaza behind the high school too.”  

This interview with my dad about Cartersville High school in the 80’s made me realize some things don’t really change much. People still hang out at places close to the High School, sometimes in the Plaza too. But there were also still very noticeable changes too, mainly the growth of campus to accommodate the larger number of students. Yet, overall, Cartersville has still remained the same in a sense, striving for excellence and keeping legacies.