Minding the OUTPOST

1973 FORT ALUMNI DAVID MARTEL AND SUE BIRD DEALT WITH A TORNADO DURING THEIR HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE. THIS INTERVIEW IS ABOUT THAT TORNADO, THEIR NEW SCHOOL BUILDING, AND EVERYTHING THEY ACHIEVED..

Interview by Amy Nguyen

How did the tornado impact you mentally?

Sue: So, I was talking to David when we were getting here thinking back 50 years, it happened so suddenly students were trying to help each other instead of thinking “oh I might get hurt if i help them”.

David: I was in typing or business class facing towards the student parking, the clouds turned an eerie color. We went over to the elementary school and half of it was demolished and students were under desks. We helped them out until the firefighters and ambulance came. The teachers told us to stay back but we had to help them. Sue and I lived across the hill and we were deciding to go back home to see if anything happened at home. Luckily our homes survived. We had an assembly a week later when the governor came down. It was a pretty major thing. It happened our junior year and our next senior year things were calmer.

You said you were a part of Key Club, swimming, Alki yearbook staff, how did you handle both academics and extracurricular activities?

David: I sold all the ads so every year it was the local business that I sold too.My adviser would give them to me and during my free time I asked local businesses and would go up and down main street. The school would send them. If we had enough money we would ask our advisor if our yearbook could be in color. I strictly advertised them and sold many so we could have them in color. They took pictures in color, it was really fun and easy. It was repeatable. They had to buy a yearbook for the school so I asked them if they wanted to resign their contract. We met twice a week and shared a class with the journalism club.

When you were editor of the school newspaper how did you run it?

Sue: We ran it by doing it like the regular advertising newspaper is. Brainstorm ideas, assign them and have a deadline, the editor goes through the articles and reviews them. Pre computer days we had typewriters.

How do you feel being the first graduating class at the new “Fort”?

David: I thought it was very special that it worked out that way for us and we were there for 3 years and graduated. We had good sports teams and a graduation ceremony in the gym. I was in a band but didn’t perform since I was graduating. It was very special, we had an in campus radio station and great equipment and piped into any classroom.

Sue: I would agree we were able to establish our traditions

Do you have any tips for the current journalism members?

Sue: Plan for interviews with a pre-set of questions, add detail to story and descriptions, check facts, and review before submitting.

What was your favorite memory of high school?

Sue: The tornado

David: Coming to the new Fort building, we were glad we didn’t go to the bay.

Recently the Class of 1973 had a reunion. How did it feel seeing everyone from high school back together, knowing that everyone now has their own lives, jobs, and even families?

Sue: I wasn’t able to attend but it was fun to reconnect with others and see what they had done with their life. It was nice to see them have careers and professions helping the community.

David: Nothing was being planned and we asked around if there was gonna be one nobody knew, we had a 10 and 20 year reunion before. There were 300-400 in our senior class back then.It took a year to plan it, they helped plan the dates and chose to do it on the columbia river. One person focused on posting on facebook, I networked and asked if they contacted this person. We did a spreadsheet last year to see how many people could attend. Had a buffet dinner, we wanted extra money for decorations and tried to find old teachers. We tried finding a price that wasn’t too much. We had a class treasurer that was handling money and chose $73 since we’re the class of ‘73. 130 people came which wasn’t bad, we tried begging some to go and they would say they didn’t like high school. There were 2 MCs and unfortunately we found out 50 of our classmates had passed away. We had a memorial table for them with candles and pictures of them. Another one of our classmates scanned out our yearbook and created name tags for us. They invited a classmate from the year infront of us and behind us to help out. Everyone had their different opinions on decorations and what they wanted there.It worked out fine it was really fun. Ceila Moore, the one running, contacted the school and someone from the video production got paid to record it and edited the video which was 2 hours long.