McBride Mania: The Colonnade 1967

The Colannade-1967

EXTRA!!

Certainly, 1967 was a year of unbridled spirit for us sophomores in McBride’s class of 1969. And, classmate Steve Schwartz ‘s artcaptured , for ever , our run-a-away energies on the Colonnade’s year book pages. I’m proud to memorialize in this booklet Steve’s art , and his refelections nearly 55 years later. May the sprits of 69 burn eternally bright.

Dik Ganahl ‘69 Illustrations Copyright 2022 Steve Schwartz ‘69 McBride Logo Copyright 2022 Mike Gorges ‘71 Publisher Copyright 2022 Richard Ganahl ‘69

The Colannade-1967

S

o … Jerry Crutcher, the editor of the yearbook,basicallyoeredablankchecktodo whatever I wanted. No edits, no supervision, no … client. Just make a bunch of funny pictures.

At the time I had not learned how to overthink things, so I said, “Sure.” If I had given any thought to it, it was that this was a good way to get published, and that getting published would be a good thing that led to other Good Things that mostly involved getting paid to make bunches of funny pictures. I was aware that this was an

acceptable career path for aging arrested adolescents, and that was probably what I was aspiring to be at the time.

Things that did not occur to me was that there were some basic skills required for preparing art for reproduction, which included some understanding of human anatomy, the actual interplay of light and shadow on three-dimensional objects, and how clothing actually drapes on a human body. It would probably have helped to know how to rule a straight line with a pen, use a lettering guide, compose with blue pencil, and a few other things that apprentices were expected to practice 10,000 times under an unforgiving taskmaster before they were allowed to touch a blank piece of proper paper. But I had a blank check, some Hunt’s crow quills and a bottle of Higgins india ink, so wotthehell.

It sure looks like I just dipped nib in ink and drew; I see a lot of pieces parts stitched together in ways that bipedal anthromorphs aren’t, crosshatching covers a multitude of sins. No idea where or why these characters; Allen would have been a poor caricature of Allen Funt of Candid Camera, and Julius because we all had to study the War Commentaries of Caesar.

A lot of the poses and expressions look like I was heavilyinfluencedby(thatistosayswiping) JackDavisandWillElder(Seepg1).

Whatever jokes there are sure seem to come from the “it was probably funny at the time” department, which in retrospect was unlikely and probably untrue. The non sequitur and inappropriate juxtaposition remain well-worn tools, although signs and labels have been left behind, lost in the box moves. Things learned: drawing is hard, writing jokes is much harder. What’s in common is that the people who are good at either discipline know what to leave out and when to leave it out, andleavingstuoutisnotinthevocabularyof smartass sophomores with a blank check.

IIRC, generally I’d be asked to provide cameraready“spotillustrations”(standalone drawings)forpagesinlayout.Asthiswaslong before desktop publishing each page was gridded; thesectioneditorsmarkedoonalayoutsheet Continued on Back Page

McBride 1967 Introduction page

Continued From Front Page where they planned to put photos, headlines, body type, etc.; and I was to provide drawings to plug any holes in the layout. Many, probably most, times there was no particular need or desire to have a drawing relate to whatever was on the page other than a general desire that the sports section have sports-themed drawings, etc. The layouts gave the Camera Club members an idea of what photos might be needed; as photos were selected the section editors might mark up a photo to show cropping or revise the layout to accommodate a particularly striking photo.

Beginning in January (ish) a certain number

ly so that the yearbook could be published and distributed in June. So the week’s illustration requirements were not consistent, and occasionalof other pages that weren’t quite ready. Somewhat later in life with somewhat more craft in hand I could phrase the challenge as “You want it fast or you want it good?” At the time I could do the former but not necessarily the latter.

Probably most of the drawings were my sole ideas about what was appropriate (that is to say, what I thought I could get away with). Some of these probably are running school jokes from that year – the venerable “cafeteria food is terrible” or “waitMcBride 1967 Intro Pg 4 Non-Homeroom Pg 6 Student Court Pg 10 Senior Faculty Pg 12 Senior Faculty Pg 16 Senior Faculty Pg 20 Senior Faculty Pg 26 Senior Faculty Pg 29 Senior Faculty Pg 3 Sports B-Ball Pic Pg 1 4 B-team B-Ball Pg 43 B-team B-Ball Pg 43 B-Team Soccer Pg 45 V-B-Ball Pic Pg 47 V-B-Ball Pic Pg 47 Frosh Track Pg 50 Junior Faculty Pg 52

ing on public transportation” ilk. Maybe a few were suggestions from others. None of us thought that anyone would be looking at a high school yearbook in 50 years.

There are not a few of these drawings I now ask myself why I would think that would be appropriate under any circumstances; the only answer I have is that at the time I probably thought pushing boundaries was more important that acceptable or even reasonable content; it was 1967 after all, when boundary-pushing had no consequences – that would be 1968. I have since learned that where there are secondary schools there are smartass sophomores; it’s a constant, comes with the territory, they calm down fast enough as that Thomas Pynchon observed.

All that said … how lucky we were to occupy a protected space in a tumultuous time when we worked and build on it; if it didn’t, try something how utterly atypical that environment was; we could and did take it for granted. And then use that whole lived experience to test every subsequent experience, measuring to see if there was equivalent joy of days of endless discovery. Not every subsequent day fell short; there was last Sunday, for example.

Steve Schwartz, McBride 1969

Junior Pic Pg 54 Junior Pic Pg 5 Junior Pic Pg 56 Sophomore Faculty Pg 58 Sophomore Pic Pg 60 Sophomore Pic Pg 61 Frosh Faculty Pg 64 Frosh Pic Pg 65 Frosh Pic Pg 66 Frosh Pic Pg 67 Frosh Pic Pg 68 Mothers & Fathers Club Pg 70 Mothers & Fathers Club Pg 70 NHS Pg 71 Sodality Pg 72

Chess Club Pg 77 Chess Club Pg 77 Library & Cafeteria Workers Pg 79 Library & Cafeteria Workers Pg 79 Debate Pg 1 8 Band Pg 82 Academic Honors Convo Pg 8 Assemblies Pg 89 Bowling Pg 91 Imaginary Invalid Pg 93 Prom Pg 97

Photos By Richard C. Finke