The Lesson

Earl J. Woods, Jeff Crozier and Jonathan Wright sell school newspapers in 1987.

Before blogs, before even BBSes (barely), there were the high school newspapers. From 1985 to 1987, I contributed to The Forum, the newspaper of Leduc Composite High School; I served as the paper's editor during grades eleven and twelve. As noted in one of the yearbook write-ups below, the 80s were a time of rapid transition in publishing, though nowadays even that rapid change seems glacial in comparison to today's evolving industry.

In 1985, Leduc Senior High School was undergoing a significant renovation on its way to becoming Leduc Composite High School. Because our gymnasium wasn't finished, we held our Valentine's Day dance at the nearby junior high. The dance got a little out of control, with copious alcohol consumption and a couple of fights; the evening came to a close when someone lit a set of curtains on fire, which one intrepid student put out by pouring soda over the flames.

In response, I wrote a self-righteous editorial for the paper's next issue, calling the perpetrators punks, hooligans, etc. I was in high dudgeon, and I painted my fellow classmates with a very, very broad brush. A couple of my fellow students said "You can't write this!" but our supervisor, nodding sagely, said that we should go ahead and print it. At first I thought she agreed with my moralistic position, but as soon as the issue was printed posters and effigies flew up on the school walls, replete with pithy slogans such as "Earl Woods Sucks." I was stunned as only a self-righteous crusader could be. Kirby Fox, one of the school's biggest students, grabbed me by the lapels, lifted me over his head and slammed me into the lockers - not hard enough to hurt me, but hard enough to make his point: he wasn't happy. A few students and teachers supported my editorial, but most of my classmates were pretty annoyed with me.

And they were right. In the days that followed, I got to know a whole bunch of other kids much better, as they took pains to explain why my article was so off-base and, frankly, prejudiced. I felt shame, and I realized why our supervisor had allowed the editorial to go ahead: not to teach other students a lesson, but to teach me the value of prudence, fairness and journalistic integrity. After that incident, I learned to look at all sides of the issues.

Here are the yearbook write-ups I provided in 1986 and 1987. Click to embiggen!

Terror in the Darkroom

During grades 11 and 12, I served as the editor of the Leduc Composite High School newspaper. Here I am in the school's Visual Communications Lab sometime during the spring of 1987; I'm pretty sure Jonathan Wright snapped the photo, and I remain impressed by the lighting and the depth of field. Good job, Jonathan!

The lab featured a darkroom (hidden behind the wall to my left in this picture), and Jonathan and I could often be found in the dim red light developing negatives and prints. With the advent of digital photography, I wonder how many schools are still teaching kids how to develop film; I wonder if the school darkroom in Leduc still functions as such or if it's been converted to some other purpose. I love my digital camera, but I also loved experimenting in the darkroom. You could produce all kinds of interesting effects using primitive analog means. Even the mistakes could create beautiful results if you were fortunate.

One day, Jonathan and I were working in the darkroom and for whatever reason we were talking about monsters or serial killers or something along those lines to pass the time. We didn't know that our teacher/supervisor, Mr. Banford, was standing outside and had, quite coincidentally, decided to play a minor practical joke on us: he flipped off the light switch, plunging the darkroom into literal darkness. Of course we immediately suspected that some fiend was about to leap out of the inky black and slaughter us like helpless sheep.
Jonathan and I panicked, running blindly for the heavy steel revolving door that was the room's only exit. We crashed into it together, screaming and yelling, staggering into the harsh light of the main lab, a little bruised and banged up, but otherwise unharmed.

Our teach was holding his side, tears of laughter spilling down his cheeks. Jonathan and I were both a little annoyed, but we had to admit - he got us, but good.

Mr. Banford was awesome, and I thank him for encouraging me to work on the newspaper (and the yearbook), where I developed so many of my passions.

The Young Journalists

Back in high school, I served as Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper. The Representative, Leduc's newspaper, even gave me an award for it; I only mention it because I just remembered that odd little fact. I don't remember why the award was given or if we published anything that merited the recognition, but I do remember the fun we had. The guy with the gun is British expatriate Jonathan Wright, a madcap fellow who was a whiz with the Apple Lisa pictured in the background. He handled a variety of tasks, from photography to layout, and contributed some of the newspaper's stranger articles.

I'm not really sure why I'm regarding Jonathan with such consternation - perhaps because he brought a gun to the Visual Communications lab? (It was only plastic.)

Years later, I ran into Jonathan at the Legislature Annex, where I work for the Alberta Liberal Caucus. I was surprised to learn that Jonathan was working for the communications staff of then-Premier Ralph Klein, and had even written speeches for him (see correction below)- just as I'd written speeches for Official Opposition Leader Kevin Taft.

The era of Ralph Klein and Kevin Taft seems like it happened decades ago, but it was only 2006. Time flies in politics - faster now than ever before.

As an aside, Jonathan introduced me to the Internet way back in 1986. It was he who showed me how to hook up a 300 baud modem to a computer to access Edmonton's electronic bulletin boards, or BBSes. Back then the text (and there was only text) loaded so slowly that most people read far faster than the data scrolled by. Nowadays, political communicators and journalists are bound together by the Internet, sharing scoops, spreading rumours and trading barbs in real time. Given the tone of most of these communications, it seems a mixed blessing.

CORRECTION: Jonathan himself emailed me to note that my memory is a little off. Jonathan wasn't writing speeches for Premier Klein; rather, he prepared media briefings for Klein, and later for Jim Dinning and Stockwell Day. He's since moved on. Thanks for the correction and for touching base, Jonathan!