Barry Rice:
CLASS OF 1973
Park Hills High SchoolClass of 1973
Fairborn, OH
Barry's Story
FLASHBACK: To Hell with 5 X 5!
Who remembers this?
I have a BURNING desire to recount this…and yes, I have a love for puns that I just cant suppress.
This would be, I believe October(?) 1972, during Spirit Week- just prior to Homecoming.
Fred Knopp championed the out-of-control construction of the bonfire culminating in the Thursday* evening celebration just before the Spirit Rally in the Auditorium on Friday.
The past Spring and Summer my good buddy Dave Smith and I spent time over at the Wright-Patt Photo Lab having fun with our 35 mm cameras and developing our own pics. I can’t quite recall how this played out, but I believe John Brownlee recruited the two of us to jump in with the Yearbook team to help him take pics. I hadn’t been at it long taking pictures that were assigned before I was asked to go to the Thursday night* event and get pictures.
As many of you are aware, the bonfire was a simmering issue (pun intended) for days ahead of the event because the Fairborn City Fire Department was not enthusiastic about a large fire with lots of spectators around. And at one point, the edict went out that the fire could not be larger than five feet by five feet. If anyone knows why this was the determined size I would love to know more. Well, this seemed only to inflame (again) Mr. Knopp, who proceeded to go on a crusade to build the Tower of Babel, in defiance, because this looked like it was developing into something biblical. The fire department reluctantly relented, and the inferno was allowed but not without serious representation of the fire department staff and equipment. Anyway, that week, leading up to that pyre, I was able to get several shots as Vikings literally were caught adding fuel to the growing pile. It was impressive.
I showed up, late to the Spirit event, just before dusk, and the fire was already going. And as I walked up, a lot of what I saw were the silhouettes of students against the backdrop of the raging fire. I thought to myself,” what a shot this could be”: and the result is in the yearbook. I took several shots (when you take pictures you take several at different F-stops and different angles-and let the editors sort it out.) I can’t recall how long I was there because I wanted lot...Expand for more
s of shots of different things and different people-and I wasn’t paying for the film. Then happens along Bob Grundesch (sic), Photo Editor and Sportswriter for the Fairborn Herald. He got there late too and asked if I would relinquish my roll of film to him so he could develop it and print images in the paper. “Well, I dunno Bob, these are the only images I got of this assignment and I don’t have any more film”. But I relented to his promises and the result was Fred’s Inferno on the front page of the Friday night Fairborn Herald*. The following Monday the Yearbook team was all excited about the picture and wanted the other shots too. And good as his word, Bob delivered the developed negatives as evident from images you see in the Yearbook. An interesting picture and a snapshot in time were the result… and to my knowledge, no one was injured at the fire: thanks go to the vigilance of the Fairborn Fire Department and Chief Warner. And I have to say, yes, I really do, everyone at the event did seem fired up!
On an interesting side note, Bob extended an offer to Dave Smith, John Brownlee and me, that he would pay for any free-lance photos that got published by the Fairborn Herald. I think we did get several sports shots published. Wow, Paparazzi! But I don’t think that moniker was out there yet and regardless, what is so exciting that happens in Fairborn you could take pictures about? :Like I am gonna steal pictures of Darrell Hutchinson or either of the Riffle brothers on the verboten Senior Skip Day? Right!
I hope this rendition brings back fond memories. I am sure it probably does for Mrs. Knisley, Holloway, Atherton who had the pleasure (or burden) of grading my English papers. And yes, Mrs. Holloway, I confess not only did I use the same storyline for two of my papers, but I gave one to a senior, Laurie Mancuso, that she used, verbatim. Question: how come she got an A, but I only got a B? must have been the hand writing but this is why I like math better, nothing about Mr. Jones’s grades were arbitrary, math just always adds up (again).
*The bonfire picture could not have been taken on Friday night because that photo appeared in the Friday edition that was off the presses early that same afternoon.
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