Well the description of Lamar was pretty good. When I went there in the mid 80's it was very diverse. I just took it for granted and thought most Houston high schools were like that. It wasn't just rich and poor kids back then though, there were plenty of middle class kids. Maybe this has changed, since many of these kids came from Bellaire, which I now understand is a wealthy enclave, where it used to be a thoroughly middle class area.
the funniest part about the st thomas description to me is the wanna be cowboy types. I couldn't stand that when I was in h.s. i worked with a guy who went to strake and we used to talk about this all the time.
People might dog high school, but it seriously was the most carefree time of my life. It was a freakin blast. College was more work hard/play hard for me. Crazy highs and crazy lows. Dude, you might dog ALIEF for being ghetto, and it most defiinitely was. But it seriously had some of the most laid back people I have ever met. We didn't have money to be pretentious - we were just real. I hear it's different now, so who knows. Like halfbreed - Alief Elsik '00 man.
I went to Strake, and a lot of the guys there wore cowboy boots. Dirty, torn up baseball caps were also very big. I don't get the Passat reference at all. Mabye it's changed. And most of the students seemed to be from the Memorial area. The Phish comment is dead-on, though.
Klein Forest - We used to be mostly white and were rumored as being listed as the high school with the most cocaine use per capita. It was not unusual to see a lot of Porches, BMW's and Mercedes in the student parking lot. We were the Golden Eagles before Cy Falls stole our mascot, school colors, and our drill team names. BTW, our drill team was nick-named the w**** core, but at least they won nationals. Now, the school is primarily thugs, if you want to see the white kids, go to Klein. The joke on Klein still rings true for some kids: "You go to Klein, oh my mom went there." As for IKE, that was the school that the Asian kids faked their addresses to get away from so that they could go to KF.
This is the truth. Of all the people I've ever met, the people I knew from Alief were the most real and laid back. I can't really put it any better than you said. Sadly people will never see it because of their existing opinions of the area.
I hated high school, only vaguely remember bits and pieces of going and was happy to get the hell out when I graduated. Frankly, I couldn't describe mine because putting that many thoughts together about it would be more torture than I would care to inflict upon myself.
I too, went to Strake and we had a bunch of "urban cowboys" in my class. I also dont get the passat reference at all as everyone who was there during my time drove broncos or some other suv.
Memorial High School represent. It's funny, I actually went to SMU for a year like the description says before transfering to University of Arizona.
