Despite this photo being every kind of wrong in the book, for better or worse, this was the hot man-fashion of 1977.  Word up, guys, the male modeling industry is probably not too worried about the competition...

Long ago, in a galaxy far away…

Well, it wasn’t really another galaxy, but looking back on it, it sure seems like it.

1977 was a different world. A world of disco, long hair and leisure suits. A world before the Internet, bar scanners, cell phones, Wikipedia, TiVo and Google, and even home computers, though they were on the verge of coming – Apple was incorporated in 1977. Star Wars came out right before we graduated. We tell our unbelieving kids that we saw the original Star Wars. Heck, cable TV was a new-fangled thing then, and video games hadn’t advanced much beyond Pong.

We lived comfortably in that world. We embraced the world of the late seventies. We immersed ourselves in the culture, clothes, television shows and movies of that time. We were the class of 1977 and the world had better sit up and take notice.

We were a maverick class. We bucked long-standing traditions, most notably Pine Tree’s graduation invitation, which had been the same for eons. Not that we didn’t respect tradition, but we pushed for change. The principal’s daughter was part of our class, so perhaps the principal watched us a bit closer than other graduating classes.

We may have been mavericks, but in many ways, we were much like other graduating classes of the past and the future. We had our cliques – the jocks, goat ropers, stoners, brainiacs, cheerleaders, loners and so forth and so on.

The "old" skating rink...Knock Three Times, baby!!

Looking back on 1977, I can still remember the exact layout of Pine Tree High school the way it was then, and I bet all of you can, too. The grassy little courtyard in front of the library and by the cafeteria, where we hung out after lunch, suckers hanging out of our mouths. The stairs that led down to the gym and P.E. The two-story building that had the senior and junior lockers – Mr. Noon’s class was at the top of the stairs. Ms. Lofton’s class was on the lower floor, near the end. The student parking lot was out the doors of this building.

The other building had the sophomore lockers and the administrative offices. You were likely to run into Mr. Bardwell, who’d greet you with a “Hi, pal.”

The year we were seniors was the year Pine Tree’s football team went to the quarterfinals. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that’s still as far as any Pine Tree football team has gone in the playoffs. That was the year that Jacksonville beat us with a field goal in the final seconds, but then lost to Henderson and Kilgore, allowing us to advance in the playoffs.

Our class wore all the latest fashions and the guys had the long hair, unless you were on Coach Ray’s basketball team. We wore the snap button shirts, long bell-bottomed blue jeans and three piece suits. As a short guy, I loved platform shoes – me and Mike Koesel both.

I remember a lot of people from that time and could probably name nearly all of them if shown their senior picture without a name. We were a small class, and even if we weren’t friends, everyone pretty much knew who everyone was. Everyone was friendly and some friendships even crossed the clique barriers.

There are so many things to remember about being a part of the class of 1977 – I could literally write a book about it all, and maybe someday I will.

Thirty years have passed since that time, and we’ve all scattered, going in many different directions. Some stayed in Longview. Some moved thousands of miles away. Some got married. Some didn’t. Some have children and even grandchildren. Some don’t have children. We grew up and ended up in a wide variety of occupations. Lawyers, engineers, teachers, doctors, homemakers – we have them all.

We’re all in our late forties, staring fifty in the face. But we have a lot of life yet to live. Who knows what the future will bring for us?

Whatever we may be doing now, we have a common bond. That place, and that time, belong to us. We’ll never forget all that we shared. We are Pine Tree, the class of 1977.