My Memories of Elementary: Berkeley Hall School in the Early 1990s

 

For the past several weeks, I have been putting together a long memory document for my Berkeley Hall School classmates, covering our years there from early childhood through ninth grade. My goal was to reconstruct as much of that world as I could: the campus, the teachers, the traditions, the field trips, the phrases, the toys, the books, the atmosphere, and the countless little details that made those years feel like their own self-contained universe. I originally created it as a gift for my class, and as a shared document that classmates could help revise, expand, and correct.

What you are looking at below is a public version of that project. For privacy reasons, I removed the classmates’ names and some other personal details before posting it here. Even so, I wanted to share the document because I think this kind of reconstruction can be meaningful for many people. It is one way of preserving a vanished social world, and of honoring the places and communities that shaped us when we were young.

I am also posting it in the hope that others might use it as a model for their own class, school, or childhood community. It may be especially helpful if you grew up in the late 80s and early 90s. Most of us carry around fragments of our early years, but rarely do we try to gather them into one place. Doing so can be surprisingly moving. It can remind us how much of childhood consists not just of major events, but of routines, objects, sayings, spaces, and shared experiences that quietly formed the texture of life. If this inspires you to create something similar for your own classmates, then this project will have done more than I originally imagined.

Berkeley Hall School, Class of 1997

We grew up as Bobcats at 15700 Mulholland Drive, on sixty-six acres of beautiful hilltop land. Founded in 1911, Berkeley Hall had moved through different neighborhoods before settling on Mulholland in 1980. By the time we arrived, the campus was still relatively young. Its buildings were spread across the ridge, connected by walkways and open air. There were playgrounds tucked into the landscape, an amphitheater, athletic fields, and a pool.

We were students on a campus that shared space with animals. Bobcats were not myths. Roadrunners were not cartoon characters. Hawks circled above morning drop-off. Deer sometimes appeared at the edges of campus. The air carried eucalyptus, dry grass, sage, and the faint sweetness of flowering shrubs in spring. It was very common for your parent to stop the car on the way up the hill, braking for a mother California quail followed by a line (covey) of her chicks.

Berkeley Hall was shaped as much by its traditions as by its academics. The year unfolded through familiar milestones: the Berkeley Hall Fair, Field Day, Earth Day, the annual campout, and the Sugar Plum pageant in Hodges. There were Halloween parades, Christmas programs, science fairs, student council elections, and Optimist Club speeches. Junior high brought the Ninth Grade Tea, Spectrum yearbooks, and class shields bearing mottos that captured each graduating group.

Berkeley Hall was not just where we were educated. For many of us, it was the setting in which our early identities took shape. We learned facts and skills there, but we also absorbed something harder to name: a sense of place, a sense of community, and a shared emotional world that still lives in memory decades later.

Memory does not preserve childhood in a straight line. It keeps fragments: a teacher’s voice, the feeling of being on a playground, a classroom, a lunchbox. This document is an attempt to gather some of those fragments and give them form.

What follows is a reconstruction made from personal recollection, old yearbooks, names, and conversations with classmates. It tries to capture not just the structure of Berkeley Hall, but its texture: the routines, the objects, the customs, the humor, the friendships, and the sensory world of growing up there. Let us revisit it, preserve it, and honor the people who made it what it was.

This document is a work in progress, and I hope it can become a shared project. I would love for you guys to write me with inclusions and ideas or make related notes in our “add your memories” document. I am hoping you will help me correct details, suggest rewrites, fill in gaps, and help shape it into something richer and more accurate. Also, feel free to upload a PDF filled with your own memories and thoughts to the shared Google Drive folder. Each of us remembers different pieces, and I am hoping that by working on it together we can create a fuller picture of what those years at Berkeley Hall were really like.

Our BHS Class of 43 Students (K-9)

 

ECD (Parent/Toddler - Kindergarten): 1985-1988

 

Parent Toddler – 1984

Cindy Linke

 

Junior Nursery – 1985

Mrs. Willoughby 

 

Nursery – 1986

Mrs. Hooker

 

Junior Kindergarten – 1987

Ms. Reichow, Speer & Wilcox

 

Kindergarten – 1988

Teacher: Mrs. Newcomb & Johnson

 

14 Students

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In kindergarten, we had Mrs. Newcomb & Mrs. Johnson, two of the best teachers in the school. They guided us through fingerpainting, phonics, the alphabet, counting, puzzles, Simon says, musical chairs, and duck duck goose. We recited nursery rhymes, traced letters, learned to sort, crafted, watered plants, played with Play-Doh, completed puzzles, performed puppet shows, and took nap time. Mrs. Newcomb ensured that our curriculum moved in a rhythm. Each week had a letter theme that quietly organized the whole world. During “M week,” we had muffins, melons, milk, and McDonald’s, and our moms came to visit the classroom. During “D week,” our dads visited. We ate donuts and drank Dad’s Root Beer with them.

Kindergarten also had its own little calendar of ceremonies and costumes. We had a “50s Day,” where the girls wore poodle skirts and the boys wore jeans and sunglasses. We had a hobo day where we all dressed up and carried our lunch on the end of a stick, tied up in a handkerchief. We celebrated Valentine’s Day with cards and candies. For Thanksgiving we made Indian and pilgrim hats out of paper. On Halloween, we wore our costumes to school every year, and there was an ECD Halloween parade. Birthdays were celebrated in class with a cake and a song. Then there was Clash Day, where we tried to wear things that didn’t match.

We didn’t have lockers until junior high. We had cubbies. They were orange, open-faced compartments stacked along the walls where we stuffed backpacks, jackets, and whatever treasures we had that day. No locks. No doors. Everything visible.

Recess had its own equipment and its own physics. The ECD playgrounds had tricycles and roller skates, balls, sandboxes, and little slides. They also had wiggle cars, low to the ground with a seat and two hand grips, where you moved by twisting the front half left-right, or by wiggling your body and steering. We all loved playing tag, kickball, four square, and jump ropes.

Inside the kindergarten homeroom there were small objects that became strangely permanent in memory. They had an empty bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup. I would open it, squeeze it, and smell it. They also had large, cardboard, colored blocks. The blocks had brick patterns on them, and we could set them up and build walls and smash them as if we were the Hulk. We would build with wood blocks too, and a Construx set, on the carpeted floor.

Now the playgrounds: Outside, the campus felt like a set of zones you learned by walking them. The ECD homerooms each had their own playground outside of them, suited for the age group. There were merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters, and monkey bars. There was also a playground in the front, in the northwestern portion of the school, where children would wait for their parents to pick them up. It had basketball hoops and tetherball. The primary playground was west of the primary homerooms. There was a small inflatable pool just east of the soccer field. South of that were the basketball courts and amphitheater. South of that was the track field. Then southwest of that was the baseball diamond.

The books were their own kind of landscape. Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon, Green Eggs and Ham, Barbar the Elephant, The Cat in the Hat, Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks, Frog and Toad, Are You My Mother?, Go, Dog. Go!, Little Bear, Charlotte’s Web, Winnie the Pooh, The Stinky Cheese Man, Stuart Little, Ramona, Anansi stories, Native American legends, Tikki Tikki Tembo, The Little Engine that Could, The Princess and the Pea, Tom and the Two Handles, and many Little Golden Books.

 

 

Primary School (1st-3rd Grade): 1989-1991

 

First Grade – 1989

 

Teacher: Anita Cheney

13 Students

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Second Grade – 1990

 

Teacher: Nikki Wilband

17 Students

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Third Grade – 1991

 

Teacher: Ruth Loeb

17 Students

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In Primary school, we started each day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we would take attendance and listen to announcements over the loudspeaker. We would discuss the calendar, the weather, we kept journals, copied spelling words, practiced penmanship, memorized flashcards, and we would break into reading groups called reading circles. We painted watercolor, crafted with construction paper, and made things out of clay. Sometimes, we would sit in stillness for one minute, thinking quietly to ourselves in our silent moment.

There were small systems that made the days feel structured. When we finished reading ten books, we earned the right to place a sticker up on a chart, a tiny badge that meant you had crossed a threshold. We grew a plant. We did creative art writing. We had monart drawing lessons. In second grade, if our row of desks was good, that row would get a point. In second grade we also had a hamster named Stormy. And if I remember correctly, “Muncho” was the snack time before lunch. We were assigned classroom jobs such as line leader, door holder, plant waterer, calendar helper, board cleaner and paper passer.

It is hard to forget our long-time music teacher, Mrs. Doris Barclay, who taught music and Glee Club at Berkeley Hall since 1968. She was born in 1913. She was a great teacher and a fantastic pianist who was behind the piano at every BHS production. She taught us songs, dances, note reading, and instruments like recorders, tambourines and rhythm sticks. Glee club sang a wide variety of songs, often from musicals (such as Phantom of the Opera) and performed at retirement homes. In the earlier years, she wrote a special song for each child in kindergarten, with words that were specific to that individual, as if every student had their own little anthem.

The library had its own atmosphere. The librarian, Mrs. Ogden, would sit in her rocking chair in McMahan Library, in front of the fireplace, and read to us while we sat around her on the floor. The chair, the hearth, the semicircle of kids, it had the feeling of something older than a school routine, like a story hour that could have happened in any decade.

Hodges was the auditorium, and it was where the whole school seemed to gather itself into one place. On Mondays we had weekly assemblies there with all the students from first grade through eighth grade, a regular moment of collective attention that made you aware, even as a child, that the school was larger than our classroom. We also put on a full production play there of The Emperor’s Clothes with the two grades above us.

And then there was the Berkeley Hall Fair, which felt like the campus turning into a temporary town. It had booths, rides, music, and good food. There was a pie eating contest, a jail, a concert stage, a petting zoo, carnival games, a horse and carriage, a pumpkin patch, a candy booth, a dunking booth, and a gourmet and craft booth. Often there was a Ferris wheel, a giant slide, and a moon bounce. It was customary for the fair to feature a hot air balloon, but one year the landmark was different: a gigantic inflatable gorilla.

Each family was given a Berkeley Hall School directory with phone numbers and addresses for each student. The school also put out a monthly newsletter called the Highlighter. Field Day was competitive and energetic. Earth Day was constructive and contemplative.

We didn’t have a cafeteria, so everyone brought lunch from home. Some lunches were very healthy, others not so much. We had a milk man who had regular, non-fat, and chocolate milk, and it was subscription-based. Every few weeks we had a hot lunch day. It was often spaghetti, meatballs, and a ranch salad. On hot lunch day they gave us canned soda pop. I would sometimes put my can in my backpack and take it home, and I had a collection in my closet.

Sometimes our P.E. coaches would give us Jolly Ranchers when we performed well, and everyone wanted the green apple flavored ones. We used to eat Shark Bite fruit snacks. They had shark-shaped gummies of different shapes and colors and we would get excited when someone found a great white.

We can’t forget about the parent-teacher conferences, or the back to school nights / open houses, where our parents would come to our classroom in the evening and see what we’ve been up to.

There was also an annual campout where students and parents slept in tents on the track field. We told ghost stories, toasted marshmallows, and stayed up late, and it had that rare feeling of freedom that comes from being on school grounds but living by different rules for one night. In the same spirit, we loved sleepovers with friends.

And behind the scenes, the parent world kept the school’s social life running. The Mother’s Club organized the bake sale, the book fairs, the junior high Christmas formal, the shield dance, the walkathon, and the ninth-grade tea, among other events. Classroom parties were organized by “room mothers.” Additionally, Ashley, Japhet, Courtney, and Karen’s mothers worked at the school. The Dad’s Club sponsored maintenance day, the variety show, and the campout. The Grateful Dads were a music group that played at the Dad’s Club variety shows. The boys put on a Peter Pan play in Hodges.

The primary playground was great. We would jump off the swings and try aerial acrobatics, always chasing the feeling of flight. We all had fun climbing and traversing the jungle gym which the teachers called “the big toy.” From the primary playground you could see much of the San Fernando Valley below, which made the school feel perched above a larger world.

At one point, the administration let each child from our first-grade class choose a tree variety to plant near the basketball courts. One of the options was a ginkgo. And in the open area between elementary and kindergarten, there were orange honeysuckle plants. You could pick the flowers and suck out the nectar, a tiny ritual that made the campus feel edible and alive.

After school, the elementary kids were sent to the ECD (Early Childhood Development) building to wait for parents to pick them up. They played old Disney movies for us while we waited, and I still remember the old Disney VHS tape holders, the bulky plastic sleeves that felt almost indestructible. They would often screen Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

We all had our own special backpacks and lunchboxes, plus favorite cartoons and movies. In 1989, the boys were playing Batman and collecting trading cards. That same year, many of the girls were singing songs from The Little Mermaid. Soon after The Simpsons came out, it felt like everyone came to school in Simpsons shirts. By 1991, a lot of the boys collected comic books and Impel Marvel cards. We loved singing the Animaniacs theme song. Around 1991, Mossimo and Stüssy shirts became popular overnight. Many of us played pogs and wore fanny packs.

The physical world of the school had its own repeating objects and colors. It is hard to forget the stackable blue plastic chairs with the polished metal frame. The buildings were tan with dark brown roofs. Black metal door frames held light brown doors. On each door were small blue plaques with white writing, each plaque framed in wood, the kind that could simply read “Junior High.”

In first grade we studied Native American peoples and local tribes. We did our best to learn cursive, addition, and subtraction. We even adopted a whale named Raggity. In second grade we studied the Old West and took a field trip to the Southwest Museum. In third grade, with Mrs. Loeb, we studied Asian cultures. We made kabuki masks, origami, fans, and kites, wrote haiku, did brush painting, and had a candlelight lunch.

Every December we gathered in Hodges for the Sugar Plum, a special pageant where we sang songs and listened to speeches. A tree stood indoors, impossibly tall, hung with round paper ornaments, each filled with goodies. After the music and speeches, each of us received one. It felt ceremonial, almost old-fashioned, like we were participating in something that had been happening long before we arrived and would continue long after we left.

In 1989, when we entered second grade, Berkeley Hall started accepting students who were not Christian Scientists. We were so happy to welcome six new classmates at that time. Kian, Alex, and Chris Nourian previously attended Egremont in the valley before Berkeley Hall. For a few months, in third grade, we had a nice girl named Morgan from Canada who joined our class for a few months.

Schoolwork came with its own steady drumbeat. We had pop quizzes, homework logs, spelling bees, science reports, book shares, and show and tell. And we had phrases we repeated, little lines that became part of the air: “I’m feeling saucy.” “Nifty.” and “Sweet baby, sweet.” Of course, “psych,” “not,” and “talk to the hand” were 90s favorites. Mrs. Reichow asked a question that showed up as both joke and warning: does it “behoove you?” From third grade to eighth grade, we took the ERB standardized achievement test used to benchmark students year to year. There was a whole week dedicated to it and it felt strangely serious. I’m sure we all remember the fire and earthquake drills where we would either line up and exit, or take cover under our lift-top desks.

Lines that were popular with the teachers included:

·        “Eyes on your own paper.”

·        “Line up quietly.”

·        “Walk, don’t run.”

·        “Use your inside voice.”

·        “Raise your hand.”

·        “Put your name on your paper.”

·        “Put on your thinking cap.”

·        “Put on your listening ears.”

·        “Hey is for horses.”

·        “Ask a silly question, get a silly answer.”

 

Its hard to forget other elementary school staples like the lost and found, bulletin boards, drinking fountains with metal push buttons, the classroom dictionary and globe, pencil sharpeners bolted to the wall, the TV and VCR strapper to a tall rolling cart, pull-down maps, and the chalkboards with colored chalks and erasers that were fun to clap together outside.

In the computer lab with Mr. Hancock, we played Reading Rabbit, Math Rabbit, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, The Print Shop, Gertrude’s Puzzles, Gertrude’s Secrets, Carmen Sandiego, and The Oregon Trail on 3.5 inch floppy disks. I recently re-encountered the game Think Quick!, and it hit me as especially nostalgic, so I want to encourage you to look up a video of it on YouTube or play it for free online.

One field trip has a perfect little audio memory attached to it. We went to Griffith Observatory, and during the planetarium show the guide told us to fasten our seat belts for the ride, “ca-chick.” Chris Nourian fastened his and made the “chicka chickaaah” sound from the song “Oh Yeah,” that was featured in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Recess was its own world. A lot of the boys played soccer during recess from first through third grade. We also had schoolyard fights out there with older kids. In first grade we contended with Chris Pope and his crew. In second grade it was Josh Mann and his group. We played handball against the storage containers, and we played with our TMNT action figures in the sand.

The reading list of those years still feels like a bookshelf you could walk through. A Wrinkle in Time, Jurassic Park, The Black Cauldron, Encyclopedia Brown, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Indian in the Cupboard, Hatchet, Bunnicula, The Velveteen Rabbit, Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Sideways Stories from Wayside School. We read Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes collections, and The Far Side. Then there was Nintendo Power, MAD Magazine, and Choose Your Own Adventures. 

Intermediate (4th-6th Grade): 1992-1994

Fourth Grade – 1992

 

Teacher: Susan Aleksich

20 Students

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Fifth Grade – 1993

 

Teacher: Sharon Reichow

22 Students

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Sixth Grade – 1994

 

Teacher: Winnie Needham

18 Students

 

As intermediate students we were crossing the bridge between childhood and junior high. School became more structured and demanding, but there were still a lot of memorable hands-on activities and traditions. We had homework planners, regular tests, longer book reports, research projects, oral presentations, and group projects. We studied vocabulary lists, paragraph structure, long division, poetry, and state history.

Many of the classrooms had an upstairs reading loft, the kind that felt half secret and half sanctuary, with beanbags for SSR, Silent Sustained Reading. Reading was not just something we did, it was something the school physically built space for. We also had the SRA Reading Laboratory, a big box filled with color-coded booklets. Each booklet held a short passage on a different topic, followed by comprehension and thinking questions, like a small, private puzzle you solved with your own attention. And at least once we took that devotion to reading to its logical extreme. We had an overnight read-a-thon in the library where we slept in sleeping bags, curled up with books.

By fourth grade, the curriculum started to feel like it was mapping the world outward. We studied the missions and pueblos and visited the San Fernando Mission and the Natural History Museum. In fifth grade, while we were studying American history, we went on an overnight field trip to “the Pilgrim ship,” where we lived a day in the life of a sailor in the 1830s. In sixth grade, we had a field trip to the La Brea Tar Pits, where time felt physical and sticky, as if the past could still grab you.

Later that same year came one of those moments that, even as a child, you could tell was unusual. We visited the Reagan Presidential Museum and met Ronald Reagan himself. He talked with us and answered our questions. And in that same sixth-grade year, we staged our own version of national politics back on campus. We had a mock presidential campaign where Chris was George Bush, Ashley was Bill Clinton, and Veta was Ross Perot.

Sixth grade also had its big trip. Astro Camp in Idyllwild. We stayed for two nights and three days, which meant it was long enough to feel like a temporary life. We experienced weightlessness in the pool. We went on hikes. We designed rockets. We shared bunks. We enjoyed the planetarium. And there is one detail that still feels perfectly sixth grade: the boys beat a group from public school in a friendly game of basketball in the auditorium.

Back at school, the year was punctuated by events that felt both festive and oddly formal. There was a Halloween party and a Christmas program. If you didn’t wear green on Saint Patrick’s you would get pinched. At one point, we had a fiesta party for our parents. We put on plays. We had a school play based on the book The Sign of the Seahorse (1992), and Karen played the evil Grouper. We also put on Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. And then, every so often, adult reality would cut through the kid-world. Adam Plotkin’s father came and talked to us about his time as a prisoner of war in the Middle East.

PE had its own mythology and its own vocabulary, the kind that instantly takes you back to the gym. Every once in a while, Mr. Hirsch and Ms. Atchison, the PE coaches, let us play dodgeball with two teams. But we liked “slaughterball” even more. In slaughterball there were no teams, and the gym mats were set upright as barricades, turning the room into a maze of cover and chaos. There was also “bombardment,” where instead of being out, you went to jail. Even more rarely we played sharks and minnows, and even tug-of-war.

After school, you could see the school’s identity sharpen into uniforms and competition. We had after-school sports where we wore white and blue clothes with a Bobcat logo, the school mascot. We played against teams from other schools, and we had large track meets hosting multiple schools. In intermediate after-school sports, the boys played football, baseball, and basketball while the girls played basketball, volleyball, and softball. Both boys and girls did a soccer and volleyball tournament and participated in two track meets. The track meets had short- and long-distance racing, high jump, long jump, and shotput. We had furious relay races where we handed each other an aluminum baton. I remember playing flag football out on the field with the other boys, strapping red velcro flags to our waists. Sometimes the coaches brought speakers out onto the track field and played pop and hip-hop radio while we practiced. One year we had a challenge course for PE where we had to solve tough physical challenges as a team. Also, Mr. Hirsch and Ms. Atchison taught us to juggle plastic bags first before trying to juggle bean bags. Ms. Wheeler had us sing competitive songs directed at the other team like, “Hey there blank you’re a real cool cat, you got a lot of this and a lot of that,” and “Uh, Ungawa, Bobcats got the power.”

I had a birthday at Balboa Lake in Encino and my BHS classmates always brought the best presents. I was excited to get the hologram trading cards I needed to complete my collection. I had another birthday party and practically all of the boys in the class slept outside in the backyard in a tent. Chris L brought his super Nintendo and we played Street Fighter until our thumbs hurt. As usual my friend Fernando from outside of school joined us and everybody liked him. But a rough kid named Ari joined us and he scandalized the BHS boys with dirty words and stories. This showed that we were a pretty wholesome and well-mannered group.

Chris Nourian would have parties at his house in Winnetka and we would swim in the pool and listen to Snoop Dogg. His mother was a politician, and she came to school to teach us about politics and elections. Chris White lived in Woodland Hills and had bunnies and a boxer. Both boys had younger sisters at Berkeley Hall named Natalie. Alex Baroian had a birthday at his home in Bel Air one year and everyone came. We slam-dunked on his adjustable basketball hoop over and over, playfully shouting “who is the man?”

Courtney had a birthday party at her house one year and we listened to Ace of Base and played Ecco the dolphin on Genesis. We had a dance party at Veta‘s house one year and her father consoled me when I told him I didn’t know how to dance. But the rest of you guys were rockin!

One of the clearest scenes I still have from fourth grade is show-and-tell. There was a familiar ritual to it. Kids would stand in front of the class, stare at the floor, and in a shy sing-song voice say, “This is my object… I got it from a store… and I like it a lot,” sometimes repeating that last line over and over. One day I got tired of the script. So when it was my turn, I walked up, reached into the classroom trashcan, pulled out an empty Doritos bag, and announced: “This is my Doritos bag. I got it from the trashcan. And I like it a lot… And I like it a lot.” Some kids laughed. The teacher admonished me a bit, but I could tell she also understood that I was making a kind of comment on the whole ritual.

There were also systems of student life that made you feel, in a child’s way, that the school was a small society. For student council, two students were elected each semester from fourth through ninth grade to represent their class, and the student council sponsored and planned various activities.

Certain classmates created moments that felt like demonstrations, as if they were showing the rest of us what was possible. Christian Stayner created a life-size recreation of our solar system all over the campus and showed us how incredibly far out Pluto really is.

And there were the fundraisers, the odd little economies kids lived inside without ever naming them that way. We sold magazine subscriptions for prizes through a catalog. We especially treasured the little furry bug-eyed “weepuls.” Ultimately, we could win a cassette player, a limo lunch, a pizza party, or assembly recognition. The girls sold Girl Scout cookies and were in Brownie Troop 189. Some of the boys were in Boy Scouts.

Technology arrived in the form of teachers and new capabilities. Mr. Garrett replaced Mr. Hancock and became the computer teacher when we were in fifth grade. We played chess remotely, through an early internet-style connection, with a nearby school called Mirman, which felt like a quiet miracle at the time, as if the computer room had a hidden doorway to someplace else.

School also had its elective worlds. We enjoyed coed sports, model aeronautics, and drama class. In the art room, we did painting, graphics design, ceramics, photography, and architecture. We memorized poetry and wrote skits. In wood shop we made Delta Darts out of spruce sticks and tissue paper, and we made small wooden helicopters called whirligigs. I especially enjoyed making a wooden duck napkin holder and a whale coat hanger.

All of this sat on top of the pop culture layer that made our years feel timestamped. We loved basketball players like Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Chris Webber. In 1992, the boys could not wait to get home to watch Batman: The Animated Series at 5 pm on Fox. Kian used to tease Jared by saying he was “jolly like Flanders,” and he turned it into a song to the rhythm of “Cool Like Dat” by Digable Planets. In 1992 we were briefly visited by a fun boy named Andre.

In fifth grade we spent time with the kindergartners. Each of us chose one student from kindergarten to mentor and do activities with. It was fun for me because it paired me up with my brother William’s class. Also, every few months, my mom would come to school and give us art history lessons, with an art project at the end.

For one week in sixth grade, we became acquainted with the Junior High teachers. One of those days we had a math class with Joel Taylor. Instead of routine arithmetic, he explained Zeno’s paradox, the idea that motion can be broken into endless halves, so you are always “approaching” a destination without ever technically arriving. It hit me like a mind trick that was also somehow true. I was amazed by it, and it stayed with me. I ended up referring back to it many times later in life.

The reading lists of those years were their own kind of education. We read Where the Red Fern Grows, Bridge to Terabithia, Tuck Everlasting, and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. We read James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Charlotte’s Web, The Giver, Johnny Tremain, Two Years Before the Mast, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Phantom Tollbooth, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, The Hobbit, The Secret Garden, Ishi, Yamino Kwiti, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Superfudge, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and the Hardy Boys. We also liked Highlights magazine for kids.

U.S.A. reading list books were part of an accelerated reading incentive program. Many of those books were Newbery Award winners, for best writing, and Caldecott Medal winners, for best art.

 

 

Junior High (7th-9th Grade): 1995-1997

 

Seventh Grade

 

Teacher: David Ives 

22 Students

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Eighth Grade

 

Teacher: Mr. Chitwood

22 Students

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Ninth Grade

 

Teacher: Diane Barrows

13 Students

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Seventh through ninth grade usually marked the transition into a more junior-high style environment, where students were expected to manage more responsibility, move between classes, and prepare for high school. We switched classrooms throughout the day, following a schedule with different teachers for each subject. Lockers became important, and passing periods between classes created a more independent rhythm to the school day. We did literary analysis, persuasive speech, class debates, pre-algebra, word processing, geometry basics, map skills, civics, lab experiments, long-term projects, and lots of word problems. Junior high also brought in practical skills you could imagine using in a kitchen or at home. Students learned domestic skills in cooking and sewing classes (home economics).

Junior high had its own ecosystem of ceremonies and signals that made it feel like you were moving into a more official world. The Optimist Club gave speeches and handed out awards. There were ninth grade graduation speeches. There was a science fair. And some of the junior high students were on the Spectrum staff, the ones who created the yearbook, collecting the year into something that could be held.

There was also a quiet line the school drew around achievement. Students with at least a B+ average, in the second semester of sixth grade, were eligible for the Scholarship Society, and they got to go to Disneyland. It was one of those rewards that felt half academic and half mythical, like grades turning into a real-world destination.

Some traditions felt almost old-fashioned in the best way. The Ninth Grade Tea was a formal affair where ninth graders got to invite family members or friends to join them for a meal that was partially served by eighth graders. It had the feeling of being briefly folded into a gentler version of adulthood, where the roles were scripted and everyone knew they were participating in something ceremonial.

The curriculum widened too. Seventh grade studied geography. Eighth grade learned American history. Ninth grade learned world history. And between classes there was study hall, which felt like the calm between storms. No lecture, no performance, just the quiet hum of pencils, pages turning, and the faint anxiety of unfinished homework.

The trips were where junior high turned into story. There was rock climbing and hiking in Joshua Tree. There was a field trip to Catalina with kayaking, a maze, and a night dive. There was also a whale watch trip and the art museum. The eighth grade class went on a Colorado River trip where they had water-splashing fights and slept under the stars. They went to Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam, and floated in canoes on the Colorado River and paddled.

Every BHS class left behind a symbol, per tradition, by creating a shield that would be added to the other shields hung up in Hodges. The motto for our sheild was: “Diversity is Our Strength.” We graduated right after the school celebrated its 85th anniversary, which made it feel like our own ending was tied to a larger timeline, as if we were stepping out just as the institution itself paused to look back.

Looking back, what made our class truly memorable was not just the place or the traditions, but the way we were together. We were a remarkably cohesive group of kids. There were no major rivalries, no lasting conflicts, and very little of the drama that people often associate with school years. Somehow, we seemed to govern ourselves. When small problems arose, we worked them out. We respected one another, we helped each other, and we shared those years as genuine friends.

Over time we passed through different classrooms, different teachers, and the normal ups and downs that come with growing up, but the group itself stayed steady. Everyone had their own personality, their own interests and quirks, yet those differences fit together naturally rather than pulling us apart. The tone of the class was healthy and kind. We treated people well, we didn’t talk badly about others, and we rarely heard harsh words among ourselves.

In many ways we were fortunate to grow up in a small community where we knew each other well and spent so many formative years side by side. By the time we moved on, we had shared a long stretch of childhood together. It created a bond that feels rare in hindsight. Whatever paths everyone eventually took, those years on the hill were something special, and being part of that class remains something worth remembering with real gratitude.

 

Food that Moms Would Pack in our Lunchboxes

 

The healthy options: Baby Carrots, Bananas, Celery Sticks, Dried Fruit, Fruit Leather, Goldfish, Graham Crackers, Grapes, Hard-Boiled Eggs, Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Bars, Kraft Handi-Snacks (cheese and crackers with the little red stick), Kudos Bars, Laughing Cow Mini Babybel Rounds, Mixed Nuts, Mott’s Applesauce, Lunchables, Quaker Chewy Granola Bars, Ritz Bitz, String Cheese, Sun-Maid Raisin Box, and handmade Sandwiches.

 

Less healthy options included: AirHeads, Bugles Chips, Capri Sun, Cheetos Paws, Chips Ahoy!, Dannon Danimals Yogurt Cups, Dunkaroos, Foil Pouches, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Roll-Ups, Hi-C Coolers, Hostess Twinkies and CupCakes, Hunt’s Snack Packs, Keebler Fudge Stripes, Koala Yummies, Little Debbie Pies, Mondo Fruit Squeezers, Munchos, Nerds, Otter Pops, Pop Rocks, Pringles, Push Pops, Rice Krispies Treats, Ring Pops, Squeezit, Squeezit Flavored Drinks, Teddy Grahams, Warheads Sour Candies, Yoplait Yogurt Tubes.

 

 

Celebrities at BHS

Berkeley Hall had its share of memorable celebrity connections.

Rock musician John Fogerty’s children attended BHS, and he would perform a full set at the annual talent or variety show each year with his band. It was not a cameo appearance. It was a real concert.

Jay Johnson, the ventriloquist, performed at Berkeley Hall regularly.

Tracey Walter, a well-known character actor who appeared in many films, had a son named Danny who was very close to Karen. One day, my mom told Tracey she was sorry to see his character get killed in Batman (1989), because she would have liked to see him in the sequel.

Farrah Fawcett would attend the Berkeley Hall Fair. Pricilla Presley had a son, Navarone Garibaldi, in Will Reser’s class.

 

 

Administration

Headmaster

Walter Laubsher, Patricia Piot, Craig Barrows / Victoria Gaylord

 

Principal

Edyth Roberts, Maralee Burdick, Jane Rowe

 

Admissions

Carolyn McCord

 

Development Director

Edna Craft

 

President

Caroline Kuhn

 

Executive Secretary
Mara Hawks, Barbara Lavender, Mary Lynn Hughes

 

Reception

Carmen Christiansen, Dale Brown, Janet Conchy

Librarian
Patti Ogden (1988–1997) / Ms. Andrews

 

Instructors / Faculty & Staff

Music
• Doris Barclay (1988–1994)
• Paul Cuneo (1995–1997)

Computers / Computer Science
• Alan Hancock (1988–1992)
• Lance Garrett (1993–1995)
• Clare Moelenaar (1996–1997)

Fine Arts / Art
• Lorna Russell (1993–1997)

Woodshop
• Ray Roberts (1988–1989)
• Michael Hayward (1991–1997)

Physical Education – Boys Track
• Michael Hirsch (1988–1992)
• Wade Mayer (1993–1995)
• Dan Hussey (1996)

Physical Education – Girls Track
• Moffet Atcheson (1988–1991)
• Janine Wheeler (1991-1995)
• Janine Brown (1996-1997)

Plant / Maintenance
• Eduardo Rodriguez & Matt McCord (1988)
• Richard Biggs & Michael Gillespie (1991–1997)

Junior High Science
David Ives (1989–1997)

Junior High Math
• Joel Taylor (1991–1994)
• Diane Barrows (1995–1997)

Junior High English
• Carrie Wood (1995–1996) | 2 years

Junior High Social Studies
• Steve Chitwood (1994–1997) | 4 years

Junior High Foreign Language / Spanish
• Sally Bridges (1992–1997)
• Jane Krisel (1996–1997)

Teachers for the Class of 1997

 

Cindy Linke – Parent Toddler (1984)

 

Mrs. Willoughby – Junior Nursery (1985)

 

Mrs. Hooker – Nursery (1986)

 

Ms. Speer & Wilcox – Junior Kindergarten (1987)

 

Kindergarten (1988)

Mrs. Newcomb & Johnson

 

First Grade (1989)

Anita Cheney

 

Second Grade (1990)

Nikki Wilband

 

Third Grade (1991)

Ruth Loeb

 

Fourth Grade (1992)

Susan Aleksich

 

Fifth Grade (1993)

Sharon Reichow

 

Sixth Grade (1994)

Winnie Needham

 

Seventh Grade (1995)

David Ives 

 

Eighth Grade (1996)

Mr. Chitwood

 

Ninth Grade (1997)

Diane Barrows

 

Substitute

Martha Wheelock

 

 

Toys, Games, Action Figures & Collectibles

Star Wars
Transformers
G.I. Joe
He-Man / Masters of the Universe
Garbage Pail Kids
Ghostbusters figures
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Batman
Marvel Super Heroes figures
Power Rangers (starting 1993)
Jurassic Park figures
WWF Wrestling figures
Street Fighter II
Dick Tracy
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Sports cards
Pogs and slammers
Goosebumps collectibles
NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy
Talkboy, Tiger games,  handheld games
Skip-It, Bop It
Light-up sneakers
Simon
Speak & Spell
Barbie
LEGOs, K’NEX, Construx, Erector Sets
Lincoln Logs
Micro Machines
Hot Wheels
Matchbox cars
Super Soakers / Nerf guns
Rollerblades / Pogo sticks
Hacky sacks
Yo-yos, Slap bracelets
The Little Mermaid
Aladdin
Beauty and the Beast
American Girl dolls

Polly Pocket
My Little Pony
Cabbage Patch Kids

Troll dolls
Beanie Babies
Pound Puppies
Strawberry Shortcake
Fanny packs
Water balloons
Mouse Trap
Guess Who
Clue
The Game of Life
Monopoly
Sorry
Trouble
Battleship
Uno
Pictionary
Scattergories
Mall Madness
Lite-Brite
Spirograph
Shrinky Dinks
Friendship bracelet kits
Gel pens
Sticker machines
Sidewalk chalk
Glow-in-the-dark stars
Slime
Gak
Stretch Armstrong
Silly Putty
Tamagotchi
The Simpsons
Animaniacs

The Soundtrack of Our Childhood

If someone could press play on our early Berkeley Hall years, this is what you would hear.

Nursery Rhymes & Camp Songs

• Humpty Dumpty
• Jack and Jill
• Hickory Dickory Dock
• London Bridge
• Little Bo Peep
• Peter Piper
• Wee Willie Winkie
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
• If You’re Happy and You Know It
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Patty Cake
• This Little Piggy
• Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
• Ring Around the Rosy
• The Farmer in the Dell
• Molly Malone
• My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
• On a Bicycle Built for Two
• On Top of Old Spaghetti
• This Land Is Your Land
• You’re a Grand Old Flag
• Home on the Range
• When Johnny Comes Marching
• Oh Susana
• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
• I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
• Boom Chicka Boom
• Peanut Butter and Jelly
• Baby Bumble Bee
• The Hokey Pokey
• John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
• The Song That Never Ends
• I’m a Nut
• Skidamarinki dinky dink
• Tikki Tikki Tembo
• Boom Boom Ain’t It Great to Be Crazy
• Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Gut

Playground Parodies & Subversive Chants

Humorous, irreverent, slightly rebellious variations of traditional songs.

• Jingle Bells, Batman Smells
• Glory Glory Hallelujah, Teacher Hit Me with a Ruler
• There’s a Place in France
• Diarrhea, Cha Cha Cha
• That’s Not All, Here Comes the baby
• K-I-S-S-I-N-G
• Liar Liar Pants on Fire
• Missed Me, Missed Me…
• Boys Are Made of Snails and Nails
• Flying Purple People Eater
• Deck the halls with gasoline
• The ants go marching
• I’m rubber, you’re glue…
• Sticks and stones may break my…
• No more pencils no more books
• Down by the banks of the hanky
• Step on a crack, break your…
• 99 bottles of beer
• …Made you look
• Cindarella, dressed in yellow
• Shimmy shimmy cocoa po

Movies                               

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
The Land Before Time (1988)
Oliver & Company (1988)
Big (1988)
Willow (1988)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
The Karate Kid Part III (1989)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Batman (1989)
The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
Home Alone (1990)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
The NeverEnding Story II (1990)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West 91
Hook (1991)
The Addams Family (1991)
TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
Aladdin (1992)
FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
Beethoven (1992)
3 Ninjas (1992)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
The Mighty Ducks (1992)
Batman Returns (1992)
The Sandlot (1993)
Free Willy (1993)
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Secret Garden (1993)
TMNT III (1993)
The Lion King (1994)
The Little Rascals (1994)
The Santa Clause (1994)
Richie Rich (1994)
The Mask (1994)

Television

The Smurfs (1981)
Inspector Gadget (1983)
Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983)
She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985)
Thundercats (1985)
The Real Ghostbusters (1986)
Double Dare (1986)
DuckTales (1987)
Full House (1987)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
Garfield and Friends (1988)
The Wonder Years (1988)
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (1989)
Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989)
Captain N: The Game Master (1989)
Saved by the Bell (1989)
TaleSpin (1990)
Tiny Toon Adventures (1990)
Bobby’s World (1990)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1990)
Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990)
Clarissa Explains It All (1991)
Salute Your Shorts (1991)
Eerie, Indiana (1991)
Darkwing Duck (1991)
Rugrats (1991)
The Pirates of Dark Water (1991)
The Torkelsons (1991)
What Would You Do? (1991)
Goof Troop (1992)
Batman: The Animated Series (1992)
X-Men: The Animated Series (1992)
The Little Mermaid (1992)
Boy Meets World (1993)
The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1993)
Animaniacs (1993)
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (93)
The Nanny (1993)
Mighty Max (1993)
All That (1994)

Clothing & Style

Hypercolor
Stüssy
Mossimo
No Fear
Starter jackets
LA Gear
British Knights
Reebok Pumps
Air Jordans
Umbro shorts
Scrunchies
Side ponytails
Bowl cuts
Frosted tips
Cross Colours
Unionbay
Esprit
K-Swiss
Teva sandals
Body Glove
Ocean Pacific
Town & Country
Billabong
Quiksilver
Gotcha
Bad Boy Club
Big Johnson shirts
Coed Naked shirts
Looney Tunes hip-hop parody shirts
G-Shock / Swatch watches
Charm necklaces
Friendship bracelets
JanSport & Eastpak backpacks
Rat tails
Flat tops
Dream Team shirts
Maui and Sons
O’Neill
Hang Ten
Jimmy’Z

School Culture

Trapper Keepers
Lisa Frank folders
Gel pens / Scented markers
Eraser toppers
Scholastic order forms
Computer lab dot-matrix printers
Apple II GS
Overhead projectors
Library checkout cards
Reading logs
Four square
Handball against walls
“Missed me missed me” chants
Slap hands games
Secret crush notes
Making mixtapes
Burning CDs
Case Logic CD binders
Walkman
Discman
Boom box
MTV
Cassette rewinding with a pencil
Blowing into NES cartridges
Game Genie / Cheat codes
Arcade tokens
Sleepovers
Prank calls
Three-way calling
Passing folded notes
Collect call code messages
Calling a crush’s house and hanging up
Having to ask “Is ____ there?” to their parents
Smell of Elmer’s glue
Bactine sting
New VHS plastic
Sun-warmed blacktop

Hi Everyone,

I’ve put together this Google Drive folder with photos, videos, scanned report cards, class projects, artwork, and other memorabilia from our Berkeley Hall years. It’s all here for you to browse, download, or just revisit for nostalgia’s sake. My hope is that you will add to it. Here is the link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders...

To edit the Google Drive folder you need to be signed in to a Google account (which is free). If you would rather send me your files or text to upload you can reach me at ... Some of the materials here are specific to me, like scans of my grades or pictures of my old projects, but I included them here because I imagine they’re just small variations on what you experienced and I thought they might help evoke memories.

In the other Word Document here I tried to summarize my memories of Berkeley Hall as best I could. I used old yearbooks and little notes to help piece it all together. It was amazing how many details came back once I started looking and thinking.

I have two of the yearly recap booklets created by Karen Hughes (93 and 94). If you have the others please upload them here. I know that there were at least four and that I am missing 91 and 92.

I should also say that I wasn’t at Berkeley Hall for seventh through ninth grade, so that stretch is thinner from my side. There’s a lot missing, and I’m really hoping that you will all help fill in the gaps.

Again, please feel free to upload your own photos, videos, scans, or anything else you have to this shared space. I’d also love for you to add your memories to this collaborative document. The more voices and perspectives we include, the richer and more complete this becomes. Please note your name next to your contributions.

It’s been special revisiting all of this. I hope it brings back good memories for you too.

Looking forward to seeing what you add.

Jared Reser

 

 

 

 

Shared Memories:

 

Memory: Yearbook Autograph Pages

Contributor: Jared Reser

Please remember, our yearbooks are full of little treasures too. Tucked between the photos and signatures are all those small handwritten notes, inside jokes, nicknames, and quick messages we scribbled to each other at the end of each school year. Those autograph pages captured a lot of the personality of our class in the moment. If you still have your yearbooks, it might be fun to flip through them again and rediscover some of those little tidbits we left for each other.

 

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