1977

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I have to say that 1977 ranks at or near the top of my all time favorite years.   I was blessed with having the best classmates on the face of the earth and in my opinion the greatest collection of teachers and coaches ever assembled in one High School.  I was incredibly proud to be a Cooper Hawk whether as a student, baseball player, ski racer or cross-country runner, Cooper High School was the best and in particular my senior year 1977 was the absolute best year of school I ever had.

Over the past 50 years, I have made thousands of friends and had the opportunity to talk to thousands and thousands of people in my travels not only around the United States but around the world.  To this date,  I still talk about my experience at Cooper High School and what I find is that I can’t find anyone that has had a high school experience to match mine.  It’s true many people have fond memories of high school, but none compares to my experience.

Every chance I get, I drive by Cooper High School trying to re-live those incredible days, some times I will throw on the Bruce Springsteen CD and play “Glory Days” over and over.  I like to go sit in the dugout at the baseball field and re-live the great times I had playing with the greatest baseball teams and coaches ever assembled anywhere.   Don’t tell me the Yankees or my Twins had a better team or mix of players than the teams I played on in 75, 76 and 77.  Whether it was playing baseball, running cross-country, making films in speech class or sitting in Humanities class there wasn’t one moment I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.   This incredible environment made me strive for great grades and winning performances in sports.  I am not sure I can explain this because I haven’t seen anything like it anyplace but at Cooper during my time there.

The other amazing thing about Cooper High School was that the friendships I developed during that time have endured, all of my best friends went to High School with me, when I moved to my second home in Maple Gove in 1986, the whole neighborhood filled up with Cooper High School graduates.  The strong bond that connected us in High School carries on to today, my class in particular holds formal reunions every 5 years that are well attended, informal reunions yearly at the Crystal Frolics in July that include Heidi’s home tours of all the old home we lived in during the time we were in High School and of course a run to everyone’s favorite mexican fast food restaurant Zantigo.   Because there was so much time (5 years)in between our last reunion we even had an all class 50th Birthday party and this weekend we are having an all 70’s party.

When I share my love of the class of 1977 with other people they always think I am from a small town, with a very small class, the opposite is true, Cooper is in New Hope, Minnesota a large suburb of Minneapolis and our graduating class was at least 700 in size.   The friends I made, the teachers who taught me and the coaches who coached me have all played important roles in my life,  The success at Cooper High School set the stage for the success I enjoyed in my life.  Specifically, I had a network of friends that supported me and were always behind me every step of the way, you can always depend on a Cooper Hawk to have your back.

1977, what a year !  Besides my incredible experience in High School, I enjoyed my hometown, my jobs and dating my girlfriend Suanne who has been with me since 1975, married since 1980.  I long for a Saturday night dinner at the Nankin Chinese restaurant followed by a movie at the Mann Orpheum Theater on Hennepin.  I miss meeting my classmates at  Happy Joe’s Pizza in Crystal and I really miss letting all my classmates into the movies at the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale where I worked as an usher.

The late 70’s was of course the dawning of the disco era with dancing at Scottie’s on 7th, I had one of those White Suits (just like Steve Martin’s) and all the craze was the silk shirts imprinted with different pictures and of course you were not allowed to button the top three buttons on the shirt.  I never got into the gold chains but believe they were huge at the time.  My all time favorite Baseball player, Rod Carew was the American League MVP in 1977.  I drove a 1977 Mustang Mach I that is still my favorite car.   1977 and everything that went with it is still my favorite year.  Everything was firing on all cylinders not only was the year great but the expectation of being able to go out on my own and pursue my dreams was forefront in my mind.

I was truly in the zone in 1977, I had a picture in my mind of what I was going to do with my life and I “KNEW” I could make it happen and I did make it happen for the next 30 years almost exactly as I dreamed about it in 1977.  I know how strong my dream was and how good I was at visualizing exactly the life I wanted so I am dubbing my system for creating the life you want, System 1977, if you can remember how you felt  when you graduated from High School and can remember the dreams you had and the plans you had, you can return to that feeling anytime you want and once you do, you can create the next 50 years to fit your  dream.  I know I had the unfair advantage of being a Cooper Hawk and having the support of the greatest classmates on the face of the earth, but I know everyone has the power to create the life they want and the best way to describe the feeling you need to have is taking yourself back to a time in your life when you were full of dreams and expectations and about to launch into the world.

For me,  1977 and everything about Cooper High School is etched permanently in my mind and nothing means more to me than having the opportunity to return to those days whether it is communicating with my classmates, having dinner with one of my incredible coaches or sitting in the dugout at the Baseball field.  My time at Cooper, confirmed for me that the world and life could be anything you wanted to make it.  Thank you Classmates, Teachers and Coaches, you mean the world to me and I appreciate everything you have done for me.