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By now, you’re probably convinced of the charm and hilarity unique to high school student newspapers—but if you aren’t, it’s time for you to take a look at our latest batch of the Grimsley High School Student Newspaper, High Life from our partner the Greensboro History Museum.
One of the things that makes this newspaper unique is the annual April Fools’ Day issue, often called Low Life. Low Life’s pages are filled with scandalous, outrageous, and non-sensical stories—all of which, presumably, are untrue. Take this article from the 2000 issue, for example:
In case it’s unclear, that’s a photo of young Macauley Culkin Photoshopped to be sitting at a table of Grimsley students.
This article describes actor Macauley Culkin’s transfer to Grimsley High (he would have been 20 years old in 2000). In addition to Culkin’s fabricated quotes and bon mots, what shines through here is the caption under the doctored photo: “Junior Adam Berman agreed to be Macauley Culkin’s guide during his first day on campus. Culkin requested a guide because of his fear of being left alone.”
The general trend, it seems, is that the issues become even less tethered to reality in recent years. Here’s one article from 2012 that really turned up the free association dial (from the “.74 ferrets” section, of course):
Another great thing about Low Life is the staff’s attention to detail. On most issues, the section headings and dates have been changed (mostly to nonsense), and even the author bylines are jokes. The staff box from the April 1, 2000 issue is a punny example:
“The High Life functions, but we’re not exactly sure how.”
Some of the highlights embedded in here are “Back to the Feature, Part II,” “Stairway to Kevin,” and the request to receive any inquiries or complaints by carrier pigeon. The staff is also divided into the Sharks and Jets (West Side Story-style), featuring Sir Mix-a-Locke, Kate “Get the tea, the water’s” Boylan, and Dahlia “What the heck rhymes with Dahlia?” Halpern.
Something that really captures the spirit of Low Life (especially its more recent iterations) is this crossword from 2005. At least it gives you a fair warning about what it is.
The added issues of High Life (and Low Life) can all be found in our Newspapers of North Carolina collection under Grimsley High School Student Newspapers. These issues span from 1974-75 and 1990-2013. To see more from Greensboro History Museum, you can visit their partner page or their website.
Thanks to our partner, Greensboro History Museum, a batch containing over 100 additional issues of Grimsley High School’s student newspaper, High Life, as well as nine issues of the Greensboro Daily Workman from the 19th century are now available on our website.
A majority of the High Life issues from this batch are from the 1960s and 1970s. During these years the hippie movement, a movement which featured long hair, advocation of nonviolence and love, as well as folk and rock music, was taking place. Like many parents during this time, one student named Marcia Quigley had a lot to say about individuals, boys in particular, keeping their hair long.
The article begins with Quigley discussing the problems of boys having long hair which include them becoming traffic hazards due to their hair dangling in front of or blowing into their eyes, long hair leading to premature baldness, and denied entry to certain buildings. Quigley then goes on to dramatically assert that boys, simply by allowing their hair to grow out, turn from being “honest, dynamic, [and] all-American” to scroungy, upstart hippies with a reputation as a rat. If attacks on their character and driving abilities weren’t enough, the writer also makes sure to include the possibility of being bullied by fellow students and adults. Quigley’s complaint in the May 20, 1968 issue of High Life can be read in its entirety here on our website.
To learn more about the Greensboro History Museum, please visit their website.
To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please visit our North Carolina Newspaper Collection.
Thanks to our partner, Greensboro History Museum, new issues of Greensboro High School’s (now Grimsley High School) student newspaper High Life are now available on our website. This batch fills in previous holes from 1921 all the way to 1974. A majority of the articles in the newspaper discuss school related news such as band concerts, athletics, student council elections, fundraisers, student achievements, opinions on life at GHS, and more.
All-State Band Members from Grimsley High School, 1974.
To view more newspapers, please visit our North Carolina Newspaper Collection.
A gap in newspaper issues available from Greensboro, N.C. has now been filled thanks to our partners at the Greensboro History Museum. Close to 200 new issues of the Greensboro high school student newspaper, High Life, are ready to view online. These additions fill in years ranging from 1927 to 1958.
While High Life published sporadically, normally on every other Friday during the school year, they wrote substantial articles, creating a creditable newspaper that continued year to year. Besides commenting on student life, such as appointments of Homecoming Queens and awarding of senior superlatives, High Life also documented staff appointments, sports headlines, and goings on about town. They also made space for creative endeavors, like drawings and poems.
To view more materials from the Greensboro History Museum, visit their partner page here. To be taken directly to the Greensboro History Museum web page, click here. To see more newspapers from Digital NC, visit our North Carolina Newspapers collection.
We’ve worked with the Greensboro History Museum to add more publications from Greensboro High School (now Grimsley High School) to DigitalNC. Included in this most recent batch are more of the school’s student newspaper, the High Life, from the 1920s-1960s. You’ll also find The Sage, one of the school’s literary publications, with issues from 1910-1918. Finally, there are three additional yearbooks – 1930, 1968, and 1969. Our partner provided this succinct history of the school’s yearbook and other publications:
Greensboro High School’s first annual was published in 1909 and named The Reflector in 1910. To help with the war effort during World War I, the school chose not to publish the yearbook in 1918, saving funds by using the May 1918 edition of its magazine, The Sage, as a smaller, abbreviated version. This continued even after the war, in 1919 and 1920, before publication of The Reflector resumed in 1921. In 1926, 1928, and 1929, there were both January and June editions, a result of adding mid-term graduating classes starting in 1926. By the mid-1920s, because of growing difficulties funding the yearbook, The Reflector‘s content was significantly reduced, and it went from hardcover to paperback in 1926 before publication ceased after 1930.
While the Depression did not fully impact Greensboro Senior High and its other programs until 1933, when a local bond-supplement failed to pass, the already financially strapped yearbook was affected and publication stopped. Despite interest in restarting an annual soon after financial stability for the Greensboro schools was restored in 1936 (via a successful bond vote), Principal A.P. Routh insisted that the yearbook have full and strong financial stability before being resumed, hence it did not occur then. The effort was further delayed a few years later by the significant impact of World War II on school life.
After the war, interest in publishing a yearbook continued to grow. The financial situation was finally stabilized, and the first edition of the newly named Whirligig was published in 1950 (after almost occurring in 1949), ), the yearbook that is still issued each year at Grimsley today. During the 19 years of no annuals (1931-1949), photos of seniors were published on souvenir photo sheets or in the year’s final issue of the school newspaper, High Life.
Click through to view all of the Greensboro / Grimsley High School publications available on DigitalNC.
Thanks to our partner, the Greensboro History Museum, additional issues of the student newspaper from the former Greensboro High School, High Life, are now available on DigitalNC. Newly available issues cover the years 1923-1926, 1937-1941, 1957, and 1976-1978. The paper features information from the high school, now Grimsley High School, and the surrounding Greensboro community.
As a school newspaper, written by students and for students, High Life focuses on its students’ activities. Seniors are featured each May, and several of these special issues include “Last Will and Testament” sections where those leaving the school “give” things to the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. For example, “Bill Hancock is to receive Ed McDowell’s dramatic trend,” and “R. D. Apple reluctantly relinquishes his long-held position on the mound to Hampton Shuping.”
The students’ comic traditions continue in some of the articles included throughout the paper.
One student published an account of having the measles:
“Home With Measles or How Did I Get in This Fix?,” May 30, 1941
Decades later, an unnamed student announced her addiction to the television network HBO:
To see more from the Greensboro High School student newspaper, click here. To learn more about the Greensboro History Museum, visit their website or their DigitalNC partner page.
Front page of the February 12, 1926 issue of High Life
Nineteen issues of High Life, the student newspaper from Greensboro High School, are now available on DigitalNC, thanks to our partner, the Greensboro History Museum. Issues include documentation of significant events in the school’s community from 1923 to 1926, 1941 to 1942, and 1954. Articles cover subjects such as athletics and other extracurricular activities, social events, curriculum information, and social commentary. The newspaper also includes advertisements for local stores, opinion pieces, and cartoons such as the one below, included to illustrate the hope of a new semester:
“Dawn of a New Opportunity,” cartoon by Erich Nau
Though this is the first high school student newspaper from Greensboro to be available on DigitalNC, it complements several others from High Point, which is nearby and also in Guilford County. You can browse High Point High School’s student newspaper, The Pointer, here and other student newspapers from across the state here.
To see more from the Greensboro History Museum, you can visit their partner page here, or visit their website for more information.
