Riverdale High Yearbook--1965

Disclaimer applies to all chapters

Title Riverdale High Yearbook--1965
Author: Scribe
Fandom: Archie Comics
Summary: A ghost at Riverdale High talks about what really went on with the students.
Rating: Fan rated mature
Pairings: Implied only
Characters: School Spirit, only mention of other Archie characters
Betas: None
Notes: It's been a long time since I read Archie (always preferred the DC comics, or horror, but I LOVED The Archies when I was a kid (Sugar, Sugar forever, y'all). Therefore some of my details may be a bit off, but I'm trying to keep it as accurate as possible. The Archie Comics have been running since 1941, with no visible aging for the characters (maybe we've found where Little Orphan Annie comes from?), so I could have picked any decade to set the story. I chose 1965, because I was a child then (1958 barely a Boomer here). At that time I would have looked up to teenagers, and I remember it as being a colorful and exciting time. Plus I like the idea of the Archie gang as deciding between 60's conservatism, go-go mod, and hippie-dom. :)
Also: Disclaimer applies to all chapters

Title Riverdale High Yearbook--1965
Author: Scribe
Fandom: Archie Comics
Summary: A ghost at Riverdale High talks about what really went on with the students.
Rating: Fan rated mature
Pairings: Implied only
Characters: School Spirit, only mention of other Archie characters
Betas: None
Notes: When I wrote this, I didn't know the official last names of many characters, and several readers kindly wrote and told me. Thanks.
Disclaimer: I did not create, and do not own the rights to, the recognizable media characters that appear in this story.
I have no legal or bindingagreement with the creators, or owners.
I do not seek, and would not accept,profit from this fiction.
I have nothing but affection and respect for the creators, and the actors and actresses who portrayed these characters.
This story is in no way meant to reflect on the actual lives or life styles of the actors and actresses who portrayed the characters
All original characters are copyrighted by the author. Do NOT use without specific permission
Warnings:
Disclaimer: I did not create, and do not own the rights to, the recognizable media characters that appear in this story.
I have no legal or bindingagreement with the creators, or owners.
I do not seek, and would not accept,profit from this fiction.
I have nothing but affection and respect for the creators, and the actors and actresses who portrayed these characters.
This story is in no way meant to reflect on the actual lives or life styles of the actors and actresses who portrayed the characters
All original characters are copyrighted by the author. Do NOT use without specific permission
Warnings:


Riverdale High Yearbook--1965
By Scribe

Well, now, what are you doing hiding under that table? Come out of there--I won't bite. No, I won't, no matter what they've told you, and I'm sure they've told you plenty. I've developed quite a reputation over the years. That's right, come out. Yeah, every year some clown finds a freshman who's just transferred in and pulls this stunt. They make sure you hear just enough about me to get you to wonderin', and scare you a little. Then they dare you to spend the night in the school, and you always fall for it.

My name? Shucks, boy, you don't need to know THAT. I've been gone nie onto fifty years now, ain't anyone around who's gonna remember me. Folks just call me the School Spirit. I like that. I spent twenty years of my life as a custodian in the Riverdale School System, most of 'em right here at Riverdale High. This is more of a home to me than any house or apartment I ever occupied. I was a part of things here. I died here--monoxide poisoning from a bad heater. I didn't mind going too much. It was painless, and my passing meant they found out about the leak and fixed it before any of the kids got hurt.

What? No, I won't unlock the door. How would that look? I have to keep my physical activities down to a minimum, or some of the more religious parents might demand that an exorcist be brought in. I haven't worried about that too much since the fifties, when they really got started on that 'separation of church and state means keep religion out of the public schools' guff. Nowadays they're more likely to bring in one of them chanter-channeller hoodoos and try to persuade me to 'move on'. No, you're going to be here all night, so you might as well get comfortable. I'll keep you company for a spell.

They closed school the day of my funeral, but they didn't have to do that. The students who cared would've visited my grave anyway--the ones who didn't took the excuse to play hooky. I guess kids don't really change much from decade to decade. They move a little faster, that's all. There's always some who are pretty bad, and some who are mostly good, and some who don't seem to know which way is up. Oh, you're smiling at that. You think your generation is different, don't you? Yeah, you young ones think no one's ever done, or thought, or felt, or dreamed anything till you have.

I tell you what--why don't I tell you a little bit about some of the ones who came before you? I know things about the students who pass through here that no one else does--not friends, family, or lovers. Yes, lovers. Teenagers have been what you call knockin' boots for a long time, sonny. They just weren't always as open about it as you are. See that shelf of yearbooks over there? You go and pick one out, and I'll tell you a little something about the students--the major players in the senior class. Hell, boy, I'm sort of like you--I haven't paid attention to EVERY student who's passed through here. Some are more interesting than others.

1965, eh? Yeah, that's a good year. Let's see... Here's the faculty, right in the front. They still thought that the teachers deserved a little extra acknowledgment back then. This here's the principal--Mister Weatherbee. He was a good man. Those pretty young girls were a sore trial to him, but he never yielded to temptation.

Can't say the same about Miss Grundy here, though. What? No, not the girls--the boys. Just a couple of times, but when you're in a position of power, like a teacher is with a student... Well... Some people don't think it's much when it's the woman who's the older one. I say it's still a case of using some one. With this incident, though, they used each other.

Y'see Reggie Mantle goofed around on an important essay--the big one that was going to make up a third of his final grade. He figured he'd just slap one together and turn it in any old time, and his old man's money would buy him out of the problem, as usual. Well, he'd been sorta letting things slide his senior year (he was pre-registered at Princeton), and it turned out he was going to flat out fail English, and Princeton wouldn't take him without summer school, and he'd be on academic probation even before he enrolled even if he did that.

They tried. Mantle Sr. offered Miss Grundy an all expense paid trip to Boston 'to study the fine literary traditions there. We need to do all we can to enrich out teachers, to benefit our children.' She turned him down flat. Mantle Sr. told Jr. he'd better come up with some way of changing Grundy's mind, so Reggie went to beg, plead, and grovel, and that's when Miss Grundy told him there was ONE way she'd change the grade to passing. The week end wasn't in Boston, it was in Grantville. Miss Grundy came home with a smile on her face, and Reggie came home looking like he'd been run through a wringer. Hee hee. The boy told everyone his jaw muscles were so sore and he was walking funny because he'd gotten in a fight, and had whipped three boys bigger'n he was. Nope. He was the one that got whipped. If I've EVER seen someone who was pussy-whipped, it was him.

Then there's Coach. The man shouldn't have been allowed to teach athletics. He was WAY too fond of all that 'pat them on the butt when they make a good play' shit. And he spent way too much time in the locker rooms and showers, too, railing at the boys to keep their bodies strong and clean. He hid it good, I guess. None of the parents ever suspected that he was probably beating his meat at night, thinking about their kid. I think he hid it from himself. This was the year that the Beatles got real big in America, right? All the girls in school were getting damp panties over them, hanging up their pictures in their lockers. Coach kept going on about what a disgrace it was, them with their long hair, flopping like girls hair. He just wished, by God, that he could get his hands on them. He'd whip them into shape right fast. Oh, I bet he wanted to get his hands on them, all right. He took one of them teen magazines away from a student once, and at lunch he locked himself in the office with it and gave the picture of that puppy-eyed Paul McCartney a liquid pearl necklace, if you know what I mean. As far as I know he cared too much about his own hide to actually try anything. If he had, it probably would have been with Reggie, just like Grundy. There's something about a bad boy...

That's Reggie right there--King of the Prom. That pretty, snooty lookin' girl on his arm is Veronica Lodge. He was planning on marrying her, I think, but her daddy had different plans for her. Shipped her off to finishing school in Geneva two days after graduation. Looks familiar, you say? She ought to. Her name is now Veronica Halstburg-Leighton-Finch-Wallace-Lodge. Yep, she's kept every last name she's ever taken, and a good chunk of the income of the poor bastards she married and divorced. I don't know why the woman keeps trying. Ain't any man ever gonna live up to the memory of her dear departed Daddy--in the boardroom, or the bedroom. What? Yes, they slept together. That's what broke up two of her marriages. She never saw anything wrong with it, but I think it bothered him pretty bad. He gave an awful lot to charity, including a women's and children's shelter.

Here's the section where the class voted awards for the students. You know, Most Likely To Succeed, Most Beautiful, such like, and some joke awards. They did that back before everyone became so concerned about hurting a teenager's self-esteem.

Most Beautiful--Reggie and Veronica again. No surprise there. Both of 'em smiling like they're bestowing the favor of their notice on the lower orders. You ought to see Mantle now. Since he didn't marry Veronica, his old man pushed him into marrying his partner's daughter--pleasant little thing, but pudgy. Got pudgier after each of the three kids. Reggie became a vice president in the family company, but everyone knows he doesn't do much. He mostly plays golf at the country club, sleeps with the wives of other members, and TRIES to sleep with their daughters. He's likely to have one of the daddies use a nine iron for something other than golf if he isn't careful. He yells at his wife because she's fat and she drinks, and he never seems to notice that he's gotten a pot gut himself, and his tab at the country club bar would finance a vacation for most folks.

Most Popular--Betty Cooper and Archie Andrews. No surprise there. They were both genuinely sweet kids, and they've grown up to be nice people. A little boring, but that was to be expected. They married each other, of course. No one thought they WOULDN'T, except maybe Archie himself, and he figured things out once that rich bitch Lodge was out of his life. They're silver anniversary is coming up soon, and I think they're going to use the gym for the party. They just had their first grandchild, too--prettiest little strawberry blonde girl you ever saw. She'll be class of 2021, if they don't move away. Hope they don't. It'd be nice to have a third generation Andrews here.

Best Athletes--Big Moose Mason and Big Ethyl Muggs. Look at that. That boy's real name was Marmaduke, and they put Big Moose in instead, didn't even put it in quotation marks and give him the dignity of his real name, and I PROMISE you that Mister and Mrs. Muggs didn't name their baby girl 'Big'. Such a shame. And they were both sweet kids, too. Never did anyone any harm. Well, Moose sometimes beat up on Reggie Mantle, but if Reggie had just had the sense to leave Midge Klump alone, that wouldn't have happened.

That's Midge there, the cheerleader. Bitty little thing, wasn't she? And she was a real firecracker, too. When she got going, the crowd didn't dare not cheer. That girl got what she wanted. She got Ethyl, after all. What? You didn't think they had lesbians before the eighties? Lord, child. It's just that back then, everyone thought it was just a 'phase' that the girls went through, getting crushes on each other. Well, Midge's never went away, and Ethyl returned it. They moved out to California after graduation, and they're still together, running one of the most successful catering businesses in Los Angeles. They hobnob with all the film people now.

Then there's the not so nice awards. Class Brain. They made that out to be a compliment, but look at Dilton Doylie's eyes--he knows they're putting him on. He was a smart little booger in every way. Had the last laugh on them, I guess. He's patented a dozen or more chemical processes that has him richer than old man Lodge ever THOUGHT about being. He's bought a NFL franchise, and he lets Moose work in the promotion department. Yes, they're together. He's the one who helped Moose finish his degree after his knee blew out in his junior year, and the college that had been so hot to sign him dropped his scholarship. Moose was kind of broken up when Midge moved away, but Dilton helped him get over it. I'm not exactly sure when they started sleeping together, but it was a natural step. Moose took care of Dilton physically, keeping the bullies from picking on him, and Dilton helped Moose deal with a world that isn't always kind to the ones who are a little slow.

Who else? Oh, Jughead Jones--Class Clown and Garbage Disposal. His real name was Forsythe Pendleton, so I suppose 'Jughead' sounded pretty good to him. He never figured out that Ethyl was so hot on his trail just so no one would notice what was going on between her and Midge. And they called Moose dumb. The boy hated women, just had no earthly use for them except as cooks and housekeepers. Yeah, I know--still a lot of those around, but usually they include sex toys in the list of use. Not Jughead. He never grew out of that 'I hate girls' phase. I don't think it was entirely his fault, though. There had to have been something wrong with him, some gland that wasn't on the job. The boy's weiner wasn't no bigger than THAT, and he had NO body hair. I'm talkin' none--not even peach fuzz around his balls. He was so slick he looked like he used Nair as shower gel. That's the reason why he spent his entire high school career as manager for this team and that, so he wouldn't have to shower. Now, I'm not saying that Jughead was one of those Christine Jorgenssens--a woman trapped in a man's body. I think the sex drive just never kicked in for him. He never married. Believe it or not, he's a televangelist now, and he preaches hellfire and brimstone, and says that a woman's duty is to submit to her husband in all things. I bet that Ethyl and Midge have a dart board with his picture on it.

There are others here, but I have to go now. I want to make a round of the school, check things out. There's a bulb coming loose in the North stairwell, and I ought to make sure it falls now, instead of during the school day, when someone might get hurt. Why don't you just lay down over there? I'll turn the thermostat up so you don't get chilly. No, believe me, you'll fall asleep. Young people need their rest.

I'm putting the book back. When you get up tomorrow, you're going to wonder if this really happened, or if your imagination got the better of you, and you dreamed. You might even ask around a little, to see if what I've told you is true. Sure, you can do that, but don't expect to find much beyond maybe a few facts that people can't deny, things that are set down on paper, like marriages and births.

If you never learn anything else at Riverdale High, son, learn this... Riverdale keeps her secrets.