Footsteps - Grossmont High School Museum

January 2021: 1930s Student Voices

1930 GUHS Postcard Donated by Louise Brungger

May 13, 1932 GUHS Nadine Brown, Mary-Pease Romig, Lois Masterson, Janet Miller-Donated by Lavola Siinram Edwards, Class of 1932, Family

1931 El Recuerdo Art Deco East View through Wall and G

Reading the 1930s Foothill Echoes, the student newspaper, enables us to share the experiences of Foothiller students and staff during the Great Depression, revealing timeless issues as well as issues unique to the 1930s.

The October 14, 1930 newspaper article written by Thelma Engstrom, Class of 1931, is titled “No Funds for Annual Say Ex Committee”. The cost of the yearbook in past years was $1.25, but the ASB had been subsidizing the yearbook and could no longer do that since the cost of the yearbooks was $2.50 to $3.00. “If we are to have an annual we can be proud of, we should be willing to pay the entire cost.” Eventually the senior class produced the 1931 yearbook through fundraising.

December 2020: 1920s Voices

1922 GUHS Helen Moriarty and friends sitting on football field in Lakeside

Early (1922-1923) GHS postcard

1920-21 Yearbook Editorial Staff

A “treasure trove” of memories await in the Grossmont High School yearbooks. Since 1921, each El Recuerdo captures in photographs, drawings, and words the experiences of students during the past 100 years. If we listen, we can hear these student voices from the 1920s.

A charming feature of these early yearbooks is the Senior Class History. In 1921, the first entry recalls the three years leading up to their senior year. 17 of them as freshmen attended Riverview HS in the “old upper floor of a store building in Lakeside and for one long year dreamed of the time when they could enter their longed-for new building” at Riverview Union High School. “A much larger (freshman) class entered the old El Cajon Union High which had, since it was built in 1908, sheltered all of the valley’s illustrious students, but which was now fast being filled to overflowing.” In September 1921, “we entered G.U.H.S as the first Senior Class of the newly consolidated school.” Also, in 1921, the Senior Class History ends “the time for our Baccalaureate Services, Class Night and Commencement is fast approaching, and our joy is tinged with sorrow for our happy High School days will soon be over—but never will they be forgotten. Here are three cheers for our dear old G.U.H.S.”

GHS Museum and Alumni Newsletter

Well, 2020 is nearly at its end ; most of us say, “Yippee!”

New GHS Museum Update

We continue to settle into our new location, thanks to our wonderful volunteers, our “Worker Bees”, who have helped us move. Recently, we moved all the trophies, which are now displayed above the large showcases, as well as many things we’ve had in storage for years. We continue to arrange the displays and even ordered 3 more small showcases. Most of the items we had stored are being integrated into the previous displays. This month we’ll have the last of the shelving installed, and we’ll move the display yearbooks. Then, the old museum will be empty. We began the move in early August; 5 months later we are almost moved in.