| TAG |
| A/N: I wrote this for Advanced Comp. my senior year. Just some reminiscing. If anyone whose name appears in this wishes to have their name removed, just let me know. The Old TAG Room This year�s junior class is the last one that remembers the TAG room when it was in the library. They are the last class to have Harvey as their TAG teacher. This year�s senior class is the last class that contains people who took �Harvey History.� We are the last ones who remember. I took pictures of the old TAG room at the end of my sophomore year. There were three pictures to capture the chaotic, yet somehow comfortable spirit of the room. One picture is of what any visitors would see if they walked straight ahead into the room: a computer right next to the door, some filing cabinets, then a desk with another computer, all against the left wall of the room. At the very back, right across from the door was a window with a copy machine and a cactus sitting up against it. There was another desk behind the one with the computer, one that was piled high with miscellaneous stuff. Behind the desk was a tall bookshelf, dividing the first area (the teachers� area) from the rest of the room, which belonged to the students. Our part of the room wasn�t completely visible from the door, a fact that the school administration was probably very glad of. The wall of the room that we shared with the library contained a G3 and several other, much older computers (I don�t think they worked). There was also a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf in the corner. A huge table, now in the library, was always cluttered with stuff. Books, clothing, old and recent history papers (being used as coasters), videos, a couple of slide projectors, filmstrips, and anything else that someone might need someday were scattered all over that table, and all over the room. Past the table was the heart of the TAG room. In its final days of glory, the TAG room held three full-sized sofas, a loveseat, three chairs from the music lounge, two tables of the same origin, and one coffee table, which I still have fond memories of, that was held together with duct tape. The main board of this table was in perfect condition, aside from all the writing on it. If memory serves me correctly, two of the legs kept falling off of the table. At the beginning of my sophomore year, there was nothing wrong with the table. But during the course of the year, people kept standing on the table and walking over it to get to the sofa on the other side. One day it just fell apart. Joe Glazebrook and I, among others, attacked the table with duct tape, and it stood up pretty well (even though we did have to keep re-taping it when people stood on it). There were always people in the TAG room. Blue sheets were seen all over the place at the beginning of the semester. Passes with �HHK� scrawled on them were given to study hall teachers every hour for the first week, before the blue sheets were processed. What did students do in the TAG room? Well, aside from just talking or watching TV, �couch-dropping� was one activity that TAG students did. Though I never actually witnessed or experienced this event, I heard stories from both ends of the spectrum. Matt Gresch and Aaron Hurd would pick up the loveseat to about chest-height, then drop it to the floor. Apparently the history teachers in the rooms underneath the TAG room got upset, because after my freshman year, �couch-dropping� came to an end. Coming into the TAG room, we could feel free to be ourselves. We talked about anything and everything in that room. Aaron once told me about the first time Mrs. Auxier-Mailey came into the TAG room: Meredith Nepstad was leading and interesting aspects of their society. Most of the time, discussions were about political and religious viewpoints and current events. We could just lounge on the sofas and talk, in the most informal atmosphere imaginable. The TAG room was seen as our room, and teachers weren�t overly eager to enter it, something that helped during discussions. We didn�t just sit around at talk, however; we also explored. There were lots of interesting things lying around, like the big floppy disks, from Apple 2Es. I remember at least one game of Frisbee with those being broken up by Harvey. A couple of video cameras were also just sitting around the room for a while, inspiring the �TAGCam.� We rewatched the videos, and the most interesting thing on them is Evan Anderson sitting on another student (Clint Walter, I think) who refused to sit up on the sofa. They stayed in pretty much the same position for some time�maybe twenty minutes. I think, in the end, Evan won, but by then, class was almost over. The quote board was infamous among TAG students. If somebody said something worth repeating (or worth mocking), it appeared on the quote board for a while. There are a few constants that I can still remember. The best one was �The floggings will continue until morale improves.� Apparently, this appeared on a poster in an English teacher�s room at Central. The new TAG room is similar in many ways to the old one. Mr. Wilson knew Harvey, and he was a sub for him on occasion. In fact, Wilson�s room at Metro West was patterned after our TAG room (only not so messy). The couches are mostly new, except for the loveseat and the stuff from the band lounge. The atmosphere is a little different, but that can be attributed to the smaller size of the room, the lack of junk, and the increase in regulations imposed on our program. The quote board is another noticeable difference between the two rooms. The main difference, however, is the teacher. Without Harvey, the TAG room lost part of its essence. Mr. Wilson is the best possible replacement, but he had big shoes to fill. Harvey coordinated OM, DI, Mock Trial, Academic Decathlon, Quiz Bowl, We the People, AP American History, the TAG program, and probably several other things that we never even knew about, or fully appreciated. Mr. Wilson has done a great job with all those things (except the history class), but Harvey had a different attitude, one that comes from dealing with some of the same people in administration for thirty years, and seeing some of them come and go with the tide. He got along very well with Doctor Bob, and he had a tremendous amount of clout. Mr. Wilson is new to this game, and he doesn�t exactly have the same ideology that Dr. Gorrell does. But the important thing is, we have an advocate who understands what it stands for. With time, Mr. Wilson could even turn into the next Harvey. With the exception of the cheer. Ed, Ed, Ed just doesn�t sound as good as Har-vey, Har-vey, Har-vey does... |
| Random Memories from the era of the Old TAG Room. If you have some, please send them to me! |
| The TAG Room -People lit rubber cement on fire and threw it out the window? -Joe �fixed� the sagging in the sofa by putting a computer in it? -Zach got duct taped to a chair for twenty minutes because he told everyone he could get out in five minutes? -Meredith gave everyone condoms for Valentine�s Day? -We found twenty-year-old aspirin bottle in a drawer? -How we�d go through Harvey�s stuff trying to find the Exacto knives? -Someone spent the night in the room? -How you couldn�t look at any surface without finding an old, partially filled, molding-over coffee cup? -How we tried to pick the lock on the rare occasions we were there when Harvey wasn�t? -And how we got a paper clip stuck in the lock once? -The couches we named? -the bedsprings in Grant�s romantic poem? ^_^ -When TRAVIS downloaded porn on Harvey�s machine and put it in a folder called "Jerrys stuff"? -Harvey�s laugh? -The Harvey cheer at assemblies? -One of the sofas got moved into a girls bathroom downstairs? -How Brad Nagel wrote �poopy� on the carpet, and they never got it out? -We would attack Jerry�s poofy coat to steal feathers out of it, because it kept shedding all over the room? -How Melissa and I were "The Distractions"? -Swordfighting with the newspaper rods? -Meredith punched Evan in the back of the head for damaging her granola bar? -Evan, Brendan, and I would make fun of people and Grace would hide her face behind her folder trying not to laugh? -How Harvey tried to keep the sugar packets from us? -Matt Nemers? And how he'd sit in the TAG room watching the Weather Channel and tell us that Harvey had left him in charge? -Brendan's relations with goats? -sssss-hot? -Hiding in the TAG room to avoid pep assemblies? -When Harvey told us that "ducks are a bunch of gang rapists"? -The Grant Dance website? -When Brendan tried to set the clock, and ended up breaking the second hand off? (heh...it's still in my car...) |
| OM -We left masking taped squares on the library carpet for months...and they wouldn't come out afterward? -Grace set off the security system in the library? -We learned just how vinegar and baking soda react? -Melissa said �Pour like there�s no tomorrow�? -Grace poured vinegar all over Dan Munger�s head because she was so tired? -We ended up with vinegar all over the library carpet? -Grace asked Evan if he was stuck in the Door of Enlightenment? -Doc straightened out all flamingo legs and brought them to the TAG room? -Grace ran over the toilet when we were out flamingoing...twice? -We duct taped Zach to a chair because he said he could get out in five minutes? Then how Clint took his watch? And how Mrs. Kline just told us to be careful we didn�t break one of the windows? -How our team couldn�t even cheat right at state because Evan was blocking the remote? -How we could never get everything right at practice? How we only made it to world because we were the only team at state? How we got eighth at world? -We watched the tape afterward and we could hear Harvey laughing the whole time? -Evan gave his knife to Barb Palar before he went up in the Arch, and she looked so shocked? -Joe made the duct tape outfit for the Neptunian? -Tried to fill water balloons in the bathrooms? -Melissa and I shut Evan in the closet when we were judging the little kids' spontaneous competition because he swore in front of them (after he assured us he wouldn't...)? -Jerry and Joe got hyper on packets of coffee-flavor packets at the spontaneous competition? -And then how they tried to take the screen off the window in Mueller's room and sneak up on us from across the courtyard? And failed utterly... -Harvey told us that wild horses stamp their feet when they're mating? -How Aaron and Harvey were roommates in Tennessee? -And then how Aaron was out until really late in the morning, and came back with the "Virginia is for lovers" pin? -And then when Aaron got back to his room, he thought Harvey was asleep, until Harvey put one foot on the ground and started stamping it? -The Barney boxers that Barb made for her team? -When Jason got locked out of his room and had to sleep in the hall because Aaron was "out with the ladies" until two in the morning? -How Barb called the police because he was missing: "Yes, officer. He's about seven feet tall with reddish hair and glasses; he's wearing a shirt the color of orange sherbet and, um, barney shorts." -When Grace got stuck in the bathroom in Tennessee? -Harvey sang the Iowa Corn Song in the elevator and scared some people from other teams? |
| Freshman TAG Retreat -Harvey took us on the �Death Hike�? -Grant kept playing his trumpet in the morning on the TAG retreat, and we (the girls� cabin) took turns yelling at him to shut up? -Megan told us a scary story in German, and it turned out to be about a cow eating grass? -Joe wouldn�t eat pizza, so he ate a bunch of napkins instead? |
| Harvey History -Jerry flicked Harvey off in class? -we learned that �Communism is BAD!� -How Harvey made fun of Danielle�s �peaches and cream� essay? -How Danielle called a president a moron in the �peaches and cream� essay? -How Harvey used one of Jerry�s papers as a coaster and left coffee rings on it? -Brendan put �blah, blah, blah� in the middle of one of his essays and Harvey found and circled it? -When Valerie got mad about her grade and yelled at Harvey about it in front of the whole class? -When Harvey lost the grade disk with three months worth of grades on it? |
| Contibutors: RedmageMWTRH Graceygirl7 Jerry507Away jhawk8713 WilsonianLiberal Remy16 PhysicsPhreak7 trombone8me Aaron Hurd |
| We the People -Waiting outside of Harkin's office in DC and debating about whether or not we would be able to jump out far enough from the balcony to smash the glass display cases on the first floor? -How Clint and Evan got kicked out of the Lincoln Death House because Evan made some comment about how, since we put memorials up for everything, there would be one if Lincoln pissed on a street corner? -Studying cell biology in the hallway of the hotel? -How the guy watching the hallways in the hotel wouldn't let us walk around without shoes on? -The guy selling fake Oakley's that got really mad at Bart for trying to buy some with a handful of change? -When Evan gave Harvey his pocketknife so he wouldn�t get stopped by security at the Holocaust Museum? -the staring contests we had when we were waiting for Harvey's group to finish in the museum? -The brightly colored, animal-print cowgirl hats the North Carolinians had? -Evan dancing? -How we got stuck on the runway for two or more hours because of thunderstorms in Chicago? -When Evan woke up because he heard a pop can being opened? (it was freaky...) -How Harvey made me move to sit by Evan because he didn't want me sitting by him when he graded my paper? -The :::coughs::: quality hotel programming the guys watched? -And how Brendan was hiding under the covers the whole time? -The weird statue of Lincoln that we played at on our first day there? -Dave the bus driver? -Those way-too-cheerful North Carolinians we had to share a bus with? |
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| Academic Decathlon -When Harvey ran one of the weekly competitions, and he couldn't get the sound equipment to work in the ICN room, so he sang "I Go Walkin' After Midnight" for us? -How all the Des Moines teams looked at us like we were crazy when we gave Harvey a standing ovation at the regional competition? (Yes, I know these are from after the old Tag Room died, but they deal with Harvey...) |