The old homestead in the news today. Seems someone with some time on their hands took a moment to tag Quince Orchard HS and nearby Ridgeview MS with their personal expression of free speech. NBC-4 has all the news. Several local churches and church buildings were also vandalized.
I’ve not been to the school itself for some time – at least a couple of years – but since both Lisa’s parents and mine still live within a stones’ throw of the school, we’re around there all the time. Things have changed, if you’ve not been back lately. The area’s matured with larger developments both commercial and residential. Kentlands, which was is in its infancy when most of the QO alums here were graduating, is now completely developed and practically a town in and of itself.
Anyway, since I am such the geek that I monitor Google News for mentions of the school, this popped into my in-box today. Thought I would pass it along for those of us with at least some connection to the old stomping grounds.
Oddly enough, I remember a fair amount of time spent painting some inside walls of the theater itself. I wonder if they’ve ever painted over some of those old ‘paintings’ backstage.
Sad…
Sad to see that happen. Some people need to buy a life.
It reminds me of a recent video I watched which documented the destruction of major portions of a school on graduation day. The culprits were never found, apparently, but I mean, how dangerous was that? Explosives in a school when the graduating class is out in the courtyard.
Sunnydale High, we’ll miss you.
(speaking of getting a life… if you don’t get the reference, sorry! And how DID they manage to get the library completely fixed between the end of S1 and the start of S2, before blowing the place up at the end of S3?)
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Not so weird..
Weirder that they let it sit in shambles and then had it miraculously back up for s7
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com
Some are still there
The painting that was done in the cove above where the piano and such were stored are mainly still there. There are quite a few of the signs that we painted for the shows (the one for Anything Goes comes to mind) is still there.
I went back for a year to volunteer in the theatre there. It was fun, but the time that they work and the time i had to offer conflicted a lot. Apparently now they have a limit as to how late they can work. I remember spending all kinds of late nights in the theatre, whereas, now they are goine by 5:30 – 6pm. The only exception to this is when they enter into “Hell week”.
Funny how things change.
Racisms not new, even in Montgomery County
Things like this aren’t really new, even in our old area. I’m not sure if any of you remember, or were aware, but something like this happened during our junior year at QO. There were racist notes being stuffed into several lockers and marker on some locker doors. There was an investigation that went on for maybe a week, and since the letters stopped, it was dropped. They never found out who was doing it and didn’t really let most of the school know that it was going on.
The week that my father first moved to Gaithersburg I was made aware that there were people in that area with “dislike” towards Afro Americans. Myself and 3 other kids, all between the ages of 9 -13, wanted to explore the new area. We walked one street over and saw several kids around our age playing outside. As we got closer to the kids, their parents came running out of their house, grabbed the kids and pulled them back inside. We thought nothing of it and walked to the top of the street and back down. When we got back near that house again we heard several times, “N….S go home!!!”, from adult voices. I’m didn’t think that was right then, I didn’t think the letters at QO were right then, and I don’t think the spray paint is right now. But as long as there are parents that don’t correct the behavior in themselves and their children and as long as society doesn’t say we will not stand for this type of behavior, I don’t see anything changing.
The attitude of people that it does not effect has always been and continues to be, “That’s horrible… oh well…”. — Bryan
Jerks…
Yeah, recently a developer in Saratoga Springs, Utah, put something in his advertising pamphlets to the effect of “Our development boasts the lowest African-American population in Utah”. He later retracted it, and blamed the advertising company for the copy.
Yeah. Right.
(Sorry, I wasn’t able to find the links where I read this a couple of days ago. It was in some local paper.)
How is this an advertising bullet point? Do people really care that much about the racial makeup of their neighbors? I mean, I care a little bit if they speak English, so that I can resolve difficulties with them, but that’s really about it, and even that is not very important.
Maybe it’s just because I was raised a military brat, surrounded by people of lots of different ethnicities, that it isn’t that important to me. But I can’t wrap my head around racism, other than to say “bigoted idiots”.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Found the story, and the link
Here’s the blurb:
Taken from News of the Weird, under “Inexplicable”.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Blargh.
Too bad there will always be idiots (I could use a stronger word there, but) who will always be happy to try and leave their negative mark on something positive like a school or a church.
When I was in high school at Richard Montgomery, there was a rather thorough arson/graffiti attack on the library. It was all rather traumatic.
To quote, “An interesting hoax occurred at Richard Montgomery High School in Maryland in 1990. The school was broken into twice, and swastikas as well as messages signed by ‘Nazi youth’ were scrawled on walls. $650,000 in damage was caused. Police arrested two students, one black and one Jewish.”
Sure, they weren’t ACTUALLY white supremacists but the destruction and the message is still horrible (if not worse!)