My four years at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School will definitely be a time that won’t be forgotten. Life changes once you get to college and you can’t help but think back every now and then to what high school was like. Here is what I remember from my time at “Biddy High”:
1. The Brown Building
The building was a nasty shade of brown. I mean the building should not matter as long as we get an education, but seriously why would you make the building literally look like poop?
2. The Staircase to Nowhere
The staircase in A House is known to trap every freshman at some point in the year. The staircase leads down to a secluded room, with more stairs that will lead to the outside world. Rumors of students vaping and having sex prevent most people from exploring the room.
3. 7:20 a.m.
The dreadful time that you have to be in your first period class by. As an upperclassman, this is usually the time you’re strolling in the parking lot, only to walk in and see Ms. Maniatis smiling and telling you to sign in late hoping you’ll get a Friday two-hour detention when you reach your fourth late.
4. “High 58 and a Low 36”
If you manage to make it to class on time, you got to see the morning announcements produced by the TV studio. The most notable segment was the weather. We also can't forget about Festivus.
5. Beat the Buses
If you are able to drive, then at 1:50 p.m., you sprint to the parking lot to get out as soon as possible and avoid all the student drivers that are driving recklessly. You want to make sure you get past the buses before they block you from leaving along with the unavoidable traffic on Lowell Street, making your life a living hell.
6. Cafeteria Scene
These are not up anymore, but there used to be these creepy paintings of food with faces. What made it worse was that some students thought it would be funny to make their eyes red. Once we got new tables (no more brown tables!), the food characters went away making lunch slightly more bearable.
7. Portable Classrooms (D House)
The school at some point in time realized they did not have enough classrooms. What was the best solution? Obviously to attach portable classrooms, known as D house, which makes the North Wing look like a trailer park.
8. The Awkward Smell
Anyone that has stepped foot in PVMHS can tell you that it smells bad, but not what the smell is. It just smells bad and you never really get used to it.
9. The Locked Bathrooms
Going to the bathroom takes a solid 15 minutes since administration decides to keep literally only three bathrooms open in the building. This is to prevent students from vaping in the bathroom or throwing crabs in the toilets.
10. Wi-Fi Password Sales
I never understood why it was so important to get the Wi-Fi password but students would sell them and tell their closest friends until the school realized and changed the password, only to start the cycle again.
11. Difficulty of Getting to Class on Time
PVMHS only gave four minutes to get from one class to the other. Normally this is realistic, but if you’re scheduled to have third period in D house and fourth period on the third floor in the corner of A House, you would have to basically sprint past all the couples that are having Titanic moments, the students that seem to not know to walk on the right side, and the students that think that slow and steady wins the race to get to class on time.
Although most of these may seem negative, I did have a pretty decent time at Biddy High. To all current students: make the most of Biddy High, because you will miss being a Tanner.
