1. Not being able to use backpacks in middle school. We all acted like it was the end of the world when they changed the fact that we could use our backpacks. From there on out, we had to carry our books.
2. Frog Dissection. We all knew when frog dissections were going on in Mr. Gallaher's class because we all had to pull our shirts above our noses or else we'd throw up. With that being said, it actually was a fun experience.
3. The "PRIDE" song. Mrs. Dixon wrote this song and taught it to all of her students. One thing that's really cool about this is that students from third grade on know this song, and every time we hear it, we can't help but to sing along.
4. The pool was the place to be. In elementary and middle school, the Camp Hill pool is the "coolest" place to be to hang out with your friends. Even if you didn't have plans with your friends, you could go to the pool and you'd probably find one of them.
5. Canadensis. You only know what this is and how fun it is if you went to Camp Hill.
6. JA Biztown. Like Canadensis, this is a trip that we go to when we hit a certain grade level, and it's so much fun.
7. Safety advisors. In elementary school, we all wanted to voluntarily get up early in the morning to be a safety advisor. We got a bright vest and a whistle, and had permission to write people up, and everyone loved it. But everyone wanted to work at the same intersection, and got upset if they weren't picked.
8. Middle school students/high school students in the hallways. In middle school you’re afraid of the high school students, and in high school, you’re annoyed by the middle school students. Oh yeah, did I mention we’re all in the same, small building?
9. Band and chorus. Almost every student has been in either one of these, no matter how old they were.
10. Preppy rich kids. Other students would dress up as us, but we didn't care. Yeah, we got this stereotype, but it could have been worse.
11. Going out for lunch. One benefit of going to Camp Hill is that we can leave for lunch. Students often go to Giant, Neato Burrito, Subway, Zags, and Roberto's.
12. Student Section. We might be a small school, but we support our sports teams like no other. With crazy themed nights to chants and songs, we know how to show our school spirit. Our student section isn't just our students, we have students from other schools sitting with us, rooting for our team, and adults that start our student section chants. The whole community gets involved and it's awesome.
13. East Penn and Trinity make you sick. Rivalries between these schools have been around forever, and might not ever end. Hearing "East Penn" or "Trinity" gives you a feeling of disgust.
14. Jessie the Janitor. Did you really go to Camp Hill if you didn't hear the story about Jessie the Janitor? Friends tell you they see him, teachers tell you they knew him, and you get nervous walking in the halls alone after school.
15. Leaking ceilings and flooded basement. If it rains the night before school, you can expect to see trash cans in the middle of hallways and classrooms, catching the water dripping from the ceiling. It was also inevitable that the basement would flood if it rained.
16. Alumni coming into your class. It wasn't uncommon for your class to stop in the middle of a lesson because of graduated students coming back to visit. Typically it began with a knock on the door, then a huge smile on the teachers face, walking over to the student giving them a hug, asking them how they're doing. The class will sit there, and while the majority of the class probably knows who it is, we sit there in silence, and just watch the encounter. That's what I love about Camp Hill. Not only do your teachers know you when you're there, they remember you when you're gone, and love when you come back.
17. 12-minute run. I don't even think I need to say anything else about this.
18. Crowded bathrooms getting ready for practice. If you had practice after school, you knew you had to rush to a bathroom to get ready before it was packed with people. There are only a few locker rooms in the building: one for girls, one for boys, one for either boys football, basketball, or baseball (depends on what season it is). Therefore, there aren't many options of places to get ready. Due to that, you're used to changing for practice VERY close to other people.
19. Get good at parallel parking. There isn't a parking lot for students, so we have to park on the streets. Because of this, we become experts at parallel parking by the end of senior year.
20. No busses. Yeah, we get it. We don't have busses. It's not much of a "diss" when we have absolutely no need for them, so none of us really care when you "make fun of us" for not having them. The majority of people are a five to 10 minute walk away from school, so busses would be unnecessary.
21. Re-exit because you went out the "wrong door." With a new principal comes new rules. For lunch we are only allowed to enter and exit the building through one door. If you go out the other door, you don't just get a warning. You have to go back into the building and out the other door.
22. Mrs. Newton. She's one of the best people you'll ever meet, and the best teacher you'll ever have. I don't think I ever met anyone that didn't like her.
23. Seeing teachers at parents' parties. It's common for you and your friend's parents to be friends as well. So when they have parties, you'll be invited sometimes as well. It's so common to see teachers at these parties now that we don't even give it a second thought.
24. Mr. Zelenky's quotes. As many times as he says them, his jokes never get old. And unfortunately, you can't help but to start using them too.
25. Everyone knows everything within five minutes. You and your boyfriend broke up five minutes ago? You don't even need to bother telling anyone, because your classmates and teachers probably already know.
26. Gianelli's speech. Everyone remembers Mr. Gianelli's speech where he stood on a desk and left the class speechless.
27. Prom pictures at Willow Park. Almost the whole entire town shows up at prom pictures, regardless of if their children or friends are going or not. It's common to look at your friend and say, "who is that?" or "why is he/she here?"
28. Mr. Zelenky and Mr. Morela. Everyone went outside to watch Mr. Zelenky lay on a bed of nails with a big block of wood and a cylinder block on top of him. Then Mr. Morela would break the block on him. They do this every year and it never gets old.
29. "-ing, -ing, -ing." Mrs. Leach saying this will forever be engraved in our minds.
30. SAT scores. As everyone knows because we say it all the time, we're some pretty smart kids.
31. Weather changes in classrooms. Taking a jacket to class was necessary due to the fact that no on ever knew if the room was going to be extremely hot or freezing cold.
32. You know to acknowledge Ms. B in the hallway. If you walk past her without saying a word, she'll call you out for it. So you know when you see her to say, "Hey Ms. B how're you today?"
33. Never experienced a tryout, but our teams are still overall really good. I didn't know what it felt like to not make a team until I got to college and tried out for some club sports. Even though this is the case, our teams are still pretty successful.
34. Takes forever to get up the staircase. The main staircase takes forever to get up, and you don't really have an option but to push people, or you're gonna be late.
35. New kids were a big deal. We've basically grown up with each other, so when a new student would come, everyone would get overwhelmed. In the summer when homerooms were posted outside of the school, you'd go over and look down each list from your grade to see if there were any new students.
36. Typical weekend consists of driving around. Since there isn't much to do in the small town on weekend nights, it's common to just drive around with friends. Maybe drive by Beverly Park to see if you recognize any cars parked there, or if you see another friend driving around, you and your friends would turn around and follow them. The fact that that was entertaining shows that there really wasn't much to do.
37. Three to four-sport athletes are common. Sometimes people will ask me if I played any sports in high school. When I tell them three different sports, they seem to be really impressed. I never really knew why but now that I think about it, it's not as easy for students to get this opportunity. I'm grateful that I did though.
38. Two-hour delays and snow days. Everyone at Camp Hill and the schools around us know that we either have off when we shouldn't or we don't have off when we should. This has become one of the top things that students complain about here.
39. Know where everyone lives. It isn't a problem if someone asks you for a ride home because it's likely that they live about two minutes from you, and you probably already know where.
40. Clapping at random times during assemblies. For some reason, in the middle of a sentence or at the end of a sentence that doesn't deserve any applause. The speaker would appreciate it at first but then just get mad. We did this so often and it was still the funniest thing ever to some people.
41. Lisa Simpson. In middle school you were afraid of her, and in high school you loved her. Often you'd hear "Lisa, Lisa, Lisa" in the student section at sporting events. So yeah, you can say we had the best athletic trainer.
42. Share locker rooms. Like I said before, there are only three locker rooms in the entire building. At least with my personal experience, for halftime of our girl's basketball games, we would have to go to the boys team's smelly locker room. But we adjusted and learned to deal with it.
43. Crime? Crimes are so uncommon in Camp Hill that everyone freaks out when it happens. That's good though because since there isn't much crime, kids can walk around without a worry in the world.
44. Blue vans. Because we didn't have busses, certain sports would have to take the dreaded blue vans. That's something I don't miss.
45. Football field and track. The football field and track are really now, but we all remember how awful they were before. So many football games were canceled because of even the slightest bit of rain, and we couldn't have home track meets because of the condition of the track.
46. Cafeteria water fountain. We would cringe watching someone walk toward the "white water fountain." The water wasn't clear, and it confused and scared everyone. We were all afraid to use it.
47. Gym sneaker bin. Forgetting gym sneakers was one of the worst things that could happen to you because then you had to use the extra sneakers in Mrs. Colestock/Ms. Baldini's office. They were all the shoes that were unclaimed in the locker room ... and trust me, we know why people left them there.
48. Bomb threat-- trumpet case. One year there was a bomb threat at school so we all had to leave and sit in the gymnasium at Hoover. Everyone was worried until we found out what happened. It was just a trumpet case that a student left behind...
49. "Don't be rude, bring in food." The middle school announcements came on after ours, and this quote was said every. single. day.
50. Complain when you're there, miss it when you're gone. Not much else to say about this, but I think most people will agree. Although we complain about how "awful" Camp Hill is, when we leave, we miss it. The friendships, community, and safety we had are all things that we'll keep with us forever.
