At-a-glance

Picture the school as it is right now, the students’ attitudes, the classes and the way the school itself is set up. Now that you’re thinking about this, go back to when teachers were students, and imagine what Mattoon High School would have been like then.

One gym, no ceiling tiles and a courtyard where the cafeteria is would be what you would have seen at MHS when Economics teacher Vinny Walk was a student.

According to Walk, MHS hasn’t changed all that much, other than how the school’s layout. Students’ attitudes specifically haven’t changed, though they were more involved in sports and activities.

“Students have more input now; no one used to ask for students’ opinions,” said Alumni and English teacher Malia Smith.

Within the past years, MHS has gone from having a small amount of electives to choose from to having so many that it’s hard to choose what classes to take.

“There was no journalism, just a newspaper club,” said Walk. “The variety of classes has increased.”
 “A lot of classes have gone away. Technology upped the expectations of the students,” said Smith.

While technology has made advancements, rivalries have remained common among MHS and surrounding schools.
Some people seem to think that the rivalry between Mattoon and Charleston is bad now, but according to Walk, at games between the two towns, it was almost impossible to get into the gym. But at games now, you can almost always find a seat, even if you arrive after the game has started.

Another commonality at MHS back then and still relevant now is senor pranks. Unlike today, Smith’s senior prank didn’t take place on the school grounds.

“There was a bright green toilet that was placed on a senior’s front lawn. You would have to call senior guys to come pick it up, and then it was placed on another person’s yard,” said Smith.

But, this wasn’t just a prank that was played on the last day of school.

“It was decorated for different holidays. But on the last day of school, it was placed on the front lawn of the school,” said Smith.

Senor pranks are different from back then, but clothing trends are coming back. According to Smith, the style that was in at her time is coming back.

“We wore grunge clothes, which consisted of flannel shirts, baggy jeans, and Doc Martin’s. Long hair was in, for both girls and boys. Some also had dread locks, which were awful,” said Smith.
However, Walk had a different perspective.

“Clothes weren’t too different. Bibs, parachute pants, rolled up jeans, and popped collars were in. We dressed nicer, we didn’t have holes in our jeans, we dressed more church-like,” said Walk.