Reflections on My First Day as a Highland Park High School Volunteer

– I had the pleasure of being paired up with Dr. Charles “Moody” Alexander, who, coincidentally, was on my shift last year in the Highland Park Middle School/McCulloch Intermediate School cafteria. The sight of the longtime orthodontist behind the counter inspired many kids to display smiles that he helped beautify.

– As advertised, the students at Highland Park High School are remarkably polite. When a kid occasionally didn’t say “thank you,” Dr. Alexander drove the point home by thanking them as he handed over their chicken fingers and fries.

– The HPHS cafeteria has a clublike atmosphere, thanks to the speakers blasting everything from current hits by Katy Perry and Adele to the Jackson 5′s “ABC” and that head-bobbing song from A Night at The Roxbury. (“What is love? Baby, don’t hurt me …”)

– I wondered if I had somehow traveled back in time because of the inordinate number of students wearing pastel polo shirts with pastel sweaters tied around their necks. All was explained when I saw the Homecoming Week poster that designated today as Prep Day. Imagine how disoriented I would have been if I had volunteered on Tuesday (Twin Day) or Wednesday (Camo Day).

By Dan Koller Oct. 20, 2011 | 2:23 pm | 2 Comments | Comments RSS
2 comments to "Reflections on My First Day as a Highland Park High School Volunteer"
  1. HPMom @ October 20, 2011 at 3:13 pm
    Dr Alexander has been volunteering since his kids were at Armstrong. As I mentioned before, the students love seeing Dads there- wish more would volunteer. They’d get a free lunch- and the food is SOOO much better than when we were all in school. Major Kudos to you for serving!

  2. Sammy @ October 21, 2011 at 9:00 am
    I happened to be at the Hillcrest Chickfila that morning and saw two highschool-aged girls with their pastel sweaters over their shoulders, dressed to the T’s. I thought “Wow, these HP girls really go all out for school!”

    Then I saw more, and more, and more.

    And realized that what THEY thought was a coolly ironic thing to do, was actually making fun of what I really WORE when I was in college!

    How embarrassing.

    And I still have my “Preppy Handbook”.

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