Rain!

The great deluge of 2010 hits Santa Paula High School! The third storm rolled in this morning around 9:15 AM with loud thunder (setting off car alarms), lightning and a brief hail storm. After the initial hammering rain of the storm front, things settled down to steady, sometimes heavy, rain throughout the day.

The school came through the storm without any significant problems, but some areas in the county experienced flooding, mudslides and even tornadoes. The coast was also hit hard, with waves up to 20 feet high. Although there were many puddles and umbrellas on campus, the school didn't experience any major flooding (one of the benefits of being on a hill).

Students did their best to stay dry, staying in corridors and under umbrellas between periods, as well as eating in the cafeteria and various classrooms for lunch.

Storm #4 arrives tomorrow morning!

1936 El Solano Yearbook

The 1936 Santa Paula High School El Solano Yearbook is now online! This edition of the El Solano was unusual in that it was spiral bound. This made the scanning of the pages easier, as the binding wasn't a concern, but many of the pages extended past the metal spiral and this made it difficult to scan the entire page. For the most part though, nothing significant was lost.

The pages were textured and this tended to cause some problems with the sharpness of the image scans. The images were "re-sharpened" digitally, but show some moiré patterns here and there due to the scanning and editing process. Oddly, many of the actual photographs were more blurry than in earlier yearbooks.

Containing very little prose (although there is an interesting bit of poetry on page 62 that appears to describe every member of the senior class), the yearbook contains mainly photographs. It is also interesting in that it shows some of the last pictures of the "second" Santa Paula High School building, a two story classical structure that was damaged during an earthquake in the early 1930's and torn down later that decade. Page 2 shows a couple of good photos of the building.

Although the yearbook was published a few years before World War II, there are signs of the developing conflict. One of the photos shows a student reading a textbook page on "The Spread of Dictatorship 1936" and the same page has a paragraph on "The Need for Patriotism" The yearbook also contains a number of blue "Art" pages which are in the Art Deco style of the period. The graphic on page 21 by Manual Victoria is particularly interesting in that it contains a dirigible flying above a stylized cityscape. The Hindenburg disaster occurred the next year and signaled the end of the huge lighter than air ships.

Winter Sports Rally

A rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner launched the Santa Paula High School Winter Sports Rally. Immediately afterwards, a small invasion of Fillmore Flashes occurred - this rude intrusion was dealt with promptly by Joe Cardinal, and the Rally was allowed to continue.

The SPHS Basketball teams were introduced and everyone was encouraged to go to tonight's game against Fillmore. This was followed by a contest of Cardinal basketball skills that ended in a tie after a tough battle.

The SPHS Soccer teams were then introduced. It was Coach Blevins' birthday, so the soccer challenged him to a game of soccer keepaway. The game moved back and forth across the gym floor, but eventually the students won.

Last but not least of the Winter Sports, the SPHS Wrestling team was introduced.

Rounding out the activities, an energetic dance was performed by Ms. Gomez and her dance partner. This was met by rousing applause from the audience.

The assembly ended with a moment of silence for Jennifer Urrutia, a SPHS student who recently passed away.