Bob Bourgeois, Class of ’62; Mick Hamada, Class of ,61

By Kieran Zimmer, Assistant Features Editor

Q: Did you enjoy attending San Dieguito?

Bourgeois: Oh yeah, we did. We had a lot of fun, a lot of good times.

Q: How has the school changed?

Bourgeois: Well, of course, some of it is still familiar; the front entryway, the steps, the courtyards, the older buildings, that’s all the same. The gymnasium is totally different than the rabble we played in.

Q: What are some of your most memorable moments here?

Hamada: [talking about Coach Wiley at Oak Crest] The very first week we went to the new school, Coach Wiley had this brand new gym, and there was a locker room. To keep us quiet I guess, he gave us a ball, but he didn’t want us to go outside because he had to call roll or something. So, two guys started playing pepper with each other, throwing the ball as hard as they could in this little hallway. One of them threw it really hard, the other one jumped out of the way and it hit the wall. Brand new school had a hole in the wall.

Hamada: The football team had a game in El Centro, and we were all sitting under the flag [at SDA]. While we were waiting for the guy to bring the car to ride, we had this crazy idea. What we did was we got a broomstick from someplace, tied it to the flagpole, put a garbage can on top and then [raised] it on top of the flagpole. Then we lowered the thing down, took the broomstick off. The next Monday morning, they had the fire department out there taking the thing down.

Q: How have the rules changed?

Hamada: I couldn’t tell you about the rules.

Bourgeois: We broke enough of them!

Q: What kinds of San Dieguito traditions were there when you were here?

Hamada: One of the things that I used to enjoy when I was young was that they would always have a bonfire before the homecoming game. We would build this huge, huge pile of wood, and they would have this little parade that came up to it. It would start way down by the bottom of the railroad tracks, and come all the way up Santa Fe. By the time we graduated they had already stopped, probably a lot of good reasons.