OPINION | Pine Bluff High Class of 1971 earned its stripes

Who’d have thunk?

Until 1971, the Zebra was just another quirky high school mascot. Until 1971, if you thought about it at all, you probably wondered, “Zebras? Who in the world came up with Zebras?”

That changed at the beginning of our senior year when Merrill High School, Pine Bluff High School and Southeast High School, each having long and cherished traditions, were merged into the first fully integrated 6A high school in the state of Arkansas. And, as a result, its largest.

Many of us probably didn’t know what to think. Half of us worried what would be left of the traditions from the campus we were being made to leave behind. Most of us probably just hoped to get through an unexpected turn of events that nobody had asked for. The word apprehensive comes to mind…

Yet somehow we were able to noodle through our senior year on this reconfigured campus – more often than not with a dash of blind luck – sometimes with a little friction – usually with youthful humor. Many of us, inevitably, naively, and/or guardedly, had a chance to move beyond the stereotypes for the first time to more fully get to know classmates of a different stripe. The Pine Bluff High School Class of 1971 elevated the meaning of Zebra Stripes to a whole new level.

Stripes can only succeed as stripes when they celebrate the differences that paradoxically define them. After being thrown together that year, we began noticing that friendship and mutual respect often emerged between those with previously unfamiliar “stripes.”

Unfortunately, the real world wasn’t and isn’t as simple as the metaphor of Zebra Stripes. Still we can take pride in knowing that 50 years ago, we managed to reinvent that quirky Zebra mascot into a whole new animal. We transformed the old PBHS Zebras’ stripes into something more symbolic of our senior year. In 1971, those stripes became a reminder of the possibilities that arise whenever we allow ourselves to embrace each other’s unique talents, heritage, and style – that is, when we celebrate our STRIPES!

AND NOTHIN’ CAN EVER CHANGE OUR STRIPES!

Jeff Smith, Pine Bluff High School Class of 1971, Fort Davis, Texas