1970

1970

Nathaniel Rudolph, Historian

Greeley West in 1970 looks very different from Greeley West in 2021.  Here is a photo from above.  Just look at the changes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article From Yearbook: The many facets of Greeley West High School are infinite, just as any year is a colorful jewel in the continuous spectrum of Greeley, Colorado. An attempt to represent an accurate history of even a small sphere of life is a difficult task. To capture an entire school year of 900 vastly different individuals is next to impossible. Yet it is hoped that in future years it may be said that this was a period in GWHS teenagers’ lives frozen in print. The diversity of its students was the key to life at Greeley West. This annual not only represents a year at one high school in one state, but it re-captures the very spirit of 1970 throughout the United States–the conditions and forces that directly or indirectly affected all phases of school life. The seventies emerged with growing student dissent against the “establishment”–the home, the church, the school, the older generation, the police, the courts, and even pollution. Beating strongly in the background was the sound of electric guitars, blues singers, and pianettes, creating an undercurrent of unrest amid noise and confusion in an already spinning psychadelic world. National cries of “love” and “peace now” were not just forces in far-off California or New York or even closer UNC, but they affected every young man nearing draft age. The young generation of 1970 watched anxiously or apprehensively as President Richard Nixon initiated series of “Vietnamization’ peace plans. Even though GW students existed in many forms-athletes, hippies, scholars, cheerleaders, Chicanos, politicians, or social Climbers–they were still affected by the same environmental elements. What was 1970 in the United States, in Colorado, in Greeley, at Greeley West? A fraction of 1970 is portrayed on these few pages, perhaps as a milestone: a look backward to the first hundred years, and a look forward to the second hundred years.