Senior Column: Maddie Hise

“Shawnee Mission hail to thee, Lancers we will ever be…”

As a child my parents hummed these lyrics to me before I fell asleep each night. It was my first song. Growing up, my favorite stories to hear from my family were about East.

Both my grandparents attended Shawnee Mission Rural in the fifties, the only Shawnee Mission high school at the time. That’s where it all started: my Lancer legacy.

My grandma’s class was presented with the rare opportunity of getting to pick the new colors and mascot of the newest Shawnee Mission school, East. Being on student council, she was given the ultimate decision. She chose Columbia blue, black and white because ‘they were the classiest’. Now, anytime I see the Columbia blue I see my grandma in her pearls, thinking about how classy future generation of Lancers would be.

Years later, her three children all attended East. My uncle, at age 18, decided the water tower beside the school needed some spicing up. He volunteered to climb the water tower to write Shawnee Mission East Class of 1976. Little did he know, coming down he would be greeted by the Prairie Village police department, waiting to arrest him. His vandalism was painted over,but it inspired the Shawnee Mission East written on the tower now. I look up to it now and try to imagine my uncle, being arrested for something that is such a trademark of the Lancer community.

The next child, my aunt, was a more behaved child. She went through East and was head cheerleader. Her and I still can do the fight song together.

Finally, my father; a golfer, a football player and a ladies’ man. He was off and on with many girls but one stuck out: my mother. Being a year younger than her, my dad thought he was cool dating an older woman.The picture is still in my living room: her senior prom with big puffy white dress, his junior prom with a bad haircut and a bowtie.

Then, there’s me. I followed my aunt’s footsteps to cheerleading. I walk in the parking lot and look up at the water tower to see my uncle’s legacy. I see couples in the hall and think about how I hope my parents weren’t the kids making out in the hall.

Every year of my and my family’s life has bits and pieces of East. I know East will always be home a home to me. East will always house my fondest memories.