The quaint tradition of the satire publication on April 1 still flourished during my student days.  UGA’s newspaper, The Red & Black, became, for one day, The Rude & Bleak.  For a few years, at least, the April issue of Grady High’s Southerner was called the Yutz.  The Yutz, was, I’m sure, the most widely read issue of our high school paper.  While the stories tended toward the slapdash, the student population found them highly amusing.  We enjoyed the modified names of students and teachers.  Best of all, we got the silly inside jokes.  The content is now remarkably, charmingly antiquated.  One article reports the arrest of teachers caught with stolen ditto paper and fluid (of a street value over $12.58.)  The librarian was charged with “disturbing the card catalogue.”  In another story, sadistic teachers assigned so much homework (including memorizing The Encyclopedia Britannica) that students “were forced to miss The Bionic Woman and What’s Happening for six weeks in a row.”

On this April Fool’s Day, I salute those student writers who served up some comedy to make the school day a bit brighter.   The Rude & Bleak and the Yutz may be defunct, but copies survive in my archives.  I have already laughed out loud this morning as I looked over the brittle, yellowed pages.  Thank you, Crazy Chevalier, Jacket Warmer and Willy Creeps, among others, for bringing back memories of the hallowed halls of Gravey and the antics of Coach Hendering, Miss Granola Harpoon, and Mr. Bobby Baby Sly Fox!