'A really tight circle': Former students reflect on time at Lake Oswego Junior High School at farewell party before demolition

Construction of the new Lake Oswego Middle School is scheduled to begin as soon as the school year ends. This means that, once the students leave for summer vacations, bulldozers and a demolition team will take over the hallways of the old Lake Oswego Junior High School.

Last Wednesday, the Lake Oswego School District invited LOJ alumni to visit the school one last time before the demolition and construction begins.

Pamplin Media Group spoke with some of the graduates who visited the campus on April 24 and asked about their favorite middle school memories.

Rachelle Higgins and Jason Higgins

The couple met for the first time at LOJ. They started dating and got married after they graduated from Lake Oswego High School.

“I miss the woodshop. I was very fond of that place and they offered it in middle school! CDs were just coming out when we were in junior high and she (Rachel) had a Vanilla Ice CD cover in her binder and I was like, ‘That is so cool,’” said Jason.

“We had Home Ec (Economics); we did proper table service, and literally put on a luncheon. What I remember about Jason is that he was kind of a bad boy because he had a friend with half a shaved head. He was a really nice guy; moving here towards the end of seventh grade, he made me feel welcome,” said Rachelle.

Meredith Hewitt

Hewitt graduated from LOJ at the same time as the Higgins. She said that the creative classes were the saving grace of middle school.

“I was in choir and it was an amazing place. The creative classes are always an outlet. I loved woodshop as well, especially the smell of the room, that little room in the very back that was lined with lumber. The art classroom, too, we had the coolest art teachers in general,” said Hewitt.

Sam Taylor, Ken Samuelson, Colin McNulty and Erik Jarman

Taylor, Samuelson, McNulty and Jarman had the same mischievous energy as their middle school selves, trying to get into classrooms and areas they remembered from their time at LOJ. McNulty added that although it was sad to see the building go, they’d suffered through the old campus so that the new students “didn’t have to.”

“I think the band room (is my favorite), but this spot right here on this stage is a close second,” said Samuelson.

“The middle-window door because it was out for so many months and they didn’t fix it and we would run through it. One day they decided to put the window in there and it looked like you could still run through and I ran through it. I had a black eye and a bloody nose, cuts all over,” said Jarman.

“It was a really tight circle; you’re kind of in a vacuum, insulated from everything else. This is the work release before you go to the big prison across the street,” said Taylor.