On May 5, 1961, a tornado hit Northeast, damaging the school’s roof. In the May 6 St. Petersburg Times, the a-bit-eye-rollingly-titled article “All Hail Breaks Loose in St. Petersburg Area: Twister Unroofs Section of School” relayed the comments of school principal John Sexton, who said the most high school administrator from the 1960s thing ever:

I can see him shaking his head, sixty-plus years later.

A storm like this seems like fairly big news, but it was pretty much buried in the Times that day; earlier on the morning on May 5, Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

See more designs from the Northeast set here.

St. Petersburg has an “archives room,” which I love, love, love. The room was set up in part by Bob Pfeiffer, who was a St. Pete alum and served for years as its mascot, Mr. Green Devil. When Mr. Pfeiffer died in 2000, though, the collection started to fall into disarray, as detailed in this 2009 Tampa Bay Times article. But joy of joys! A 2021 renovation has helped to restore the archives room to its former glory. This article in the school paper has a great rundown. I’d love to visit someday!

See more designs from the St. Petersburg set here.

On October 21, 2009, Clearwater alumna and astronaut Nicole Stott joined fellow astronaut Jeff Williams on the International Space Station for the first ever live tweetup from space. The tweeps on Earth had been asking (and getting answers to) their most burning space questions when a loud alarm began going off in the ISS. It turned out to be a false alarm, but the tweeting did not continue. Stott has retired from astronautin’, but she still tweets sometimes from @Astro_Nicole.

See more designs from the Clearwater set here.

This shirt design is a little different from what I normally do. While I did make it by tracing something existing, in this case what I traced were tiles from CCC’s domed gymnasium. I am about 90% sure that the dome is a geodesic dome, but I was frustrated to not be able to confirm that. The geodesic dome was popularized (and patented by) Buckminster Fuller, and you may know it from Spaceship Earth at Epcot or its appearance at several world’s fairs. You can see Fuller’s patent for the geodesic dome here.

See more designs from the Clearwater Central Catholic set here.

There is an impressively exhaustive history of Hillsborough High here, but the early history of the school was unclear until a time capsule in the cornerstone of a building where the school was previously located was found in 2003. Inside the time capsule was a history of Hillsborough High written by Hillsborough student Doris Hill in 1911. You can read her history (and even see scans of the original handwritten pages) here. Doris Hill’s account changed many of the widely accepted accounts of the high school’s origins, which date back to 1882.

See more designs from the Hillsborough set here.

The 1985 Jefferson Dragons baseball team was down to their last three outs when Luis stepped to the plate. On the brink of the state tournament, their promising season would be over if they couldn’t manage to score five runs to overcome Riverview’s 9-4 lead. Luis began the inning by smacking a double to right field. He was followed by Tino, who walked and would come around to score on a wild pitch. With two outs, Luis would come to the plate again, this time with the bases loaded. He watched five pitches go by—three balls and two called strikes. With two outs and a full count in the bottom of the last inning, Luis was able to take ball four inside, and the Dragons won the game and advanced to the state semifinals. He told the Tampa Tribune that he never intended to swing. “I was taking all the way,” he said. “He was going to have to strike me out. I had the green light but I wasn’t going to swing. We never gave up. Unbelievable!”

“We’re more like a family now,” Luis said. “We’re loose; we don’t feel any pressure. We just want to paly hard and try to win,” added Tino. Unfortunately, their run ended in that state semifinal. But I wonder if Luis and Tito were thinking at all of that miracle finish sixteen years later.

The 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks were down to their last two outs in game 7 of the World Series when Luis Gonzalez stepped to the plate. Playing first base for the opposing New York Yankees was Tino Martinez, whose single in the seventh inning had tied the game at 1-1. Luis was facing legendary Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. Like sixteen years earlier, he came to the plate in the bottom of the last inning with the bases loaded.

But unlike sixteen years earlier, he was swinging. After fouling the first pitch off, Fox analyst Tim McCarver said, “The one problem is that Rivera throws inside to left-handers. Left-handers get a lot of broken bat hits into the shallow part of the outfield. That’s the danger of bringing the infield in with a guy like Rivera on the mound.” And that’s what happened. The pitch came inside, and Gonzalez blooped it into the shallow part of the outfield. The Diamondbacks were world champions. Luis delivered another miracle finish. It’s just too bad he couldn’t bring Tino along with him.

See more designs from the Jefferson set here.

In October 2019, Tampa cemetery researcher Ray Reed alerted the local school district that part of King High may still sit on some graves from the old Ridgewood Cemetery, which had been a final resting place for poor (and largely African-American) citizens. Ground penetrating radar subsequently found 145 graves on the grounds. This was just one in a series of “erased” cemeteries that Reed has found in the Tampa area. In a Tampa Bay Times profile in 2018, Reed claimed that the ghosts of the dead in these erased cemeteries reach out to him. “They were loved by someone but treated like crap when they died,” he said. “That’s wrong.” Reed said that when he does his work in his home, books fall off of shelves and he hears voices.

“Frankly I don’t care if anyone thinks I am crazy,” he said. He has won an award from the NAACP and a commendation from Hillsborough County for his work.

See more designs from the King set here.

“Hackensack” by Fountains of Wayne is one of my very favorite songs. I think it’s a masterpiece of songwriting. So check it out:

See more designs from the Hackensack set here.

The New York Times Games app is amazing, and it keeps getting better. Once just the home of the crosswords (as if that wasn’t enough!) they’ve been adding new games over time, such as Spelling Bee, Wordle, Sudoku, and most recently, Tiles. Some of it you can use for free, but it’s well worth a Games subscription.

See you next week! Tell your friends!