Cambridge High School Class of 1978
Cambridge, Minnesota Isanti County
Cambridge High School Class of 1978
Cambridge High School
Chris Pearson, Dave Guthrie, Debbie Johnson, Michelle Thiry, Michael Legaspi class leaders
SENIOR CLASS OFFICERS:  Chris Pearson, Dave Guthrie, Debbie Johnson, Michelle Thiry, Michael Legaspi, Annette Lindgren

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30 Years Later
Cambridge High
Class of 1978

Almost three decades have passed since our class valedictorian Gregg Phillips delivered the commencement address to the Cambridge High School class of 1978.  Gregg stated from the podium that we had spent our lives together… but that after “tonight” we would never all be together again.   Gregg Phillips and Leanne Ball most likely to succeedUnited we left that sweltering June night headed toward our individual destinies…

As our excursion through life proceeds, the memories a
nd events of our youth become more significant to us.  Significant because we now see how the events of youth and our reactions to them have shaped the people we have become.  We now realize that decisions we made in our youth resulted in the permanent and often unintended outcome of our present lives.

Time has gone from being the endless commodity of youth to a precious resource to be purposefully managed.   For many, the dreams we had on graduation night became altered to the point of being unidentifiable.  By now, life has provided us with events, either of our own making or by accident, that have become the reality of today. 

Time has changed our appearance.  Many of us currently look old to teenagers and they look like babes to us.  Fifty or sixty-year-olds don’t look that old to us anymore.  We often wonder what became of that young kid that used to stare back at us from the mirror.

Todd Lindquest and Kimberly OlsonMuch has happened to the people of the Cambridge High School Class of 1978 since graduation night… but one thing remains the same… We got to share some pretty cool experiences with each other almost thirty years ago. 

God bless you,
Bill Soderlund, Cambridge High School class of 1978
Saint Peter, Minnesota
bsoderlund@hickorytech.net
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Pictured on ladder are "The Most Likely to Succeed": Dr. Gregg Phillips, BS, MS, Ph.D., DVM and Leanne Ball.  I haven't kept up with Leanne but I would say that Gregg has been pretty successful!

The smiling couple is none other than Todd Lindquist and Kimberly Olson.
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Music of the Class of 1978
It would be impossible to describe the Cambridge High School class of 1978 without mentioning the music that they made part of their daily lives. The 1970’s was a decade of musical renaissance with eclectic genres ranging from the emergence of “main stream” country music to the birth of rap, disco, southern rock, punk, reggae, funk, heavy metal and gothic rock to name but a few. 

Though no one could argue the importance of music to the graduating class of 1978, there will inevitably be arguments about what music would best describe their preferences.  The following is a partial list of the bands and the albums that the Cambridge High School class of class of 1978 listened to during their time together.


fleetwood mac rumors album

Top Albums of the Class of 1978
  • Fleetwood Mac: Rumors
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd: Pronounced, Second Helping, Street Survivors
  • Pink Floyd Dark: Side of the Moon
  • Eagles: Greatest Hits
  • The Marshall Tucker Band: Greatest Hits
  • Kiss: Destroyer
  • Heart: Dream Boat Annie
  • Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin IV
  • Doobie Brothers: Minute by Minute
  • The Outlaws: Bring It Back Alive
  • Queen: News of the World
  • Bob Seger: Stranger in Town, Night Moves
  • Peter Frampton: Frampton Comes Alive
  • AC/DC: Dirty Deeps Done Dirt Cheap
  • Deep Purple: Machine Head
  • Boston: Boston
  • The Bee Gees: Saturday Night Fever
  • Aerosmith: Toys in the Attic
  • Eric Clapton: Slow Hand
  • ELO: A New World Record
  • The Allan Brothers: The Road Goes On Forever
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Songs of the Class of ‘78
  • “I Go Crazy” Paul Davis
  • “You Light Up My Life” Debbie Boone
  • “Stairway to Heaven” Led Zeppelin
  • “We’re All Alone” Rita Coolidge
  • “How Deep Is Your Love?” Bee Gees
  • "Heaven's Just A Sin Away" The Kendall’s
  • “I Like Dreaming” Kenny Nolan
  • “Higher And Higher” Rita Coolidge
  • “Heard It In A Love Song” The Marshall Tucker Band
  • “Goodbye Girl” Bread

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Top Movies for the Class of 1978
  • 1975: Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Monte Python Holy Grail
  • 1976: Rocky, Taxi Driver, Smokey and the Bandit
  • 1977: Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Annie Hall, The Good Bye Girl, Saturday Night Fever
  • 1978: Grease, Everyway But Loose, Animal House, Superman
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Home Prices and Population
We grew up with inflation.  In approximately 1973 Mr. Richard Larson then the eighth grade math teacher told our class that by the year 2000 the average house would cost well over $100,000.  At the time it was quite hard to believe. 

As of 2005 the median home cost in Cambridge was $194,300, that's a jump of 9.33% over the previous year.  For comparison a brand new home in Cambridge sold for around $45,000 in 1978 and in 1973 a brand new house cost around $32,000. 

Mr. Larson wasn't far from wrong it just happened faster than he predicted... it was around 1988 or 1989 when the average price of a new home hit $100,000.

In 1978 the population of Cambridge was around 2,600 people.  As of 2005, Cambridge's population was 6,762 people up 23% since 2000.

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Pictured below are Saint Mr. Harley Johnson and Saint Dr. Craig Paulson.  God bless those two holy men!  I still don't know how they did it!!!
Harley Johnson Craig Paulson Cambridge High School 1978
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The Cambridge High School
Class of 1978:
Changes
The Cambridge High School class of 1978 was born just as America was in the process of discarding long held social norms and becoming transformed into a post-Christian culture of self-gratification.  When the Cambridge High School class of 1978 was attending grade school society had undergone an almost total metamorphosis into a culture of open sexuality, drugs, rebellion toward authority and disdain towards open bigotry.  Manners and etiquette were soon to become relics.

Every social tradition was placed upon the chopping block to be accepted or discontinued by the time the Cambridge High School class of 1978 entered junior high.  “If it feels good do it” became the mantra of the times.  In many families both parents began working to support the consumerism that was becoming entrenched in the fiber of civilization. 

For a variety of reasons it became sexist to assume a woman would stay at home with the children.  Women were encouraged to seek their own identity instead of assuming the identity of the husband.  Rightfully so women forced society to remove them from a “second class citizen” status.  They rightfully insisted upon equal rights.  The Cambridge High School class of 1978 would become the last generation that was raised by a stay-at-home mom. 

When the Cambridge High School class of 1978 entered high school the world had undergone an almost complete metamorphosis.  Being discontent with the “system” was just a given.  The Viet Nam War, Watergate, unemployment, recession, inflation and an oil embargo had all converged upon the societal mindset of the times.  We basically couldn’t believe anyone.  We knew the government was lying to us.  So were the advertisers like tobacco companies.

Cambridge High School Class of 1978By the time the Cambridge High School class of 1978 graduated the United States was in a weakened military position with the Cold War presenting more dangers than ever.  Many of the major companies that had made the United States a powerhouse, like Chrysler and US Steel were on the brink of bankruptcy.  Working for a company for 35 years and then collecting a pension was no longer an option. 

By the time the Cambridge High School class of 1978 graduated from Vo-Tech or college, the job prospects were quite dismal.  Unemployment, inflation and interest rates were at an all time high.  What started out as looking like a horrible prospect, the 1980’s ended up being a time of prosperity like the world had never seen.  The “decade of excess” saw the Cambridge High class of 1978 settling down and beginning their own families.  Many of us got married and had children, bought a home and started to accumulate stuff.

The 1990’s saw the collapse of the Soviet Union and the explosion of technology and the Internet.  The class of 1978 began to get computer savvy and embraced the latest techno gadgets.  Many of us purchased video games for our kids and procured a computer with Windows 95 or such for the family.  The Cambridge High School class of 1978 began to have a positive net worth.

The dawning 21st century ushered in the reality of aging to the Cambridge High School class of 1978.  We were now in our forties, we were becoming the older generation.  Our children began treating us like we behaved toward our parents in 1978.  Just visiting with friends and extended family became harder because we were just too busy.  Time started passing at an alarming rate, most if not all of our grandparents and some of our parents have passed away by now and we had to face the fact of our own mortality.  Some of us have already, or will this decade, become grandparents.

Divorce has become commonplace for the Cambridge High School class of 1978.  When we were first starting out in life divorce was a rarity.  Now many of our friends are divorced and chances are that we are also divorced.  We have been the first generation that has collectively parented blended families. Relationships have become almost disposable and the quest to find ones “soul mate” by scientific analysis via the Internet is normal.

The Cambridge High School class of 1978 has been in the vortex of a tornadic system of changes that makes weather prediction look easy.  We have seen technology advances lead to the information explosion. Microwave ovens, the Internet, computers, MP3 players, Palm Pilots, satellite radio and television, GPS mapping and cell phones, the list could go on and on, have transformed our day-to-day lives.

Even though so much has happened collectively as well as individually to the Cambridge High School class of 1978, some things never change.  Our past has been indelibly written in stone and can’t be changed.  Regardless if we made good decisions or bad our actions in life have been cast into the mold of time.  There is no point in regretting the past or wishing to shut the door on it.  As William Wordsworth said so eloquently,
“Though nothing can bring back the hour,
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find,
Strength in what remains behind...”

Our unchanging past may actually be one of our greatest assets if we examine it and learn the lessons it has to teach us.  I have found that my past holds many important clues about myself.  The decisions I make in life are always a direct result of my past history.  If I don’t examine my history in an open and honest way I am doomed to continually repeat the same mistakes.  It has become apparent that growing up in Isanti County and graduating from Cambridge High School in 1978 had a dramatic impact upon my life.  My friends and classmates have shaped me in a profound way.


Cambridge High School Class of 1978
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