One year ago: An article decorated with art of a smiling hemp leaf revealed the pot culture around high schools (among them Edina High School) by publishing anonymous interviews with students admitting to have smoked marijuana. The feature, which was ultimately anti-pot use, revealed that pot was (and possibly still is) sold to EHS students out of the cryptically named locale known only as “The Shed”.

Five years ago: Senior privilege versus grade equality has long been a conflict at EHS, and has been the subject of multiple articles. A feature in this 2009 edition of Zephyrus dwelled on the age-old problem of whether underclassmen should be allowed at Prom. While most of those interviewed (and the writer of that article) agreed that as long as they were asked by seniors, juniors going to Prom should be okay, it did show a bit of thinly-veiled senior anger towards underclassmen.

Ten years ago: In a piece that was either an Onion-esque bit of satire or an actual report on a bizarre chapter in the history of EHS (it’s in the features section, so it could go either way) an article discussed the controversial “PDA Patrol.” A group of volunteers in homemade costumes apparently walked the hallways, reprimanding those found holding hands or kissing. Although the article didn’t discuss any particular punishment for those found guilty of public displays of affection, the “PDA Patrol” did apparently have the authority to give out yellow or red cards to overly affectionate teens.

Twenty-five years ago: On the front page of an exceedingly confusing edition of Zephyrus was a picture of three male seniors wearing lipstick and dresses, not pertaining to any particular article. The rest of the paper was just as bizarre, with an article about the Ouija board, including a quote from an anonymous student who claimed to be “knowledgeable in black magic.” The next page had a fake obituary for concepts and programs that had been killed in the past year, such as the organizations SWAMI and ABUF (see here), snack break for seniors, and the undefined idea of “the human factor.”

Fifty years ago: The entire front page of this issue was devoted to the Student Council election. Although the issues that the candidates campaigned around seem trivial—for instance, a better note-taking system for meetings and the creation of a larger social calendar for the school—some noteworthy things happened during the election season. Sue Matheson became the first female candidate for student council president and some questionable campaigning techniques prompted this quote from Chuck Bredesen, co-chairman of the elections committee: “Wine, women, and song have no place in a campaign.”

Sixty-three years ago: People were different a half-century ago, apparently. The humor section of a 1951 made absolutely no sense, including jokes like this: “Mother, come quick, Billy’s eating raisins off the fly paper!”

Sixty-nine years ago: A opinion piece criticized the constant reporting on World War II in other news sources. Accusing the newspapers of the time of spending too much space sensationalizing war news, the writer went on to explain that the news industry was in danger of somehow being used for propaganda in foreign countries. Also, on May 1, 1945 Edina celebrated National Posture Week. It featured such festivities as the coronation of the King, Queen, Prince, and Princess of Posture and a contest for the best posture-related slogan, the winners of which were “Be A Line And Not A Design” and “Stand Erect And Earn Respect.”