Ali Off The Mark: Passing notes

Passing notes was my favorite "subversive" act in high school (maybe because I could no longer cut class for imaginary cello sectionals). I'm not talking about little notes that have a sentence or two scrawled on them, like "Sarah loves Chris" or "everybody drop your books at 2:07" (do kids still do that? Do they still think it's clever?).

No, I'm talking about long, beautiful notes, written in purple jelly pens, with doodles in the margins, sometimes several pages long and folded like origami envelopes. Those were real notes. Those were notes worth passing. Those were notes you guarded with your life because they often contained gushing paragraphs about how your crush's hair looked extra sexy that day.

Here the bee is being drawn and quartered... by rats.
Yeah, my friends and I were weird.

I kept a metric ass-ton of my old high school notes and pulled them out for this blog post. They are hilarious. One friend and I were such big note-passers that we not only graduated to a notebook (and filled up several) but we also had rules for what needed to be contained in each entry: 1. You have to kill the bee (this is an X-Files reference we kept up long after our obsession with the X-Files abated) 2. You have to have theme music for the note. 3. You have to mention a speedo.

With other friends we talked about classes, hockey, friends, dreams, teachers, whatever was on our minds. Going back now and reading them almost brings a tear to my eyes (sappy, I know). I wonder if note passing is a lost art. Do kids still do it or have texts take over completely? I would be sad for the younger generations if that's the case. There just isn't as much creativity and excitement in a "omg matt is sooo hot 2day!" text as there is in a handwritten master piece like these.

7 comments:

UnknownMay 19, 2013 at 8:46 PM
Oh, they definitely still pass notes, and juicy ones at that, however I don't think that the level of devotion you describe to the artistry is as prevalent.
AliMay 20, 2013 at 6:41 AM
That makes me happy. (although I'm sure it doesn't make teachers happy). :D
MichelleMay 20, 2013 at 1:39 PM
I can't write AGREE!! in big enough caps here. I, too, kept a shoebox full of notes from high school and seriously, I wouldn't part with them for much of anything (except a meet and greet with Baio, obviously). And to answer your question, kids today do NOT write notes on paper anymore. They also don't actually use their phones to TALK or know how to address a real letter. We think it's sad...they think it's pointless. I guess both are probably true.

Oh, btw - the drawn and quartered rat is AWESOME...as are your three note writing rules. I'd have totally hung with you in high school!
GoodCopyFastMay 20, 2013 at 2:20 PM
Oh, notes. Thanks for reminding me about them. How fun it would be to look back on mine, if only I'd have kept them.

I'd guess that handwritten notes in today's Digital Age are as rare as letters sent via snail mail. They're still around, but not the preferred mode of communication.

If you do write a note and get caught passing it at my son's middle school, one teacher will post it up for all to see. The last made public was a girl's "Top 10 Hottest Boys" list. Way to stifle creative self expression, and shame your students while you're at it, Teacher.
Issa JMay 26, 2015 at 1:02 PM
I was thinking the same thing. Passing notes is a lost art. This is what inspired me to build a prototype of an app that puts a new spin to passing notes. Check it out here, https://youtu.be/H-wvjbfa0ic.