In Loving Memory of the Pods (oldmendhamhigh

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Updated: May 2008

Here's an old map showing where The Pods were located

Greetings, Alumni! (and others surfing through!). Do you remember "The Pods"? Come on, you must remember The Pods! Ok, well, maybe not. The Pods were those tiny, tiered, make-shift rooms in the back of the Auditorium. These two rooms were a very strange, and rather bizarre unique architecturical curiousity at Mendham High. I believe the rooms were there from the very beginning when the school opened in 1970. Sad to say, the Pods have since met their demise. So let us take a somber moment in cyberspace to remember these two little, stuffy classrooms called "The Pods"!

This page is divided up into the following Pod-like sections: Pod Basic Information (where and what were these weird rooms); Dramatic Pod Re-enactments; The Pod's Meet Their End; and and Pod-full Memories!

Warning! Some details here could be completely wrong! Me and my friends writing this page are using old fading memories, so we really don't remember some things very well! And none of us paid much attention to the Pods way back then. So if some Pod-fan alumni emails us with correct Pod info, we will update accordingly!

Basic Pod Information:

Where and What Were "The Pods"? The Pods were these two little rooms in the back of the Auditorium, with one on each side. We think they were existed since the building was opened in 1970, since they looked like they been there forever. One Pod was room #178, and the other was Room #179. Both rooms looked similar and were similarly designed. To get into a Pod, you entered from the Lobby through blue doors (all doors were blue then). What was very odd about The Pods is that they were designed to be temporary classrooms, but they seemed to be used an awful lot. We don't think the administration (Matthews/Werle/Sutterley et al) officially named these two rooms "The Pods", but that is the only name we students ever heard them called! We have no idea why any architect thought that having these rooms were a good idea, since nobody liked them.

Why were The Pods so Gosh Darn Weird? Well, for a variety of reasons! The Pods were completely on the interior of the building, so no windows! No windows to stare out of when you're daydreaming and not listening to the teacher. Terrible! Also, The Pods were small, stuffy and a tad claustrophobic. Another reason for the Pod's dank decor is that part of the walls were those large, dark moveable folding kind. These were popular in the 70's. The purpose of this folding wall was to make it an option to use the Pods' space to expand the Auditorium. If the folding wall was completely folded back, The Pods would be open to the rest of the Auditorium, so more space for seating, I guess. But funny thing is, none of us ever remember the folding wall ever being folded? Maybe they never used that option much since (sadly) the Pods were usually in use as a classroom. Ok, got all that? Great!

But What Was THE ABSOLUTE WORST THING about The Pods? The Pods had one very distinct architectural curiousity - they were tiered, you know, like the rooms were a series of big steps. There were maybe 4-5 tiers in the room? The back of the Pod nearest to the Lobby was the highest tier, and the tier closest to the stage was the lowest. Tiered rooms certainly aren't unusual - room 212 upstairs was tiered, as was the Band room. So why were the Pod's tiers so odd? Basically, because each tier was barely wider than student's desk! I mean literally a couple of inches wider. Which created certain problems .....!

What Problems Did the Tiered Room Cause? Basically, it was very easy to fall off your chair!! There really wasn't much room on each tier. If you wiggled too much, or adjusted your desk ever so slightly - oooops, you're going down! You could fall off your tier and onto the tier (and maybe the student sitting there) right below you. Yikes! Not good. There were many different ways to fall in a Pod. Some talented students could fall from the top tier straight to the bottom! Usually the student desks faced downwards, but sometimes the teachers had them rotate the other ways and face UP! This was awful, since if you fell, you you would go down in your desk backwards. Ouch! Why on Earth they made each tier only inches wider than a desk, perhaps we will never know. You know, in retrospect, this design was sort of stupid and really NOT SAFE at all! But back then, no one cared about things like that. If you fell - tough luck! Pick up your chair, try not to look embarrassed (but you were), and drag it back to your spot!

Some Pod-like Diagrams and Cross-sections: Here below, are some diagrams of the layout of the Pods, so you can remember how they were designed and why they were so annoying:

This is the cross-section

Hello

What Classes Were Taught in Pods? Sadly, it seems the poor English and Gym teachers were forced to teach in Pods the most. What they did to deserve this, who knows. I been told that students had English classes in The Pods, at least in the late 70's to early 80's. Many other early/mid 80's students remember having health classes in Pods. Could have been other classes going on.

Did Teachers and Students like the Pods? Uhhhh .... well, no! Almost everyone hated class in a Pod. Some were neutral about it, but I never met a single student/teacher who were overjoyed to attend class in a Pod. If you loved class in a Pod, then email at the address below, as we would love to know you exist, since you are a very rare individual indeed. Teachers stuck teaching in a Pod probably wondered "I spent 4 years of college to teach in THIS???".

Dramatic Pod-like Reenactments:

Sadly, for this webpage, we haven't found one single yearbook photo of The Pods. Not one! There's got to be some kicking around somewhere, but so far, no luck! Guess the Pods weren't exciting yearbook material, I suppose. So therefore, to illustrate this webpage better, we had to find something else. We thought of trying to draw the Pods (but we all took band not art, none of us can draw worth beans), or have someone's husband build Pod-like replicas in their garage (no one's husband is that talented). So instead, a couple of our kids helped replicate the Pods using their classic Fisher Price Little People Toys. Yes, we couldn't think of anything else to use! But many of us alumni born in the 60's and 70's grew up with these, so it's an added touch of nostaglia here! If we ever find actual photos, we'll update accordingly!

So here are some photos, recreating classroom life in the Pods! ← →

←	The Ideal Desk Layout for the "Pod":

	The ideal Pod layout would have the desks facing down, with the teacher teaching on the lowest level in the room. This was great, since then the students could see the edge of their seats, and could make sure they never wiggled their desks too far forward!

←	The Bad Desk Configuration for the "Pod":

	For unknown bizarre reasons, sometimes the teacher would have the student desks facing UP. With each tier only inches wider than the desk, this could be a problem! Students had to be very sure they don't wiggle or lean backwards at all times! The students tended to be more distracted in this Pod-desk layout.

Here is a dramatic recreation of a GOOD Pod-desk slide:

Step 1: Starting out, the student are sitting at their desks, pretending to pay attention to the teacher. Everyone is behaving politely at their desks.

Step 2: As class continues, the students get fidgety. The student in the yellow shirt accidently leans just too far back ... Oh no - he's going down!

Step 3: Aww! Lucky kid! He lands facing up, safe! And the girl behind him scooted out of the way, too!

Step 4: The class wastes as much time as they can making sure he's ok. Teacher finally returns to lesson; students are distracted rest of period.

Here is a dramatic recreation of a GOOD Pod-desk slide:

Step 1: Starting out, the student are sitting at their desks, pretending to pay attention to the teacher. Everyone is behaving politely at their desks.

Step 2: As class continues, the students get fidgety. The student in the yellow shirt accidently leans just too far back ... Oh no - he's going down!

Step 3: Aww! Lucky kid! He lands facing up, safe! And the girl behind him scooted out of the way, too!

Step 4: The class wastes as much time as they can making sure he's ok. Teacher finally returns to lesson; students are distracted rest of period.

←	The Worst Day Ever in a Pod:

	Well, doesn't get much worse than this! Yup, pretty bad day in the Mendham High Pod!

Some Pod-full Memories:

Here are some Pod memories. There ain't much here, since the page is still new, and I guess everyone blocked The Pods from their brains. Oh well!

Reported by an alumni, class of 1980:
This alumni thinks she had English classes in a Pod. She remembers they were stuffy.

Reported by an alumni, class of 1988:
This alumni remembers having health classes in a Pod with a teacher named Weaver?

Reported by an alumni, class of 1988:
This alumni remembers some kid named Randy falling backwards about 3 tiers in the Pod #179 during Mr. Bullis's health class. Don't worry, the student was fine, and today has done very well in life, and fathered many children. No permanent damage.

Ok! Ok! You suffered enough remembering all these Pod memories. We won't torture you any longer! So to wrap up and conclude this page, the current students at Mendham High will never have class in Pods - instead they all have iPods in class! :) (ok, bad pun, couldn't resist!).

Thanks for visiting and reading this page! That's 2 minutes of your life you wish you had back. Now you can go return to whatever you were doing before ...!

Click here to go back to the Home Page (oldmendhamhigh.com)

This page is part of oldmendhamhigh.com (A MHS History & Alumni Website for old folks)
The absolute address of this page is http://home.att.net/~suelighthouse/pods.html

Updated: May 2008

I am a HUGE collecter of Fisher Price Little People sets!

Email at: suelighthouse@att.net
Sue Willis, Class of '88, doing the html & research, plus a few other alumni helping here, too!