Where Was I On January 13, 1999: Part 2

Dang! Almost 300 blog views within the first 24 hours! We’re all in this together now. We must find out what I did on January 13, 1999.

Thanks to your feedback, I was able to confirm that I was wrong about one thing: Bryon Noem was not the basketball coach; it was in fact Judd Fryslie. Thanks to Kaley Madsen, Nina Fryslie Doorenbos, and David Lusk for correcting me on that detail! I’m not sure that does much to help determine any details of that day, except to note that Judd Fryslie occasionally kept me after practice a few extra minutes to work individually on some post moves.

Astoundingly, over half the females in my graduating class have weighed in; many of them even checking diaries, notes passed in class, and even compatibility tests. So far, nothing has turned up. But you keep searching, ladies!

Now, back to the ongoing investigation.

I was able to dig up the 3rd quarter report card in a box of memorabilia in the garage that showed these were the classes that would have been on my schedule on January 13, 1999. I’m comfortable sharing these perfectly acceptable grades from literally half of my life ago, so I’m not going to go to the trouble of blurring anything out.

The classes were listed in order that they occurred during the day. Business with Ms. Berens was 1st period. Biology with Mr. Meyer was 2nd period. There were definitely two study halls mixed in here somewhere. Could they have been back-to-back and then Band/Chorus fifth period? Geography and World History were each one-semester classes, as we can see on the report card, and I’m fairly sure those were 6th period. English II would have been either Mr. Kinder or Mrs. Thoreson, and was 7th period… I just can’t remember when Kinder retired. Algebra II with Mr. Kruse ended the day.

I have plenty of memories from those classes. Ms. Berens had a game to study for tests where we raced to the front of the room and whoever grabbed the dry-erase marker first got to write the answer on the board for a point. I remember that resulting in several minor injuries to classmates, mostly rugburn. I also remember getting a perfect 10/10 on a biology quiz of the parts of the dissected frog, despite only getting a C+ in that class. Guy LaMont was beginning to come out of his shell a bit and was often in trouble in Mr. Kelley’s class, one time being forced to move his desk behind the world map. And this seems like the year that we read a lot of Greek mythology in English class. Rosencratz and Gildenstern are forever etched in my memory. But did any of these things happen on 1/13/99? No one can say for sure.

While this is valuable and indicates which classes I was taking that day, it still gives no true insight into any exact happenings involving me on January 13, 1999.

What next? Where else can I turn? What other resources are there available to me?

• The school’s website! Well, in theory it would have been a big help, but the old site has long since been replaced and none of the old content was archived. But thanks to the Internet Archive, I was able to dig up this snapshot of the school site from February 3, 1999. But, all of the images on the individual pages are broken, and those would have been critical. The lunch menu and calendar of events were scans from handouts and are forever lost. If there is anyone who has access to those files, I know who it would be… Mr. Meyer!
• There is one teeny tiny detail on that archived snapshot that specifically states January 13, 1999… the date that the Semester Calendar page was updated. That would have been done by Mr. Meyer. So at the very least, I can place Mr. Meyer in his classroom updating the school website at some point that day.

• I was unable to find any additional photos from 1999 that might have possibly been taken in January. Despite all my intensive scanning efforts from last fall, the Glanzer family archives seem to have some sort of black hole from 1998-1999.
• I was unable to dig up some sort of long-lost CD that had all of the files from our home computer archived. I found one that Alex appeared to have assembled with a lot of home PC files, but they were mostly from 2000-2001. I tended to create a lot of absolute junk on the computer. I’d just open Word and type some asinine story or a list of things and save it. But, no such luck.
• The other high school memorabilia that was in that plastic tote in the garage with the report card was mostly from senior year, or undated. There were a lot of cards in there wishing me well after my broken leg in 9/98, but they were a few months shy of 1/13/99.

In theory, I have a lot of really solid evidence that would tell the story of what happened to me on January 13, 1999. Mr. Meyer updating the website plus the weather report indicate school was in session as scheduled. My attendance report indicates a 98% chance I was at school (I missed just 1.5 days that quarter), and the report card shows the classes I had that day. I most likely had basketball practice with Judd Fryslie after school.

As for the rest of the Glanzer family, there’s almost a 100% chance Mom hauled mail that day and Dad undoubtedly tended to at least some farm and mechanic duty that day. The general outline is all there.

All I need is some definitive proof of something that happened to me that day. So far this is all good and well, but this could be the blueprint for any Wednesday in the winter of 1999. If I were on trial like Adnan Seyd, I’d need more than my course outline and a weather report to buy my freedom. I’m sure that there’s something out there that can be of use to me; I just need to figure out what, and how to access it.

The obvious next places to look are hard copies of publications–the school newspaper The Broadcaster, the local newspaper Clark County Courier, and of course that year’s yearbook, or annual as it was often called.

We’ll see what other information can be unearthed next time!