Slidell, Louisiana sure was interesting, with its three local high schools and a lifestyle bound to leave you on your toes.
Whether you went to Slidell High, Northshore High or Salmen High, you can probably relate to these 12 aspects of a high school life in Slidell, Louisiana.
You made your school known.
Amanda Dill
Whether you attended Slidell, Northshore or Salmen, everyone knew which school you attended because you were always sporting a school shirt. Even if you just wore your class shirt without school recognition, they all knew.
You found every possible way around your school's uniform policy.
Nobody enjoyed wearing a uniform every day for an entire school year, so we all found ways around the strict policies.
No super-tight, skinny bottoms? Wear slightly larger skinny jeans. Want a different color pair of leggings or tights than just black? Wear some wacky socks. Not supposed to do anything with your hair? Add a cute accessory.
No matter what the policy was, you found some way around it to make your look truly your own.
White Wednesday lasted for three straight weeks.
The homecoming season came around pretty quickly in Slidell, so Northshore, Slidell and Salmen started gearing up for White Wednesday on the first day of school in August.
Each school alternated between Homecoming celebrations, and they were generally one right after another. As a result, Slidell was covered treetop to sidewalk in toilet paper and any other white materials the students can get their hands on.
King Cake in first hour? Yes, please!
Avery Dill
Whether you were in your first or seventh hour, it did not matter. As long as the date was on or after January 6, there was a good chance you were eating King Cake in the middle of class just about every day.
Minus school breaks, King's Day through Mardi Gras was your favorite time of the school year.
You planned a Starbucks or Pelicans run immediately after school.
Depending on the time of year, you either wanted Starbucks or Pelicans (the best place for a snowball).
As long as it was early or late enough in the school year, you would be snacking on a stuffed snowball during your homework, while drinking your favorite Starbucks drink in the fall and winter.
Papa John's or another pizza joint was always making deliveries in the middle of class.
You were always hungry again by the time your seventh hour came around, and there was a good chance your teacher was too, so the entire class pitched in for pizza on occasion.
If there were extras, sometimes you would get lucky and be allowed to bring the pizza home. This delivery was always the highlight of your day. Not to mention, if you attended Slidell High, all you really had to do was sneak out through the back parking lot and pick up your pizzas yourself.
A fight ended a sporting event at least once a season.
All three schools are huge rivals with each other, so fights were always breaking out during games.
Some games got a little too intense between the players or spectators, so eventually the game would get cancelled. That was always a bummer, especially during Friday Night Lights.
You have no idea if the Salmen-Slidell athletic ban is still in effect.
After years of Salmen and Slidell not playing against each other, the ban was slowly being lifted, year by year, with different teams.
Today? You have no idea if this ban still exists or if it is still in the lifting phase, but you do know that the Salmen-Slidell bond is stronger than ever, whether the ban still exists or not.
You alternated between football championship seasons.
Northshore and Slidell always played the last regular season Friday Night Lights against each other, and the championship season always alternated between schools.
Nevertheless, the students were always in one of three colors at this game: black, blue or green. If they were not in black, you knew the game was not on their home turf.
You saw pelican statues everywhere.
Pelicans, pelicans, pelicans. They are literally everywhere, and there was a good chance your school had one too.
From schools to five-star restaurants, you could almost guarantee you were going to see a pelican, no matter where you went in town.
Your school was on a street named after your school mascot.
Tiger, Panther and Spartan Drive. All a student had to do was say their school, and you knew exactly what street the school was located on. Slidell residents just knew what the high school mascots were based off of these three street names.
The second you left graduation, you added all of your teachers on social media.
You may have had your ups and downs with your teachers, but in those last moments with your class, you just knew that as soon as that ceremony was over, you would be on your phone friend requesting and following every single one of those teachers from the last four years.
Being able to stay in touch with them has always been bitter sweet, and years later, you still contact them and make plans to visit whenever you go into town.