24 years ago in 1984, Shedeck Elementary held a contest to design the school’s official t-shirt. I was in fifth grade at the time. Each student was handed one entry form, a white piece of paper with a black outline of a t-shirt on it. The contest winning design would be used on school t-shirts for years to come. One detail I remember about the contest was that the design should be single-color in design, as that’s how the shirts would be printed.
In fifth grade I was really into perspective drawing, so for my entry across the top I wrote our school’s name in big block letters (SHEDECK) with lines coming down off the letters to make it look 3D. Across the bottom I drew a big pencil, on which I wrote, “in a class all our own.” I colored the shirt in red and did the design in black. I also colored the pencil yellow with a pink eraser. If I won I knew they wouldn’t color the pencil, but I thought it looked better that way.
A week or so later all the entries were hung outside the principal’s office — I had won! A big 1st Place Ribbon was hanging on my entry. The principal sent a note home with my that my parents had to sign, giving the school permission to use my design. A few days later, the school counselor and I drove down to the local t-shirt printing shop, design in hand. My dad joking told me to ask them if I was getting a cut of the sales. When I asked the counselor, she replied “well, i guess we could always use the second place winner’s design …” and left it at that. After that I kept my mouth shut about the royalties. A few weeks later at school, the shirts arrived. They were red with white printing, and looks for all practical purposes just like my original entry.
While cleaning out the garage last weekend I ran across a box full of keepsakes, including my old t-shirt. It still looks new; I must not have worn it much. I showed the shirt to Mason, who attends Shedeck Elementary, and talked him into wearing it to school today. Initially I thought some of the teachers would get a kick out of it, but on second thought I doubt any of the teachers will even recognize it. The only one that might was a classmate of mine when I went to Shedeck! So, along with Mason, I sent a note to his teacher, explaining what the shirt was. Hopefully she’ll get a kick out of it. The shirt’s older than she is.