Trevor Schafer follows a long line of footsteps each day when he walks down the halls of Arvada High School.
Trevor Schafer, 14, is the fourth generation in his family to attend Arvada High School, a lineage that dates back nearly 70 years to his great grandmother Helen Carter, who became an Arvada High School freshman in 1937.
Carter graduated from Arvada High School in 1941, grandmother Judy Urbanic graduated in 1960 and mother Tiffany Schafer graduated in 1985.
The school has grown in size and in ethnic diversity over the last 70 years. Even though times have changed, each generation offered Schafer advice for his first week of high school.
“Try and learn, but also have a good time,” Carter, 82, said. “Try to pay a little bit of attention to your teachers.”
Trevor Schafer started this year with a freshman class of 425 students. Carter graduated with 70 students at the old location, near Wadsworth Boulevard and Ralston Road.
Carter said she can’t give out too much advice about studying — that would be hypocritical.
“High school was a lot of fun. I wasn’t necessarily a good student, I had more fun hanging out with friends than studying,” she said. “But I did enough school work to learn and get by.”
Carter’s daughter Urbanic offers more sobering advice about high school than her mother. She said school is not something to take lightly.
“High school is serious business,” Urbanic said. “Now is the time to start thinking about the future. Make some good friends, and don’t go with what everyone else is doing.”
Schafer’s mother, Tiffany, said she tends to fall between her mother and grandmother’s advice.
“This is the time you will make your lifelong friends,” Tiffany Shafer said. “Make sure you are in with a good crowd, be involved with the school and don’t get discouraged. Having fun encourages you to go to school and learn, so that is important.”
But high school isn’t just about what happens between the school bells, it is also about the things going on after school.
Hanging out has also changed over the last 70 years.
In the late 30s, Carter said students would hang out at Arvada’s Rocky Bilt hamburger stand that served 5-cent burgers. George’s Pharmacy and the Arvada Dairy were also high school hot spots where students would head for an ice cream soda.
In the late 50s, Urbanic said the roller rink in Lakewood and the Frosted Scotchman drive-in diner in Wheat Ridge were popular.
“We would go to the Frosted Scotchman and people would show off their cars, socialize and eat great food,” Urbanic said. “I would hang out there a few times a week.”
Tiffany Schafer said Arvada High School football and wrestling matches were a good place to see and be seen in her day. Students in the early 80s also liked to hang out at the McDonalds at West 80th Street and Wadsworth Boulevard.
All of the four generations still live in Arvada, and have changed alongside the city and the school.
“I am proud of this. I was so proud when I heard (Trevor Schafer) was going to go to Arvada High,” Carter said. “It is one of the best schools there is.”
History aside, Trevor Schafer had other things on his mind when he started high school this month.
“The girls,” Trevor Schafer said.
Tiffany Schafer said it might be a few years before Trevor appreciates the significance of the family milestone, and the significance of high school in general.