Re: Need Lafayette Elementary's fight song

03/31/11 - posted by Paul Rosenberg

Lafayette Elementary School Song

Sung to the tune of “Columbia the Gem of the Ocean”

Lafayette, the school by the ocean,
The school for you and for me.
The school of each pupil’s devotion,
We offer our homage to thee.

Aloft we will hold our gay banner,
Its name breezing brightly in each fold.
We honor a friend of our country,
When we shout for the Green and the Gold.

Three cheers for the Green and the Gold.
Three cheers for the Green and the Gold.
We honor a friend of our country,
When we shout for the Green and the Gold.

This version of the song is from the program from the February 20, 1996, PTA Founders Day celebration in honor of the 70th anniversary of the new building at 37th and Anza. I've scanned the program and to anyone wishing to see it, I'd be delighted to forward it upon request. The party was a great event with a couple of hundred in attendance. Our own Anabelle Marsh Piercy, a student at the opening of the building, was present and I met here there for the first time. I also got re-acquainted with some old friends and met relatives of friends. The guys all reminisced that the 'old lady' teachers would send us incorrigibles out in the yard to 'work' with the janitor. Like Br'er Rabbit and the briar patch, we looked forward to spending time with Mr. Thuele. He was the best. In addition to Mr. Simon from my time, Mrs. Bradley [in her 90s] also attended.

I am the second of three generations of my family to have attended Lafayette. I remember fondly the Green and the Gold. We had a green and gold banner that was marched in at assemblies with the flags. Mr. Simon, our assistant principal from the early 1950s was at the party wearing his Lafayette green and gold cap. When we used pins to get our cafeteria meals, we would purchase these little green and gold 'L' pins from our teacher and give them to the cafeteria monitor. Does anyone have one of those pins or a Lafayette cap? When my son attended Lafayette, the school colors had changed from green and gold to the rainbow colors.

One of my aunts attended the old Lafayette up the hill on 37th Avenue. [Check http://www.outsidelands.org/lafayette-school.php for a look at pre 1927 Lafayette!] She was dismayed that she got rained upon in class. My grandfather was a waiter at Herbert's Bachelor Grill on Powell where local politicians drank their lunches. He complained about the rain falling upon his daughter and a new Lafayette building was added to a bond issue. I don't know whether there was a link between my grandfather's complaints and the new building, but I like to think so.