By: Owen Fugit

Editorial Editor

Students filled the quad earlier today for the long-awaited Semester Two Club Day. Old clubs, like Speech and Debate, caught students’ attention in the same space as new, fresh clubs started by ambitious students looking to teach or build a following. Sadly, some clubs were not present today, and I would like to take a moment to commemorate some clubs lost to the pages of history.

Cheese and culture club: A personal favorite of the French department, the cheese and culture club, whose acronym (CACC) is the same noise you make when you walk in on a room full of “fromage,” closed its doors this year to the disappointment of many. The club has been a pillar of the LGHS community since it was started in 1961 by some foreign exchange students. Aside from talking about cheese, the club’s main attraction to students was the yearly field trip to a California farm. On this trip, students would learn the entire cheese-making process and even had a chance to make their own cheese to bring back and share with the cafeteria staff to use on burgers. When asked how he felt about the closure of the CACC, Principal Kevin Buchanan said, “It’s truly sad to see them go…no other school had a club like this…it was something special.” Hopefully, the CACC will reopen next year, but until then students will have to make do with plain old hamburgers from the cafeteria.

Fossil Fuel Club: One of LGHS’ oldest and longest-running clubs shut down this past summer due to pressure from environmentally conscious community advocates. The Fossil Fuel Club (FFC) started to support a movement in the community during the 1940s to drill for oil in the area today occupied by the New Tech and Music buildings. The club got its way, even earning the privilege of managing and selling the oil to companies across the US. Beginning in the 1970s, the club saw a sharp uptick in sales because of the fuel crisis at the time, and profits soared for the club and the school. LGHS added new wings and remodeled the Main Building, but this would not last. As the world began to understand the dangers of oil drilling and the environmental concerns grew, the club faced increasing opposition. The nail in the coffin came when the club asked to drill under the football field, which the school promptly refused, especially as the football team had won the league finals only two weeks prior. In the end, the oil ran out, and the new tech building began construction on the old drilling site. The FFC has said it wants to make a comeback, but this time as a more eco-friendly club focused on solar panels.

There simply is not enough space for me to cover all the clubs we lost in the past few years. Over the years we have lost many good clubs including the NFT Club (closed 2022), the Stamp Collectors Club (closed 2007), and Architects Anonymous (closed 2019). It is sad to lose clubs with so much rich history, but because we lost these clubs means new clubs may take their places and maybe even earn a page in the Yearbook.