Photos+Video
Video: Winter Solstice 1987
Preserved, edited, and with recollections by Mannie Murphy
THIS VIDEO was preserved, then edited from its full two hours, by alumnus Mannie Murphy (at MLC from 1985-97), who posted it to Facebook in November 2025. The videographer is unknown.
Below is Mannie's moving recollection of the event, and of the time, its darkness and light.
Mannie and others responding on Facebook identified teachers and students in the video: Brice Pace, Judith Kleinstein, Patte Sullivan, Leah Darr, Gail Brooks, Craig Holt, Barbara Stross, and Ruth Frankel; Betty, Chris, and Bill Mayther; Kojo (as Goblin King) and Shelley; Jeffrey Reynolds on violin, Will Wigmore on guitar; Ralph Lorance, Martha Vail, Antoinette Edwards, Claire Cofsky, Jan Moore, and Gayle Springmeier; Roby Roberts; Alder, Leah Graham, Zoe, and Marisa O’Bar.
If you have further recollections about this or other Winter Solstice celebrations, please share them !!
Winter Solstice, 1987: The kindergartners got to just watch. The first graders sang “It’s a Small World” to Judith’s accordion. The second graders in Patte’s class danced the ‘Mexican’ Hat Dance while Will Wigmore played guitar. But this year I was in third grade. In third grade you got to participate in the Solstice for real. You got to partake in the gendered cake in the commons before entering the auditorium, where two lucky students would find a tiny plastic baby in their slice—meaning they would be the King and Queen of today’s Solstice ritual, because that’s what it was, a ritual. The best-looking couple in high school, Shelley and Kojo, took us wild and raggedy third graders under their wings, transforming us into a legion of goblins ready to do their bidding. You can see Shelley for a moment during the performance, her face painted as a skull before it cuts to Kojo, who later killed himself by stepping in front of a speeding train. It was hard to believe that a person with so much light, and life, could also hold such darkness. But there was a lot of Death at MLC. Sieggy died at MLC. Molly killed herself. In high school, my classmate Abe disappeared and was found floating in the Willamette River. Will Mayther died suddenly, rocking the MLC community. But at Solstice in 1987, none of this was present. Just the magic of waiting in the dark, with Shelley and Kojo and all my goblin chums, waiting to rush the faeries on the stage, who were the dancers, a mixture of our classmates and cool high school girls. The Solstice was a magical time for me throughout my 13 years at MLC, and as highschoolers, even after Betty left, even through the aches and pains of changes and death, we continued the tradition of making the day as magical a spectacle as possible. Somehow I came into possession of this tape and kept in safe all this time. I recently got a VCR and pulled my old tapes out of storage and found this gem. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
—Mannie Murphy, 2025
Thumbnail and other photos: screen-grabs from the video.