A Little More Thacher

My high school (and home), The Thacher School, put together a video of typical Thacher scenes.  As you can gather from the video and from the one I shared a while ago, this is a truly special place, one that had an immense impact on my life.  My love for the outdoors, my intellectual curiosity, and my morals (laugh away) were all honed and cemented while at Thacher. 

Things have changed a bit from my time, however.  The kids seem to play a lot more guitar.  It's strange to see the buildings that feature so prominently in this piece and now in the make-up of the school, the new Lower School and Hill dorms and the Performing Arts Center/Student Building, did not exist when I was a student there.  Although it looks cute to wear a sundress to get your horse from pasture, put on some closed-toe shoes, girl!  If that pony steps on you, it's game over for your foot.  We would've gotten a Saturday or seven of trail crew for that kind of business.  Football wasn't the idyllic past-time it is now--it caused a bit of controversy when it was introduced as a new sport.  And we still had a clay track that was a nightmare to navigate after the rain.  But the shape of the mountains, that golden slant of light, and the sunsets over the Ojai Valley are just the same.

A Taste of Home

There's a new video up on Nowness, a "luxury storytelling" site owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, that shows a sort of everyday experience of the Thacher School, where I grew up and attended high school.  It's by Lisa Eisner.  Although it's a bit earnest (the photo on the home page of the Thacher site, with the kid ring spearing with his tongue out is maybe more typical), it captures the beauty of Ojai, the bond between horse and rider, and the stillness I got to experience everyday exploring trails and practicing Gymkhana with my horse, Shara.  It makes me yearn for home and ache to ride again.  I miss that companionship, both human and equestrian, and the serenity that those afternoons afforded.



Thacher: Frontier Schooling from Lisa Eisner on Nowness.com.