The VERY old gum was found inside the pocket of this Featherette uniform! Featherettes was our high school drill team, and the last time I wore this uniform was during the 1972-1973 school year! If I remember correctly, I was on a competition flag team after football season, so I probably wore this outfit last sometime in 1973.....that means that half stick of gum is at least 36 years old!!
You may be able to see some white threads on the front and on the arms of the garment. It used to have 3 or 4 inch white fringe up the arms and then in a V-shape down to the waist. After that year our advisor Mrs. Rosburg let us have our uniforms if we wanted them, as she was going to replace some (or all?) of them, but she made us take the fringe off so she could reuse it! (It was expensive!) The outfit looks pretty plain without the fringe, but you have to imagine the complete look....in addition to the fringe, we wore white feather Indian style headdresses, white gloves, and white Minnetonka moccasins! When I attended Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, CA our mascot was the Indians; but from what I understand, in 1996, at the request of some Native Americans, the school board changed the mascot to the Firebirds. They still have a drill team today called the Featherettes, but from what I can tell, the group is much, much smaller (only 12 girls) and they no longer wear the Indian themed outfits. ....oh, and that tag in the back near the neckline has my name on it! lol!
In trying to find a photo of the complete look of this uniform, I found a Facebook group too! So I am now a member of the *Fremont Featherette Alumni* Facebook group! (I know, I couldn't believe it either!) I hope the girl who posted the photo below on the group doesn't mind that I'm borrowing it until I can find one of my own! (Thank you Krista Dana!!) This is the '95-'96 team--apparently the last who wore the Indian style uniform. You can see they made some slight changes to it--white fabric V in the front and red trim around the neck--but this is over 20 years after 'my day', so they really didn't change it that much over all those years! The girls in the front are the captains, so their uniforms are different (opposite colors) and their headdresses were bigger and more colorful too.
"On Fremont on, we are the Indians brave and strong!On down the field, for we will never, ever yield.
We're gonna fight to the end, ever ready to defend.
Indians red, let it be said: 'Forever, ever, ever Fremont High!"!!!!!
(fight song!--I can still do the hand motions for it!)
