The mascot at MHS? I don’t believe I’ve heard of that. I remember the robin’s egg blue police cars with the screaming seagull on the city emblem. The Crossline Ferry boondoggle, that “Spirit of the Whatever” sculpture in the fountain in front of City Hall.... Around the time all of the hippie stuff got stuck on St. Monica’s. Coos Bay...the ‘70s boom time.
St. Monica’s and art. Yep. They had a burlap banner inside that read “God is other people.” A priest who was filling in one Sunday correctly noted that the banner was missing a comma.
The Seagull mascot story goes something like this (I’m guessing at least one of Ralph Mohr, Deb Larsen, or Eleanor Dinkins could give a more accurate version). A group of students at MHS thought that it would be fun to propose to the school board that the mascot be changed to Seagulls—it was a lark, not serious, and while the student rep to the school board did his job with a straight face, it almost wasn’t a successful gag because nearly all of the school board members had children who were aware of the gag. However, one member, a Messerle, who was on the board in virtue of being a pillar of the community rather than having children immediately involved, was not in on the gag, treated it seriously, and was trying to figure out what was wrong with these people.