1930s

In the 1930s, the student body numbered in the dozens, and “Tatler” was a newfangled institution. Throughout the paper’s first decade, it primarily reported announcements from the administration, like the time Lakeside had a “second spring break” thanks to a measles epidemic in 1936. The next year, students decided to make the most of their time at Lakeside by starting a Rifle Club and constructing a shooting range on the fourth floor of Bliss. The club was heavily promoted by “Tatler,” of course — the newspaper likely had some shooting enthusiasts among its ranks.

1940s

An article in the Sept. 11, 1945 issue of “Tatler” lamented the school’s increasing class size — the average grade had an incredible 25 students! How would pupils be able to study with such hustle and bustle? Later that decade, students voted down an administrative proposal to impose an “income tax” on students’ intra-school entrepreneurial ventures, with “Tatler” serving as the forum in which students and administrators alike published their opinions on this tax. This was, ironically, probably in violation of the Washington State Constitution, as one astute reporter pointed out.

1950s

The Lakeside ski team won third place in the Metro ski meet in 1954. Two years later, Lakeside performed an exchange program with various Japanese schools, bringing as-of-yet unfathomable diversity to the student program. As of this decade, “Tatler” was still primarily a news organization, reporting on “mundane” events that would today be handled by emails from Dr. Bynum or the communications department.

1960s

The 1965–66 school year brought a version of “Tatler” many avowed Sanderites would despise: one flush with advertisements for all sorts of goods, like jackets and slacks from Littler Gentlemen’s Apparel or drugs from four distinct pharmacies (I kid you not), as well as casting calls for a variety of odd jobs, like being a mechanic for Texaco. The “Tatler” of the 1960s also happened to publish college acceptances for all seniors — whether that’s reflective of a relaxed or stressful college culture is left as an exercise for the reader.

1970s

The boards of Lakeside School and The Bush School almost endorsed a merger before it was called off by both heads of school — possibly thanks to the droves of negative op-ed articles published in “Tatler” the month before their meeting. After Lakeside became a coeducational institution, students often complained about the “prudish” faculty that would “become hysterical” if a boy and a girl interacted outside of class. We also had a program called the January Days, wherein students had a couple weeks off of school to focus on an independent project, the results of which were often reported upon in the “Tatler.”

1980s

The 1980s were a time of unrestrained opinions and open discourse — which in one “Tatler” issue meant fervent sexism. Two students wrote a pair of articles in 1982 which extolled the superiority of women and men respectively, with such claims as “women are mentally and physically superior to men” and “women should take a back seat in society.” I suspect these were written in jest, but, unfortunately for the students’ future employment prospects, that meaning has been lost to time. Beyond the questionable op-eds, 1982 also appears to be the first year with a true April Fool’s “Tatler” issue — in which the administration was charged with racketeering, cannabis was “found” in biology classrooms, and students had to take four years of avante-garde Japanese haiku music.

1990s

The 1990s began with students protesting about how parking was their “god-given right” (not entitled at all) in a full front-page spread after the school shelved plans to replace the softball field with a new parking lot. A smoking circle that included students was still going strong in 1992, with Dean Anne Stephens writing in “Tatler,” “I’m not trying to force them [a group of freshmen] to stop smoking because I think it is their decision.” At the turn of the millennium, stress reached record highs with seniors, who had four hours of homework per night, turning some sections of every month’s “Tatler” into pleas for a more relaxed curriculum.

2000s

The brand-new invention of laptops was introduced to Lakeside — and faced a surprising amount of pushback from students and teachers alike, though most detractors eventually relented. “Tatler” reported on the issue with an issue (pun semi-intended) whose front page displayed three prices: tuition, the cost of a laptop, and the cost of books. Interestingly, tuition has risen 115% since that 2002 article, while inflation has only risen 71%.

2010s

The frowns on squash players’ faces could be seen from across the quad when Lakeside demolished the school’s squash courts to make way for the modern athletics complex; this was likely to the amusement of one student who told “Tatler” that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Near the end of the decade, Head of School Bernie Noe lamented “grade inflation” in informal comments to many disgruntled students — none of whom responded in “Tatler,” marking the paper’s subtle turn away from strong anti-administration posturing.