Gen Xers: Did your HS have a “freshman slave” auction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What region?

I'm a bit younger, class of '96. Probably just a few years past Gen X, but I had older siblings too. Don't remember this ever being a thing, but our Catholic school's charity auction every year had a few people auction off 'work for a day' type things where a sophomore or junior would come to your house and do odd chores. Never referenced slaves, though.

OP here. Central Ohio public school.

Apparently it started in the 1970s as a paint a freshman day and somewhere along the line it became freshman slave day. There was an auction and everything. Most kids were made to do things like carry books or wash cars but some were humiliated, boys made to dress like girls etc.

And I have heard of the inverse where seniors were auctioned.

My alma mater was pretty progressive too, which is why I am kind of amazed as I think back.

Of course we also had a student smoking lounge at the time. Definitely a different era.

[Anonymous]

Class of 94. Hell no. Gross.

[Anonymous]

No, not in RI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My school did it. Class of 1984, independent school in Alabama.

Other things you wouldn’t find today, the local public high school had a smoking court for students to take a smoke break

No auctions, but as a freshman in 1993, I vividly remember my school’s senior smoking deck. They remodeled it out of existence the following summer, along with a massive conversation pit, a fully kitted out home Ed classroom, and a large secretarial skills training room.

[Anonymous]

No way. Midwest. 1998.

[Anonymous]

Oh hell no. And I went to h.s. in the Texas "Bible Belt" in the mid-1980s.

[Anonymous]

Class of '85 in upstate NY. The football team had something like this, but they didn't use the word "slave". I think the auctioned off football players for the day to do work around your house.

[Anonymous]

Class of ‘96, Long Island. Hell no.

[Anonymous]

I’m from Texas, class of ‘89. I never did it, but I have definitely heard about it as a fundraiser. Kids would be bid on and the winners could use their help for odd jobs like babysitting, weeding a garden, etc.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County MD class of '89. Absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

C/o 95 in Florida and I remember this happening. I didn’t participate but I do think it was a fundraiser - maybe for a sports team? Like a PP mentioned I think it was the seniors doing the work for underclassmen, but I could be wrong about that. I also recall that somewhere between freshman year and senior year someone figured out “slave” was not a great term and they changed the name to something else. I can’t remember what.

[Anonymous]

I asked my older cousin about this because I was curious. He graduated in '93 from a TX HS. He said it wasn't called a slave auction at his school, it was instead called a Stud Auction.

Male students from every grade were nominated by their classmates and the top X number were then auctioned off (usually the most popular and good looking guys were nominated). People in the community could bid on them and the money went to the school into each grade's fund that was then used on the big graduation trip once they were seniors.

He said "now that I think about, it was pretty fked up because most of the time it was 40 and 50 something women bidding on these buff teen boys to do odd jobs around the house for them."

He also said that by the time my other cousin, his younger sister, graduated from there in '97, the auction had stopped because there were too many instances of the unpopular kids being nominated as a joke where no one would bid on them.

I graduated from a HS in VA in '00 and we had a kissing booth once as a fund raiser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class of 1989 here.

I vividly remember being auctioned off in a “freshman slave day” back in 1984 or 1985. It was a fundraiser type of thing.

I think there’s a twist on this where seniors are the ones who are auctiones.

This was in Ohio back in the mid-1980s.

Wondering if it was common.

Class of 1993. Also Ohio. Suburb that was full of elitist, racist white people--of course. I was a freshman in 1989 and I remember joining a discussion about Freshman Slave Day...and then two days later, feeling really uncomfortable and sort of guilty about even discussing it as though it were a great idea. The memory of that discussion still bothers me--and I had completely forgotten the context until you posted. Everyone in my high school was asleep about these issues in the 90s..except one of the only two black guys in my school--he was great--he'd pace the floor of our art class and insist we were all racist--we were so asleep and clueless we couldn't/wouldn't see what he meant.

[Anonymous]

WHAT? NO

that sounds like a dumbass high school movie bit.

[Anonymous]

Not in Rockville, MD! An outrage then and now! Despicable!