My Favorite Color is Purple

Bath Accessories

Go to the faculty page of the SHS website, look up Principal Ronnie Wicks, and you'll find listed in his "favorites," the Color Purple (the capital letters are his).  He's decorated his office in purple, and you'll find a shrine to the bulldog, there.

That got me to thinking.  If we are loyal sons and daughters of dear old Sheffield High, shouldn't we, too, be partial to the Color Purple?  Purple is a noble color, the color of royalty.  Lydia, one of the Apostle Paul's associates and patroness of the early church, had a day job running a business that manufactured, marketed and distributed the purple dye for royal wardrobes.  Purple is one of the three colors of Mardi Gras, that great pre-Lenten celebration in all strongly Catholic areas of the world.  In this context, it stands for Justice (Green is for faith, and gold is for power).  Isn't that good irony--Sheffield High School chose the colors for justice and power as  symbols for the school and its students?

What if we paid attention to our choices in the things we get for our homes, what we put in our bodies, what we do, and, when purple is an option, pick the purple thing?  What would that look like?  What would we be like?  The answers might surprise you.  First of all, this page is a spoof, but, like all good spoofs, there will be a bit of truth and good science in some of the things you will find on this page.  Read on, and then write me to tell me where I'm off base--or what kind of purple thing you would recommend.

Home Decor    I wonder what Barbara Burcham Powell, who hand drapes homes all over the country, could come up with using the purple palette?  Or Jean Gardner Estes or Edna Harrison Blair who are into interior decorating as a hobby?  I hope they respond with purple suggestions!  Purple fabrics abound in the curtain and drapery categories.  Debbie Travis, host of Debbie Travis' Painted House could, no doubt, whip up some awesome exotic purple fancy with all the shades of lavender and purple available from Sherwin-Williams (pretty good paint) and Behr to Benjamin Moore (very best) or designer brands, Ralph Lauren, Martha Stewart, and Laura Ashley--for snob effect.  You can actually view episodes on decorating with purple on House & Garden TV (Jamie Drake on Smart Design).  If you're in the market for developing your whole house around a purple theme, check out the Extreme Home in Australia, The Purple Cube.

Home Accessories     Why decorate your bathroom with a gaudy tube of patriotic red-white-blue Crest toothpaste or the red tube of Close Up freshening red gel when you could have the purple Rembrandt toothpaste--and, at the same time, keep your canker sores under control.  No canker sores?  How about Tea Tree herbal toothpaste or Auromere fresh mint toothpaste with 21 ingredients, including tree bark, roots, plants and flowers?  At least, they will beautify your bathroom with the Color Purple.  For similar purple alternatives in bathroom products, investigate Aussie hair care products, Method lavender hand wash from Target Store or the Williams-Sonoma brand of liquid hand soap.

You can multitask the Color Purple.  If you can bring yourself to become a Minnesota Vikings fan, or even more unimaginable, an LSU fan, your opportunities to accessorize with purple and gold become almost limitless when you gain access to the paraphernalia catalogs of those two programs (LSU) (Minnesota Vikings) who share the SHS colors.   

The Foods You Eat     Not only do the purple veggies sit around decoratively, looking good and making the statement that you love Sheffield High, but they also will do you good, healthwise.  You see, they have the phytochemicals (literally, "plant chemicals"), anthocyanine and phenolic compounds that are being studied for their beneficial effects on cancer, heart disease and ageing.  Don't believe me, believe the CDC.  And, don't worry, if you eat a lot of purple food, neither your skin nor your eyeballs will take on a purple hue--altho, if it did, that would be the ultimate statement of loyalty to SHS!  Come to think of it there's a congenital condition called methemoglobinemia which causes the skin to turn purple-blue, especially if the poor patient comes in contact with nitrites.  In fact, a lot of nitrites will turn anybody blue, but I wouldn't recommend this to you Bulldogs--it's deadly poison.

You've heard about tea being good for your health.  It's got half the caffeine that coffee has, and some unknown stuff that helps protect you from heart attacks.  O.K., so green tea is supposed to be better than black tea, but I can't find any purple packaging for green tea.  I recommend Twinings Darjeeling tea to make your loyalty to the SHS purple known.

What You Wear     It's a "no brainer" to display your colors by donning "school-authorized" apparel merchandise.  Especially on Fridays, you can wander the halls of SHS and see the guy fashion statements on the male teachers and some of the ladies in the form of those purple golf shirts with the SHS logo where the alligator or the polo player ought to be.  They really look good--professional, neat, just like your dentist, pediatrician or factory manager looks these days.  This used to identify coaches, but now everybody wears them.    

How about getting creative with purple on your upper torso?  Plaids and Hawaiian shirts add interest to the otherwise monochromatic plain purple shirt.  Tie-dye allows you infinite variety in the shades of purple and the patterns you create.  For your dressy occasions (either gender), there are many combinations of dress shirt and fancy tie.  But, if you're the old fashioned type of lady, you may want to stick to the more feminine fashions, such as a royal princess design.  Finally, should you tire of the drudgery of shopping, wardrobe storage and laundry, you may want to visit your local tattoo parlor (see photo on left). 

If you went into the clergy, then Lent, of course, is your time of year for a purple wardrobe that yells "SHS."

More purple edibles

Some "purple" veggies are misnamed:

Purple bell pepper is black.

Purple beets are red.

Purple cabbage is often red & white.

Full-body tattoo with purple emphasis

Things You Work With     Walk into Office Depot, find the writing implements aisle, and you'll get lots and lots of choices of things to write with.  Here's where you can get a wide variety of purple pens and pencils that will write black, blue, or PURPLE--thin or wide line!

 Many products for the workplace also share the same wide range of color options.  With a new cover, your cell phone, that new appendage that has grown onto the side of almost everyone's face, especially the younger citizens, can also cry out, "This fella (or gal) really cares about his (or her) alma mater, Sheffield High!"  Just look, for your rainy day hamburger grilling or, if you are into the new craze of "pressed sandwiches," that great big teddy bear of a former boxer, George Foreman, has designed a variant of his grill just for SHS alumni!

Whether you're an amateur auto enthusiast or a serious professional, a true SHS fan wouldn't think of using anything but "Royal Purple Motor Oil" in his or her vehicle or those of his or her clients.  Whether you're fishing for fun or for business, put a few purple lures in your box.  Who knows, the color purple attracts big game, like tigers, yellow jackets, mustangs, and maybe even fish.

A Purple Badge of Honor

Click on the map

A Purple Lifestyle     Its too late for most of us Fifty-Sixers to pick our fraternity, but, had we but known their choice of purple for their crest,  SAE would have been a shoo-in choice of the SHS college boys. 

Eating well and indigestion due to the pressure on our diaphragms of our increasing waistlines are an established part of our lifestyle, so we have added a little purple pill to the things that characterize us.

We, who live in freedom, take for granted the right and privilege to vote that is ours and for women as well as men has been ours since 1910.  Why not do what the Afghans and the Iraqi citizens do courageously and defiantly when they vote in the face of threats of death by terrorists; dip a finger in indelible purple dye and proudly display our citizenship responsibility with the purple fingertip?  Nowadays we hear of "red states" and "blue states,"  but have you heard of "purple states?"  If you mix portions of blue and red ink in proportion to the Democrat and Republican votes cast in each state in the last presidential election, you come out with a map that has very few bright blue states or bright red states.  Most are shades of purple.  True enough, the winner by an inch takes the prize, but the underlying principle of "purple states" is that we are not all cast in a single mold.  We have varied opinions and ideas.  We put them to the contest on occasion, and trust that healthy debate and maybe even compromise will create the most desirable and most workable result.  In my opinion, the operation of the nation as a "blue" government in the case of Clinton's presidency or a "red" government in the case of Bush43's presidency has led to polarization, frustration and, for the people, suboptimal performance.  How much more representative and cooperative it would be if government were to be run as "purple?"

I never realized it before starting this piece, how really "purple" Sheffield High really is.  In our time, there were rich kids and poor kids, smart kids and those who didn't perform at the same level, athletic jocks and not so athletic nerds, talented musicians, talented science students, talented literary types, talented artists.  There was a bit of "red" vs. "blue" behavior then--not referring to Republican or Democrat, but, rather, to being opposites.   But look at us now.  Time has made us truly "purple."  Differences have become blurred, and we can be compatible. If you doubt this, come to the reunion in 2006, and you'll see how much alike we have all become.