ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 18, 1996 TAG: 9611190041
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN GRIESSMAYER STAFF WRITER
Joshua Lee approaches his locker at Northside Middle School and tries the combination on the lock. It doesn't open.
He sighs and tries it again and still it doesn't work.
Here it is, two months into the school year and sometimes, Joshua's locker just doesn't want to open. His locker - Number 1177 - is like many school lockers: It's picky.
"I hate it when this happens," he says. "I hope it's not going to be one of those days."
After two tries, Joshua moans and bangs his head on the locker in frustration. He takes a deep breath and goes at it again, hunched over and carefully dialing his combination like an expert safe-cracker.
"Got it!" he says as his locker finally opens. "Whew!"
Joshua is in sixth grade at the Roanoke County school, but students in all grades have their share of locker trouble. Wherever there are lockers, there are smooshed lunches, bunched-up jackets and forgotten combinations.
Nikki Tarragano, a seventh-grader at Madison Middle School in Roanoke, also fought a battle with her locker, but she figured out a way to beat it.
"It took me a few weeks to learn my combination," she said. "But once I started writing it on my hand, I was OK."
Nikki doesn't need to write her combination on her hand anymore. She showed her locker who's boss and now it usually opens on the first try.
Many middle school students complain about their lockers: They're too small. There aren't enough hooks. They're too hard to get to when the halls are crowded.
And in schools that have separate lockers for gym class, it's confusing to remember two combinations.
But students also know that lockers can be quite useful. Where else can you keep your books, notebooks, pens, pencils, coats, gym clothes, band instruments, lunch bags and anything else you can think of?
Without lockers, it would take a book bag the size of a circus tent to carry all that stuff around school!
Lockers are also good hiding places for snacks or gum. Or all those notes with unflattering drawings of the math teacher.
"A lot of girls usually keep a brush in their locker," said Jennifer Emory, a seventh-grader at Northside Middle School. "So they can fix their hair between classes."
If you think your locker is boring, do something to liven it up. Use tape or magnets to hang up pictures of your favorite singers, movie stars or sports heroes. Put up a drawing you made in art class, or a poem you wrote for English.
You could even tape wrapping paper inside your locker to cover up those drab gray or brown walls.
Tracy Jones, a sixth-grader at Northside Middle School, had a great idea. She put up photographs of her family, her grandparents and even her dog. The photos brighten up her locker and seeing them sometimes brightens up her day.
So don't think of lockers as a hassle. Your locker is what you make of it. If you decorate it and keep cool stuff in it and personalize it, you won't dread going to your locker so much between classes.
Who knows, if you teach your locker to open on the first try, you might even miss your old locker next year.
Until then, remember your combination, keep your locker clean and don't slam the door.
Oh, and throw away that tuna fish sandwich that's been hiding behind your health book since last week.
It's starting to smell.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. 1. Pupils at James Madisonby CNBMiddle School in Roanoke (from left) visit their lockers before
their next class. 2. A mirror, a jacket and a stack of books occupy
the locker of Madison Middle School seventh-grader Nikki Tarrangano.
color.