PEOPLE & PLACES: Memories of Ozzy, Class of 2000 make social media nice for a while

A few weeks ago, we here at the News-Bulletin did something that surprised all of us.

It was simple and effective. We do similar things every week but they don’t succeed in the way this one simple thing did.

We posted something on social media that brought our community together. Yes. We know. It’s shocking. How did this happen, you ask? Let’s start from the beginning.

It was a Tuesday. July 22. That’s a big production day here at the office — reading over stories, tweaking layouts, last-minute additions.

Then the news came across the internet — legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne was dead.

Ozzy had just performed on stage for the last time ever on July 5. Now, 17 days later, the news came that he was gone. Social media was full of tributes and memories from his fans. That’s where we came in.

Clara, our editor, began looking through the print archives remembering something. It seemed there was a Belen/Ozzy connection. In 2000, Eagle seniors picked Ozzy’s song “Goodbye to Romance” as their class song. A member of the Belen Board of Education, Bob White, objected to the song.

Melodie Good, then one of the senior class’ sponsors and a teacher at Belen High, said she remembered it well.

“It was one of my memorable classroom experiences, for sure,” Good said. “That year, they chose ‘Goodbye to Romance’ as their class song and, really, we didn’t think anything about it at the time.”

Good explained it had been protocol to let the school board know what the senior class had chosen as its class song, colors and flower — typical graduation stuff.

“I’m pretty conservative, so I thought it (the song) would be OK,” she recalled, chuckling, “but then he (White) took issue with it and it became a big deal.”

Such a big deal, in fact, that the Associated Press picked up the story and the news got all the way to Ozzy Osbourne himself. The Ozz Man responded, saying he was grateful to the Class of 2000 and eventually sent signed copies of the album “Goodbye to Romance” to every member of the Class of 2000.

We found a clip of the News-Bulletin story (which had some obvious and factual mistakes) and turned it into a visual for a Facebook post commemorating the Ozzy/Belen connection. Then overnight, the reactions began and the Class of 2000 began sharing its memories.

Marcos Romero asked if the rumor Ozzy had sent CDs was true. Ernesto Baca and Melissa McGowan both chimed in that they still had their CDs. So did Charlene Baldizan and Alexis Maes-Gutierrez and Ryan Baca. Alexis sent us a photo holding the signed CD. (You can see it at the bottom of this column.)

Brett Trembly, now a lawyer in Florida and then the senior class president, shared our post and shared his thoughts, reminiscing the entire experience before quoting lyrics to the song and ending his post with “RIP Ozzy. We’ll meet in the end.”

Even Bob White chimed in, explaining he voted against the song because Belen High School had recently been declared a drug-free zone and he thought the district would look hypocritical endorsing the song since Ozzy had appeared on the cover of the magazine High Times holding up two bags of marijuana.

The best thing about the post was watching people use social media for what it used to be best for — connecting, reconnecting and sharing memories.

Watching the Class of 2000 reminisce and connect with each other was inspirational for us. I think all of us took our own trips into our memories for a while, remembering all the good and bad occasions as well as the music that accompanied us through our teenage days.

Ozzy Osbourne was definitely a big part of my youth, when “Goodbye to Romance” was a brand new song.

Finding that his music still meant something to high schoolers in 2000 reminded me of a song Ozzy himself wrote in the 1980s — “You Can’t Kill Rock ‘n Roll.”

Ozzy had flaws, like all of us, but his music was often a positive influence on his fans — something our simple social media post after his passing showed very, very well.