By J1 Reporters Sam Elkins and Mary Kate Garriott

It’s back!

The return of Marian’s jukebox has sparked excitement within the student body. Once again students are now able to enjoy music in the cafeteria.

But there are few people in the building who know how and why it came to Marian.

“This year a new item was added to the cafeteria. It was a juke box courtesy of theStudent Board,” the Marian ‘93 yearbook reported.

Flashback 22 years ago: Alison Hancock Macklin ’93 was the Student Board Vice President. “Students often wanted to have music during lunch. Sometimes we would have a boombox, but it wasn’t very loud.” Macklin decided to take action and suggested the idea of getting a jukebox. Her idea needed funding. Student Board held bake sales, used some of the money from WalkAThon, and did everything they could think of to raise money.

After fundraising, their profits totalled $600. This was only enough money to purchase a jukebox that played 45’s, but at least it was something. For the readers of our generation who are about to google what a 45’s jukebox is, it is referring to the size of the records played in the jukebox. They are small, and unlike the 33’s which play a full album, 45’s are only able to play two songs per record. The names for the records, 33’s and 45’s, come from the number of revolutions the record makes on a turntable.

The jukebox was considered a prized possession. “It was like the student board baby,” Ms. Megan Piernicky, English teacher said. Piernicky wasn’t the Student Board moderator at the time of getting the jukebox. She actually became one in 2008, 15 years after the jukebox came to Marian. Latin teacher Mr. Mark Koesters was the Student Board moderator in 1993. He doesn’t particularly remember getting the jukebox, but he easily remembered the names of the two girls on Student Board who had the idea: Alison Hancock and Courtney Sorrell.

The most popular tracks played included artists Led Zepplin and the Beatles. The single most played in the jukebox was by the Beastie Boys (a hiphop group from the 80s.) Macklin, along with Courtney Sorrell Marshall ’94, was very involved in the music scene throughout the Omaha area and was able to get a few local bands in the jukebox as well.

The jukebox was used for many dance parties during Surprise Days, lunches, and free periods. Sometimes, girls became too rowdy at these dance parties, and the jukebox had to be unplugged. The students had a fun time dancing to their favorite tunes but needed to be sure not to bust a move too close to the jukebox. “You couldn’t dance to close to it or it would skip the record,” Macklin said.

The student body has the maintenance staff at Marian to thank for fixing the jukebox.

Over the summer of 2015, maintenance worked to repair the jukebox. The actual repair only took about five minutes. It was figuring out the problem that took so long. One of the gears for the turntable was shifted because at one point the jukebox was pushed or moved too hard. This faulty gear didn’t let the turntable spin records correctly which was why the jukebox was considered broken.

Without a doubt, the student of Marian today have the Student Board of ’93 to thank for their discovering of the jukebox. Girls still continue to jam out during the school day and probably will for many years to come.