By this time next week, Catherine will be a high school graduate, so naturally this week’s flashback must go back twice, 30 and 40 years respectively.
Here’s a long shot from my commencement on June 24, 1984. We were Port Chester (NY) High School’s 100th graduating class. I have no idea where I am in this picture; why they separated us from the boys, who are on the other side of the 50-yard line; or why the staff appears to be guarding us.
The female half of the Port Chester (NY) Class of 1984.
Somewhere still I have an old baseball-style shirt with all our names on the back and the stalwart PC Ram on the front. However, I confess I don’t remember much about the ceremony. I was nursing an awful sunburn from our prom group’s visit to Jones Beach two days before where I had fallen asleep on my beach blanket. One side of my face and the backs of my legs were especially purple, which made sitting on a folding chair a real treat.
Below are the tickets to Basil’s commencement, 40 years ago to the day when Catherine will also graduate from Greenwich (CT) High.
Due, he says, to the counter-culture attitude of time and perhaps the dust-up over a single grade (would you believe Art?) that briefly put Basil’s graduation in peril, Basil has no photos from the day. (Sadly, that means I cannot share another “Study in Sideburns” with you today.)
I expect that won’t be the case come Thursday. Already we have every phone and camera in the house plugged in, charging up so we don’t miss even a second of the big day.
Pushing on a Rope 
The boys and girls are separated because, well, that’s just the way they’d always done it. The teachers are, in fact, guarding you, looking out for any items that don’t belong there, including drugs, firecrackers, M-80’s, whatever can be hidden under those gowns, anything that would be unsuitable for a young lady or gentleman.
Wow, there were a lot of you!
Posted by Jackie | June 13, 2014, 8:40 amLol!!
Posted by Terri S. Vanech | June 13, 2014, 8:40 am