POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE

Last week a friend, Helen, posted on Facebook that it had been 50 years since she graduated from high school. As I marveled at that statement, my first thought was simply "Wow!" Then I realized that since we are the same age it has also been 50 years since I graduated from high school. OH, MY GOD! Fifty years! Half a century! That is a long ass time! The math can't possibly be right, can it?

Honestly, I hadn't even considered how many years it had been since I graduated. It never even entered my mind to wonder how long ago I completed high school. I only went to one reunion, my tenth, & really wasn't interested in any more. I haven't kept in touch with anyone from my high school days. We all went our separate ways & moved on to adulthood.

Many people I know love reminiscing about their teenage years & miss them dearly. Truthfully, I hated school - pretty much from grammar school on but especially my high school days. I have no real idea why I had no use for school, but I didn't. I was an intelligent young woman who got good grades & graduated 9th in my class of over 400. For a couple years I hung out with the brainiacs but really didn't fit into that group.

My junior year I moved on to the hippie scene (this was the mid-1960s after all). But again, I didn't fit in well since I refrained from "free love" & only smoked grass (that was our term of choice for marijuana) once or twice. Looking back I never liked the feeling of being out of control. And probably the biggest reason was that I was afraid my mother would indeed kill me if I came home stoned or pregnant. The worst thing I did was take up smoking at age 16. Fortunately, I quit ten years later & have never smoked a cigarette again.

Now, that my mother has long ago passed away & my father will never see this, I can share my greatest teenage deception. My parents had a cute, little two-seater sports car - a 1960 British MGA. That was the car I learned to drive on & I loved tooling around, shifting & enjoying the wind in my hair with the top down. I had cut if off super short like Mia Farrow in Peyton Place. Only if you are on the other side of 60 will you understand this reference.

Back to my version of hell raising (Hah!). The gas gauge didn't work so we used the trip odometer to make sure we filled it up every 250 miles or so before resetting it. Somehow, I discovered that if you twisted the little knob backwards you could take miles off the trip odometer rather than pushing it to zero it out. Myself & two girlfriends (you could squeeze three of us in the two seats) would take the MG to San Leandro to cruise East 14th Street on Friday nights. In hindsight, I'm not sure what the big draw was about cruising. Do kids still do it?

Anyway, to cover our tracks, we knew that the car got about 25 miles per gallon so we would turn the odometer back however many miles we put on the car & added enough gas to cover those miles. My parents never found out! There was a great deal of satisfaction knowing I put one over on my mother. I guess it was my way of living dangerously as a sixteen year old.

Yeah, that was about as wild as this child got during my high school years. I started riding horses when I was fourteen. My social focus was always at the stable after school & on weekends. I didn't participate in any clubs or after school activities. I didn't attend my Junior Prom or Senior Ball - just wasn't interested. All I wanted from school was O-U-T, OUT! Even with those great grades, I did not want to go to college. I had enough of school & was adamant that I wasn't going any longer than the law made me.

Those of you who know me are aware that I am an emotional person. I cry at movies, books & even Folgers coffee commercials where the kid comes home from school to surprise his mom. Those Christmastime ads with the Budweiser draft horses get me every time. A heartfelt card or sentiment from any of my sweeties & I'm a blubbering mess.

BUT when my high school graduation day finally arrived, I never teared up or sniffled at anything. There wasn't one emotional moment which I still find hard to believe. I was just so damned happy to get my diploma & get the hell out of there! I'm pretty sure I headed for the barn to celebrate with my horse.