Baby BoomersHigh School Yearbook – Baby Boomer Edition
2 Good
+ 2 Be
= 4 Gotten
Does this expression ring a bell? A school bell, maybe? While researching material for this installment, I (literally) dug up my own personal time capsules buried in my closet: my high school year books.
Amid the craze of “High School Musical” and “Facebook,” I opened the cover of my senior edition as the high school we remember reached out to me in a way those things cannot. I gazed at the ephemeral moments captured on each glossy page. It was satisfying to hold the book again. I could almost hear the pep rally cheers and slamming lockers, smell the illicit smoke lingering in the girls’ room, and feel the crowded hallways as we bustled to classes. But the most fun of all was reading the inscriptions – the graffiti that captured the essence of our generation better than any senior portrait.
Just to give you a hint as to my age, the cover of this yearbook says “1972”.
I am lucky to have graduated at all after being sent home so frequently for violating the dress code of the era: “NO double seams on the jeans.” To me and my fringe-wearing pals this was blasphemy!
But on yearbook day the caste system and the rules seemed to dissolve into oblivion as faculty and friends, jocks and nerds, hippies, prom queens, class presidents and class clowns, all came together with Bic in hand to indelibly compose our most profound thoughts for posterity. Even the teachers gave up precious class time for us to pass books and pens back and forth. Remember the white pen that had four different colored cartridges in one ? It was perfect for yearbook writing. Some compositions needed much deciphering while others were short and sweet. Friends who only signed a first name assumed they would not be forgotten many were.
I giggled to discover so many things about myself: I am a *Cool Capricorn*, a great friend, wonderful person, both *tough* and *sharp* (remember that slang?) and have an A-1 personality. I was asked to remember moments from Algebra, English, Gym, Latin and Geometry as well as a swimming dance of which I have no recollection. I seem to have repressed that choreography! I can only imagine why!
One boy I had known since grade school declared his love and another confirmed my phone number to ask me out on a date, too shy to do it to my face.
Some original thinkers wrote in circles, others in squares. Many drew little pictures. Peace signs were everywhere. There were the clichés like: Don’t ever change, keep smiling, and I’ll never forget you. One young thespian waxed poetic with a quote from the Bard himself.
I found myself wiping away tears of laughter as well as one or two shed from a bittersweet remembrance. Whether you loved or hated high school, the archive of this rite of passage that I held in my hand was a chronicle of the time in which we lived and learned so very much.
And speaking of learning, one last entry I noticed was on the page of my favorite English teacher. Most teachers just signed their names but she penned these words, “Good Luck in your future endeavors at college and remember the best is yet to come.” I believe she is correct.
Luv,
Maria Ackley
