UP AND AWAY

Yesterday was high school graduation in our fair burg, so I made the rounds at some after-parties to give my best wishes to those who matriculated into the adult world. One kid got his community college diploma, with honors, a day BEFORE he received the high school one. Imagine that. He’s one of those highly achieving brainiacs who has been studying in overdrive rather than raising hell during his teen years.

I was never so motivated when I was in high school. Oh, I tried to make good grades but avoided the hard classes, as in math and science, as much as a I could. Home ec. was another area of study I steered away from, since cooking and sewing were miles beyond my realm of comprehension. Unfortunately, there were no more phys. ed. classes offered after freshman year, so I filled my electives with vocal music and study halls as much as possible.

We didn’t have the big post-graduation family shindigs like are done now. As soon as I tore off the cap and gown, it was out to the senior celebration north of town. I think it was also, unofficially, known as "the class drunk.”

Now, I wasn’t a big consumer of alcohol--Mama Bore had “won” a liquor store in her divorce settlement, and she had impressed the fear of god into me about drinking, but I did weasel a ½-pint of sloe gin out of her for the occasion. It was a sweet red berry liquor that was mixed with enough 7-Up to keep me sober all night long. Drinking wasn’t all that much on my mind, anyway. I was with my Boyfriend of the Month and was more intent on getting a buzz from his sweet kisses than getting boozed into a stupor.

I remember that summer after high school graduation as being the longest on record. The BF of the M dumped me in June, of course, and then I couldn’t wait to get off to college in the fall. A lot of the grads quickly moved on to jobs, marriage, the military service, or summer schools in other towns, and there was NOTHING TO DO--except referee my younger siblings while Mama Bore worked. The days seemed to draaaaaaag by, each more boring than the next. Little did I know then that time would go by much faster the older I got. That’s one important, impossible lesson of life a kid can never learn in school