share your highschool graduation memories

[barkley]

i'll start-it was a warm summer nite in '79, and some poor schmuck whose parents owned a realy small house in the country mentioned to a few friends he was having a party, and they mentioned to a few friends that he was having a party....and so on and so on....over 200 drunk kids (through the courtesy of less than prudent local liquor stores) converge on these poor people and a near riot ensues as the local police (along with police dogs) arrive to disperse everyone.

me? i was trying to drag the drunken foreign exhange student into my car as she's yelling at the top of her lungs "cold hearted american pigs!!! power to the people-UNITE-fight your oppressors, fight-power to the people!".


ahhhh yes-i think they instituted afternoon graduation ceremonies the next year

o.k.-share.......................

 

[luvmydogs]

June 13, 1984, and the boy that I had been in loooooooove with for four years kissed me after the ceremony!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

A hot and sweaty day on the freakin' dog track.

Yes--my school had graduation at a greyhound dog track.

They have since upgraded to the basketball gym at a University--but man I tell you, nothing like a graduation invite that instructs family to go to Race Track Road.

 

[lindakmonty]

June 1995... we're sitting there in the ceremony and my best friend tells me she's pregnant!! She didn't want anyone to know before graduation... she was already 4 months... I couldn't believe it!! Unfortunately, 50% of my class had already had a child, was married, or had an abortion!! I had my ds 2 months before my 24th b-day and I thought that was still young!

 

[anewvance]

It was June 7th 1995. We had our graduation at the Leaky Teepee. That's what the called the Auditorium here. There were 600 in our graduating glass. Our chorus got to sing, we sang Friends Forever. I had invited my dad and grandmother (his mother) but we don't have a good relationship so I didn't know if he'd come but they did... I spotted them in the crowd before I spotted the rest of my family.

After the graduation we went out to lunch and home to rest because our graduation party was that night. It was a night out on a local cruise ship (normally it is a casino boat). It was a blast, we played casino type games but for prizes, not money. And we got to play Bingo and they had a great band on board. It was so much fun, it was like from 7pm to 2am.

Those are my memories...

 

[LisaNJ25]

June 1992.....I was 6 months pregnant... hot as could be in the hs gym with no AC... was so glad when it was over. Afterwards DH and I went out to dinner.

 

[BrerLizzie]

Mine was this year!!
It was in the field house. REALLY, REALLY, hot. After the ceremony, our school has a lock-in at the YMCA. We had to check in between 10 and 11 and stay untill 4am, that way we aren't all out getting drunk. I played fooseball for like 2 hours and we had a hypnotist and this one 'goth' girl I know was jumping around singing the Teletubies song!!

 

[kelleigh1]

1. We were lined up girl boy according to height, until we ran out of guys and then it was just all the shorter girls in front. During rehearsals, I was lined up with a guy that I'd known since kindergarten. Well, this other girl in our class decided she wanted to be paired up with him so she went out and bought higher heeled shoes so she'd be taller than me so she could stand with him. Not sure what it got her since he still talked to me through most of the ceremony.

2. Our principal didn't want us tossing our caps into the air. So they set up the bleachers under the trees. I probably don't need to tell you what happened, but of course we tossed them anyway. And many of the guys thought it would be fun to see if they could get them stuck in the trees. Yes, yes they could.

 

[musclecar_72]

Picture it 1993. Graduation was over and myself and 200+ classmates all converge on myrtle beach, sc. We somehow convince half the cheerleading team to have a impormptu wet t-shirt contest in none other than my hotel room! Ah what a week it was, and oh how I hated losing that $200.00 security deposit!

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Oh God..I remember it like it was yesterday.

We were holding our commencement ceremony at the Fort Worth Convention Center and there was a huge back room where we all got into our places for the long march in. Half of the group went down a left hand tunnel and half went down a right to enter the main stage area. Well, some moron decided to throw a mace/pepper bomb into the left hand tunnel before the big entrance, so the people in the front of the line got maced in the face right before we were supposed to enter. We had to back out, take care of them, clear the tunnel and start over. So we started late.

Then during the valedictorian's speech (which had something to do with Mission Impossible), they played the M:I theme so loudly you couldn't hear what they were saying.

And of course, this being Texas, there were tons of parents/families in the stands who just HAD to blast their airhorns when their student came running down the aisle.

TOV

 

[monarchsfan16]

My graduation was a year ago Wednesday. It was held in the local big arena (the goal was to have air conditioning). The days leading up to it were unbelievably hot, but that night it was 40 degrees and raining. We ended up using the heat I honestly remember very little of the actual ceremony. I have no clue what the speakers said or anything. Despite the fact that all 470 of us graduates had been subected to pat downs, beach balls, bouncy balls, silly string, and inflatable fish and monkeys had all been smuggled in (aparently when deflated all those objects fit well in bras...). There must have been 100 beach balls bouncing around, and they bounced during the whole ceremony. You could not hear the speakers because everyone was so interested in throwing the balls around. Then when they started passing out the diplomas the airhorns started going off from the parents, despite them having to pass through security to get in, and a note on the tickets that air horns would be confiscated. I was completely humiliated by the behavior of my classmates, and their parents. Especially since my aunt thinks that that high school is well pond scum, and that they school her kid goes to (the other option for kids from my town) is god's great gift to earth. The other big thing I remember was the group of girls behind me in line to march in discussing where the best place to get trashed after the ceremony was. Now I'm not naive, I know a lot of my classmates were big partiers, but I couldn't believe that. After graduation I was going home to have cake with my family.

What I have big memories from is class day, which was the day before graduation. 98 degrees, 200% humidity, in the school gym in my cap and HEAVY gown. On class day, the senior class is essentially presented to the school, awards are given and the juniors do a "senior send off". They made a video clip with all the favorite teachers saying goodbye to us, then sang some song that someone had written about saying goodbye. We all sobbed obviously. I didn't cry during graduation though. Parents are invited, so my mom was there, and we both agree that class day meant so much more than graduation. Not sure if it was the circumstances of graduation, or just how meaningful class day is.

 

[jx3smom]

June 13, 1973. It was held in the Tabernacle (local community church). It was in the evening but still really hot. I cried my eyes out, then partied my butt off. I started dating my ex that night and married him 2 years later. The only good thing to come of it was my DS's that were born 5 and 6 years after I got married.

The parties were all over the place but the last one was in Sea Isle City.

 

[jennyl772003]

Well, the year was 1996.

We were all in the gym for our graduation rehersal. One of the graduates-to-be was being a jerk. The teacher in charge of the rehearsal was retiring, so, with nothing to lose, he punched the kid.

The kid who I sat next to brought whippets to the rehearsal. He took orders for the ceremony.

The day of was pretty uneventful though. We had been told to wear something nice under our gowns. I wore shorts and a T-shirt with nylons and heals, since that was all that would show anyway.

 

[barkley]

just remebered another couple of things-the day of graduation a couple of by good friends, known for pulling stunts and having the family wealth to get pretty creative (got someone to take them up in a private plane and dumped a zillion ping pong balls reading "happy graduation" over the school earlier in the week)-get called into the vice principals office. they are greeted by the vp with "o.k. bonnie and clyde-be on notice that security has been provided with you photos and various alias's-i've talked to your teachers and we've decided that "graduation" will be an additional assignment in each of your classes-if you "fail" tonight-you will be doing summer school" (they left and canceled the car that was going to drive up on the field and "break out" the grads with toy machine guns).

sat near (our last names started with the same letter) a gal who had fought the school district and managed not to get sent to continuation school because of her pregnancy. her due date was about 3 days from graduation. she's saying under her breath during the ceremony, "god, please let these be braxton hicks contractions, please don't let me miss out when i've worked so hard to make it here", she did make it-and delivered a beautiful baby girl 2 days later.

 

[ilovepcot]

Graduation for me was bittersweet. I attended a boarding school and most of my friends were from all over the globe. We hugged and promised to stay in touch or meet somewhere in a few years. (Didn't happen.) We weren't able to have a party afterward...people were in a hurry to catch planes. None of us even stayed in touch long via mail.

Surprise of surprises! My former roommate (from China) found me on classmates and flew to FL to visit me. (She's still a size 2!) After soooo many years the visit was awkward and I wondered afterward how we were once such *close* friends. Also wondered who had really changed so much that we had difficulty talking. Her? Me? Perhaps both of us? Still am happy for our reunion because I'd thought of her over the years and wondered how her life turned out. Now I know and I smile!

 

[WendyDarling]

End of May 1993 - All of the honor graduates were in the front and then it was alphabetical after that. We'd heard last year's honor grads had each passed off a marble to the principal as they went by to shake his hand on stage so we wanted to top that - and all passed around a huge tub of vaseline to grease up our right hands with. I only did a small amount since I was sooo paranoid we'd get in trouble! I was ranked 24th, so by the time I got up there his hand was so greasy and he was smiling at us with an 'I hate you for this!' smile! That was pretty funny. They also told us they'd be opening our gowns before the ceremony to make sure we had on appropriate attire, so a group of my friends were all in their birthday suits underneath. I may have done the vaseline but definitely did NOT have the guts to go naked!

 

[kelleigh1]

A few more insteresting things about graduation.

~The mother who accepted the diploma on behalf of her son because he was in drug rehab after he almost overdosed a few weeks earlier.

~The girl who'd gotten married the day after the senior prom, which occured 2 weeks prior to graduation. (Last I knew, they were still married.)

 

[Chipperdini]

Don't remember much, except that I didn't want anything to do with any of it. Didn't want graduation ceremonies. Didn't want a party. Didn't get a choice.

 

[MorganLeFey]

June 1978. 900 graduates on the football field. the school board and all the dignitaries got to sit under a canopy. the rest of us were broiling....