I moved every six months to a year of my life until 15 1/2 when we moved from Boise Idaho (which was the closest thing to a home i’d had as we always moved “back” there) to a tiny little town. the one high school had 300 or so kids in it. They’d all known each other most of their lives. I was an immediate outcast. I was horrifically lonely for a long time. After a few months I met another girl that was my best friend for the rest of high school. but i hated high school. hated it. I went back to my ten year reunion… true story… i didn’t know anyone! Not more than enough to barely say hi in passing. My husband and I left the reunion iteself after about an hour, went to dinner at a local restaraunt and decided to go home the next day without any more reunion stuff. Of course all the drug use and guys in their twenties probably didn’t help the experience any. It was just a bad time for me.

THE SILENT GENERATION Afternoons in the back yard, our lives like photographs Yellowing elsewhere, in somebody else’s album, In secret, January south winds Ungathering easily through the black limbs of the fruit trees. What was it we never had to say? Who can remember now–––––– Something about the world’s wrongs, Something about the way we shuddered them off like rain In an open field, convinced that lightning would not strike. We’re arm in arm with regret, now left foot, now right foot. We give the devil his due. We walk up and down the earth, we take our flesh in our teeth. When we die, we die, The wind blows away our footprints. ––––Charles Wright

I had a love/hate relationship with High school, like so many above, teenage years are so awkward and we blossom at such different times and have to compare ourselves with the already blossomed nearby. And yet, why do those 4 years, only FOUR years, take up such a vital space in our memory bank ? I sometimes see the past 40 years in a blur, but, oh, I can tell you about almost every weekend in High School … it is really strange . I went to a small Catholic Girls school and I can’t come up with a BEST memory, but a few pretty good ones …… Rolling up the waist of our uniform pleated skirt to make them shorter, only to have to roll them down when we did the “kneel down to check the length drill” ….. skipping school in the spring of 64 to cruise around town when the radio had an all Beatle day ….. a crush on the new priest who taught Religion, only to find out latter he was gay…. “gay” ? had no idea what that was, we muddled through sexuality with no guidance, groping thru in the dark ….. and speaking of groping, slow dancing in someone’s basement to Johnny Mathis, oh my ! How do young people survive without Johnny Mathis ? ……Crusing thru the 2 public schools and 4 private schools in search of boys, we were desperate ! ….. finally landing one of them to bring to a school dance and having to go thru inspection at the front door, and if our dresses showed too much cleavage we had to wear a thule wrap tucked into the bodice ( sick, just sick ! )….. the wonderful nuns, who we tortured but loved at the same time …… Singing Handel’s Messiah in the glee club , still gives me chills, …… the horror of having the principal call my father because a BOY came on campus during a public school day off to find me and got caught …. living thru the JFK assassination and memorial mass at school …. surviving rides home with dates who drank too much way before designated driver days - we were so stupid ! …. Babysitting during the school year for $1.00 an hour, life guarding in the summer for $1.50 ….. realizing that something big was about to happen, that we were in charge and were going to change the world, the sense of empowerment we gathered thru the 60s. The good news is , I see it happening again.

I was also very shy in high school. I was certainly not in the “popular” crowd. I had my own circle of friends, and I got good grades, and was in a few HS plays and on the newspaper staff. I didn’t HATE high school, but I didn’t date or party (never went to the prom, either), so I made up for it in college. I REALLY had a good time in college, and the group that I hung around with acually thought that I was “cool.” I have really only kept in contact with one of my high school friends.

Graduation Day and when I got to leave there forever… Interesting though: This past October, we had a high school reunion, and I was able to see many of my classmates. I think because age has mellowed us all that I was able to be more comfortable around them.

The best day of my high school years was the day I graduated. I went to a very overcrowded, extremely diverse public high school from 1971-1975 that was so loaded with racial tension and just tension in general, that we couldn’t even use the bathrooms. I don’t think I saw the inside of a single ladies room in my high school for the entire 4 years.

I agree with Diana T - My last HS reunion was pretty good, also, maturity makes a big difference. I think that I was a lot more comfortable with myself than I was in high school, and I was also a lot more relaxed.

it wasn’t the best of my life, nor the worst. i think my favorite memories are hanging out with my 2 bestfriends and all the guys junior summer at a place we called The Meadows or at the beach. also one boyfriend in particular. we were talked into breaking up by our friends and i was off to college anyway. but he was sweet, funny, and beautiful. he’s the one i say, what ever happened to… i’ve only been to one reunion - 20th. interesting, but easy to see all the same old cliques doing thesame old things.

Did all the things one is supposed to do: prom, newspaper editor, pep club, art club, drama club, hung out with the nerds (I just liked talking to intelligent kids, I never considered us nerds), had a nervous breakdown. Really. The best part of high school was graduating and going to college. I loved college and never wanted it to end. I had to support myself and couldn’t afford to be a student forever, so I continued my education on my own. So many decades ago—time flew.

When I left, I left high school behind. Haven’t seen it since. My high school was like DeBúrca obj. Over crowed and stuff, I hated it. Of course it didn’t help that I was so shy I was glue to the wall so to speak. Most of my classmate don’t even know I was there because I never said a word. I came out of my shyness once I graduated from school. Now I talk to anyone.

The worst was talking about a girl I couldn’t stand among a bunch of my friends not realizing said female was standing directly behind me. She heard the whole thing. I bolted in total embarrassment. I still shudder thinking about it some 30+ years later. The best times were hanging out with “my group” of friends. Several of the guys were into filmmaking and we were all cast in a Mockumentary about Kung Fu movies. I think I was “Slave Girl #3.”