It is High School Graduation Day in many of the local towns. My Niece lives in one of the small towns south of Boston. They always have the ceremony out in the ball field. The stadium stands make a perfect place to deposit the family and friends. The fields surrounding the stage make a perfect romping area for the younger siblings and cousins.
For reasons I won't explore here, I was only able to attend the pre-graduation party. My son and I went home and left my wonder-of-a-wife to represent us.
She came home soaked to the bone and found our cat in a similar condition.
The wise people at the school decided not to move the ceremonies inside because it was only a light drizzle.
Perhaps it was because this is the 50th Anniversary of the Allies invasion of Europe. "Ike" made the decision to go ahead when faced with similar weather. All he had to do was move hundreds of thousands of men and tons and tonnes of equipment across a choppy bit of water. He didn't have to deal with soaked to the bone High School Seniors.
A quote from one of the girls, "I have trouble walking into the cafeteria. How can they expect me to walk up on that stage!!!?"
The anxiety in her voice was real. Her fear was real. Her friends laughed and pooh poohed her. To this she could only display a nervous smile. It would seem her fear of ridicule by her peers was momentarily more important than the stage fright suffered walking up the wet and slippery steps.
Of course this is a rite of passage. Of course most of the memories will be fond ones. We skipped out graduation out of protest back in The Sixties. We did a lot out of protest back then. Here I am more that thirty five years later wondering if I would have suffered stage fright. I'll never know. Oh, well... Okay, that feeling is gone. I don't do nostalgia very well. Probably a good thing. =30=
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