The 1972 graduation at was certainly much like it had been the previous 50 or so years, except the numbers were really big. We were the last class of our one-high-school town; would be opening the next September. Though my head is a little fuzzy after all these years, 39 years to be exact, we had well over 850 graduates, some of them making it by the hair on the famous "chinny chin, chin." I was not one of those, however.
The ceremony was held at , certainly the largest outdoor facility in the district. This was the same stadium that I had sat in many a Friday and Saturday night to cheer on the Napa High Indians. The seats were still concrete and real hard. In my three years at Napa, 'we' won more games than 'we' lost. (One of the coolest things before a game was the 100-piece marching band entering the stadium from the south side. They had began their march on the south end of the campus, assembling along Kennedy Way for their march. The marching band made the school proud.)
On graduation evening, May 22, 1972, I rode to the ceremony with a friend. Just before I left the house, with cap and gown in hand, my father said the most important thing he ever said to me:
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"If you go to a party and there is drinking going on and you need a ride home, you call us. I would rather get up at 3 in the morning to pick you up than have to identify you in the morgue in the morning."
That one thing has resonated in my head for nearly 40 years. (My father passed away in late 1973.)
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So the 850+ of us lined up-alphabetical order-gosh some things never change-to march into the stadium to, as they say, the strains of 'Pomp and Circumstance.' I lined up and sat with a girl I had known since 7th grade at , Elizabeth Oninski. I don't think I have seen her since that night.
Blah, blah, blah speeches by people we only sort of knew and then the big deal. Being almost in the middle of the alphabet, Elizabeth and I had to wait a considerable amount of time before it became our turn. Just before we walked into the line, she asked me to hold her glasses, so they wouldn't reflect when her 'official' picture was taken.
Two members of the school board actually gave out the diploma covers and my picture was taken with my member of the school board, Chuck Sims. After it was over, we kind of left the same way we had come in; lined up in alphabetical order, only this time it was less orderly.
We had done it, all the way from to Silverado to Napa High. My best buddies of the day, Karl and Scott and Bill and Colleen were there with me.
Everything else is a blur, except that I did call my father for a ride home.
