That's How it Ended

A strange and unexpected thing happened during my last 2 months at John Tyler High in 1970... I actually went to school every day. Yes - once I realized it was about to end it somehow became tolerable :-)

Aside - another thing happened during that last semester of school: I gained 30 pounds... It was the first time in my life I hadn't been taking a P.E. class or playing sports and I kind of ballooned. I honestly wasn't eating that much... I know - everyone who is overweight says that - but I really do have an unusually efficient metabolism. I've spent most of my life fighting "the battle of the bulge" :-) But I digress...

A couple of months before graduation the principal announced that they would be enforcing the school's hair regulations for the graduation ceremony meaning it could not be over the ears or touching the collar... Now - my hair was already in violation when we got to Tyler and I hadn't had a haircut that whole semester so it was way out of bounds by the time May rolled around... That was when Squats (the vice principal) took me aside and gave me the spiel about protecting the school's public image. I said I fully understood and would therefore not be participating in the graduation ceremony. He was taken aback by that response and asked how my family felt about it. I told him they would support whatever I decided... And that was that.

Now - my buddy Wayne's hair was longer than mine and he had initially agreed to "boycott" the ceremony also but he caved in to parental pressure and got a haircut. I was really bummed.
In the end I was the only one in the school who chose his hair over pomp and circumstance :-)

That reminds me - around that time I came up with a wonderfully discordant version of "Pomp and Circumstance". Everyone who heard it laughed (including myself)... Unfortunately - I haven't played it in decades and probably don't even remember how... But I digress (again).

Shortly before graduation they held an assembly to give out the awards. I remember it because one of the black students took top honors in the regional "shop class" competition and as he was being presented with the certificate he got this weird little grin on his face and proceeded to"scratch himself" in a greatly exaggerated manner.
This caused the entire student body (all ~1800 of them) to gasp simultaneously - it was as if all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room... The principal didn't know what to do so he just went on with the presentation while the student scratched and smiled :-)
Personally - I thought it was freaking brilliant! He had (metaphorically) flipped off the entire school without getting into trouble for it... I think you had to see the expressions on the white students' faces to appreciate just how funny it was :-)

And sometime during those final weeks the school arranged for the senior class to go to a movie theater to see Hamlet (the 1969 British version). They told us it was OK to invite juniors along but under no circumstances were we to bring sophomores because "all they do is run up and down the aisles anyway" :-) Rather than taking the bus into town I managed to hitch a ride with a classmate who had a brand new 1970 SS-396 Chevelle. It was cool.

I only remember a couple of things from the movie (other than it was about some messed up Danish dude - and a bunch of people died at the end):
There was a bit of a ruckus when one of the guys in the front row of the balcony dumped a cup of ice water onto the students below and then ran like hell. (Some of the "victims" were pretty upset.) He did it by placing the cup near the edge of the railing and nudging it forward a fraction of an inch at a time over a period of many minutes until it finally toppled... It was excruciating to watch :-)
Then there was the point where Ophelia appeared on the screen in a low cut gown and a another guy in the front row of the balcony reflexively stood up to try and look down her top. Yeah - that doesn't work with a 2 dimensional image... Everyone laughed :-)

The final thing I want to mention is what happened on May 4th, 1970 (22 days before graduation). That was the day a group of National Guardsmen shot 9 unarmed students at Kent State University killing 4 of them... I won't go into details other than to say it was a complete tragedy for everyone involved and there's more than enough blame to go around... But what really disturbed me was that most people felt the protesters deserved it. (Some went as far as to say they should all be killed...)
Indeed - a Gallup poll taken immediately afterward showed that 58% of Americans placed the blame on the students... Personally, I have a problem with the concept that exercising one's first amendments rights should be punishable by death without due process but most Americans at the time apparently felt otherwise... And it seems like we (as a society) have learned absolutely nothing in the 41 years since...

So I didn't go to the graduation (or any of the related events)... BTW: They let all the seniors go through the ceremony - even the ones who didn't actually graduate. They just handed them a diploma cover containing a blank piece of paper... I thought that was weird. Kind of "cheapened" the whole thing...
And the day after graduation Wayne drove me to school to pick up my diploma in the office. I went in barefoot to emphasize (to myself) that I wasn't governed by their rules anymore. Then Wayne and I wandered the halls for a while harassing the poor juniors and sophomores (who still had a few days of school to go) before leaving the building...

And that's how it ended.