Today is National Old Stuff Day. I keep wanting to add an e to make it Olde which seems to me would be more appropriate. It is suggested that it's the day to: "Clean out closets and garages, rediscover old treasures and declutter our lives.
For me, this is an ongoing process as I try to sort through a lifetime of holding on to stuff. Yesterday I found my, worse for wear, "Rural Eighth Grade Promotion Exercises" program. Oh how I still remember that day. I was twelve years old, a country bumpkin who had only been in the high school building a few times, mostly in the auditorium for my older brother's class plays, etc.
The only other eighth grade kids I knew were the ones from the other Jasper Township schools. They had us gather in the first floor hallway and then began the process of lining us up. I remember a cute boy talking to me. We exchanged names and I still remember his; Donald Shinkle. Though he said "Donnie". I thought I might see him again in high school but he attended Prescott H.S. instead of Corning. Here are scans of the program...
Of the forty-eight graduates, all but eleven or twelve of them attended Corning High School. Besides, going to Prescott, a few attended Lenox High School.
Were those other kids as nervous that day as I was? Excited, but scared, about the idea of being in high school!
And how did those who performed get chosen? Did they volunteer? Why wasn't Larry Palma's school number listed as "Colony #?"?
How many are still alive? What were their lives like?
I did get a new dress for graduation. It was tan with a big brown bow.
In the front yard in front of the largest peony bush was where I wanted my picture taken. Obviously the wind was blowing.
From my diary that day: "I graduated this afternoon. Wore my new tan dress. Grandma Lynam gave me a blouse. Aunt Leona gave me a necklace and a scarf.
The next afternoon: "Went to town. I signed up for my studies for H.S." The beginning of a new chapter. But first, summer vacation!
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