Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Class of '93

The Cap'n pointed out to me that in my last blog I failed to mention that his class also made enough money to go on the Cherokee Queen. The Class of '93----Pretty Water Colored Memories??? Not so much. Don't get me wrong. This class had a bunch of unique individuals, but they were more of the go your own way and do your own thing mind set. They did have the "honor" of having me for English their Freshman, Sophomore and Senior years. The class of '94, however, got me four years in a row!!!!!

By the time the class of '93 got to be Seniors, their numbers had dropped considerably. Several of the class mates just didn't see any reason to stick around and give graduation a chance. They were a small class and had a reputation of not getting along or working well together or with others. Their Junior year when we started talking prom, the Seniors got very nervous. They had no faith in the Juniors. We told them that we weren't going to be able to make enough money so we were going to go to Farley Hill (Twin Bridges State Park) and have an outside/ranch/farm theme. The class of '92 was quite gullible. They believed us for a long time. The class of '93 shocked almost everyone. They actually did work well together and with others. I don't know that it ever happened again, but for that brief moment in time they pulled together. I think it was just to prove the Seniors wrong, but hey, they had a common goal and were able to pull it off. I was and am still proud of this accomplishment.

I do have some fond memories of this class, too. There was this one senior boy who didn't have a 1st hour class, or at least he didn't have to pass it to graduate, but he did have English IV 2nd hour. He had missed as many days as he could and was in danger of not passing or graduating. He would come in to class at various times but seldom at the right time. After he got the warning about not graduating if he missed my class any more, he tried to be punctual or at least to make it to class. One morning he was running later than usual so we each picked a time and laid our pennies on the desk. When he came in, he had no idea of what had been going on. I don't remember who won the pot and we never did it again since gambling is illegal. I hope we have reached the statute of limitation on this offense, if not, this is a complete lie and it never happened. I found out before they graduated that the second semester hadn't started until a week later than we thought so he did have another day or two he could miss. I never told him that until the last day of school. None of you are surprised by this revelation, are you?

Another one of these fine young men during their Freshman year came in on the day that I wore my new stylish big rimmed glasses. He looked at me and said, "Hey, why are you wearing those glasses with the big nose?" My sense of humor hadn't mellowed quite yet in those days and he got the look that could kill.

Then there were the girls who brought booze to school and hid it in the girls' restroom. They were sooooooo lucky that Joe was a lot nicer guy than what he pretended to be. Luckily, these young ladies are now mothers and grew out of this stage in their lives. Thank Goodness!!!

There were other good memories for instance the Superman moment which needs no further explanation and Mr. Lippe falling asleep while he was supposed to be evaluating me. His son was having trouble not bursting out laughing because his dad was on one side dozing off and on the other side was a senior boy who was having the same trouble. I have managed to make my introduction to the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales more interesting in recent years. Who am I kidding. This is British literature; someone will always be nodding off no matter what I'm introducing or how interesting I try to make it.

I am pleased to say that most of the members of the class of '93 have gone on to become contributing member of society. Mr. Lippe came to me during the last nine weeks of their senior year and mentioned one young man and said, "______ will be graduating!" no question mark. I replied, "Yes, he will." I learned recently that this young man has started college. When you are a teacher, you have to believe in miracles.

I see members of the class of '93 on different occasions and am always glad to visit and find out how they are doing. Sometimes I get to talk to a parent, grandparent, or aunt or uncle. Sometimes I read their names in the paper(not always good). I guess that individuality has been an asset to the majority of them. For those who just decided to go with the flow, I think their lives are okay, too.

3 Comments:

Blogger Redneck Diva said...

I see there's nothing written about the class of 1991......*sob*

It's okay really. I mean, once you got past the constant bickering and fighting amongst ourselves, we really weren't that extraordinary of a class. But boy, could we fight. A whole class of instigators and agitators, we were. I think we still are!

Btw, I wrote and had published my first newspaper article for NEO's campus newspaper. I haven't seen it in print yet, but my advisor assures me it was a good. (She also might have heard about my tendency to cry easily, though.) I'm pretty darn proud of me! Oh yeah, and this weekend I will start my first English paper (a comparison essay) in 16 years. How time flies...

3:00 PM  
Blogger Chocolate Water said...

We all know you loved the class of '94 the best. You shouldn't write about the class of '93 just to make those losers feel better about themselves. No need in giving them any false hope.

6:25 PM  
Blogger Cap'n Neurotic said...

Hmm, looks like my oh-so-innocent comment is now spreading division and chaos throughout the WHS alumni . . . excellent.

Muah-ha-ha-ha!

4:30 PM  

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