"Memories, light the corners of my mind" ???

I got an email from an old friend the other day.  We went through all 12 years of grade school and high school together -

"You know what tomorrow is?" she asked.





May 28th, I thought.


"May 28, 1970 - our high school graduation day" she continued.

As if I could ever forget.

 How does it seem that some dates are inexplicably etched in your memory?

(If it were not for the copy of our wedding invitation, sealed in stained glass, that hangs on our bathroom wall (ok, I know that sounds like a funny place for it to be, but it works) I would never be able to remember our anniversary.  It gets mixed in with Earth Day and an old friend's birthday - I just always have to go look at it and check.)

Sorry, I digress -

And peonies - They always remind me of graduation too.  We lived in a small town in North Central Washington - there were no florists - but you always knew who had the best gardens and that is who did the flowers for the important community events.  Big baskets of peonies and branches of bridal veil spirea decorated the gym that day.

I think I was co-valedictorian (ok, it's been 45 years - the mind is not the steel trap it used to be, ha ha)  That meant I had to give a speech!

Me, "Miss last minute/procrastination is my middle name", knew weeks before the ceremony that I was going to have to give that speech.  Mr. Godden, our principal, had to approve it before hand and kept bugging me.  "I'll get it done!" I said - probably somewhat testily because in those days there was no Wikipedia, no computers to help you hastily write up something "meaningful"  - no, it had to be HAND WRITTEN on to those 3x5 cards, with all of your "main points" written in capitals, so you wouldn't forget them.

Here I am in my 18 year old splendor

Well, I finally got my speech written, I do remember that it was something inspiring about where we were all going from here.  And I can still remember that main point:  "AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE" -  (flip to next card) - Oh, crap - even though I had just written this dribble, I knew for sure, that the next sentence, which instructed us all on where to go from here - was missing.  I hadn't had time to proof read my cards.  Damn...  and in the way that memories hide in the corners of your mind, to tell you the truth, I really don't remember how I recovered from that boo-boo.

Somehow I finished up the speech, got my diploma and was off to the many "graduation parties" that were happening that night - well not really "many" - there were only 12 of us - and nine of us had gone through all 12 years together - "One big happy family" - yeah, right...

But I still remember that date - May 28, 1970.