Well, let’s see. If memory serves, it was right around this time, 34 years ago, that I was working up the courage to ask a girl in my Vernon Senior Secondary School Class of 1981 to be my grad date.
And it would have been right around this time, as well, that about 60 of my fellow guy graduates and I went into a now-defunct Vernon clothing store and ordered suits for grads.
It took about three weeks for me to finally get up the nerve to ask the girl out, even though she knew I was going to ask her.
I asked her on a Friday and she said she needed the weekend to think about it, you know, giving me a taste of my own medicine. She said yes.
On Monday afternoon. After school was out.
As for the suits, well…
Our grad day was Thursday, June 25. On Tuesday, June 23, the suits had not arrived.
We were all scrambling for Plan B. My Plan B was my friend’s dad, basically same size and shape as me. He was willing to loan me one of his suits.
No worries. The suits showed up June 24.
Back in 1981, there was only one high school in Vernon. VSSS. We were it.
Fulton, Kal and Seaton were junior secondary schools, Grades 8 to 10. You’d spend three years there and you couldn’t wait to go up to “The Hill.”
Because everybody went to one high school, the grad class was, well, large. Like 500 students large.
Thursday, June 25, 1981, was a scorcher.
We gathered at the court house at about 6 p.m. for the picture at 6:30 p.m. You wanted to get there early to get a good spot and to make sure you could be seen in the picture.
And, of course, once in your spot – ladies up front, guys up top – you had to look straight ahead for about half-an-hour because you didn’t want to be looking to the side for your forever grad class picture.
And I don’t think we knew who the official photographer was but there were about 100 cameras clicking away.
Several people collapsed because of the heat.
After that, it was over to the Vernon Civic Arena for the formal portion of grad. You know the Civic, built in the 1930s, aluminum roof, no air conditioning. Probably hotter inside than outside.
You get announced, walk across the stage, receive your certificate, then sit in the stands where parents and other invited guesses are fanning themselves profusely with the programs.
Once the ceremony was done, it was over to the Vernon Recreation Centre for a formal dance with the parents.
At this point, we grads are eagerly anticipating getting out of the monkey suits and formal dresses, getting into our regular every day attire and heading to the after grad party which was held, formally, at the Our Heaven Roller Rink and, informally, in the field now occupied by DCT Chambers Trucking.
Grad night was a fun night. There were some melodramas, some goodbyes, but still, it was a nice way to end 12 years of public schooling.
The two years at VSSS went by quickly but, speaking for myself, they were two of the best years of my life.
I made lifelong friendships in those old brick-filled hallways.
The Vernon Senior Secondary School Class of 1981 is special, and I’m proud and honoured to be part of it. We have had three reunions and a collective 50th birthday party since that last night of June 25, 1981. Each event has had more than 150 or 200 grads return.
Whenever we get together, we pick up just like it was 1981. With tons of smiles and millions of laughs.
I hope all North Okanagan grad classes of 2015 will be able to say the same thing 34 years from now. May you all have a safe and happy grad night.
