As we continue to trip down memory lane, today is the 30th anniversary of my Bishop Egan High School graduation… it was on a Friday evening, at St. Michael the Archangel Church, when my fellow graduates and I assembled for the last time as the Class of 1980.  We wore our caps, our gowns, and our blue and gray hoods, and waited throughout the ceremony and Baccalaureate Mass until finally each of our names was called, and we rose in recognition of our newly earned alumni status.  What began on a rainy morning in September 1976 drew to a close, never to open again.  All of the structure and daily rituals with which we’d become so familiar, for many of us was now to be replaced with the much more loosely defined activities of college; some would seek immediate opportunities in the workplace, others would struggle to find their purpose and place in the world, while for some of us those distinctions were not so clear.

I’d carried a lot of baggage along the way; some of it had been useful stuff which offered me a source of inspiration and wisdom, while much of it had been dead weight, dragging me down and keeping me from moving forward.  Sometimes, I am a slow learner; it took a long time for me to recognize when it was time to take action and cut loose the excess baggage, put my learnings and experiences to good use, and move on: to finally graduate.

There is no way that I ever imagined, as I write this now, the various directions my life has taken since that Friday evening; living in New Jersey for nearly 20 years, raising two great kids with a wonderful woman I met nearly 19 years ago, whom I never thought upon our initial meeting that I would marry, now nearly 12 years ago.

On a separate note, today also marks the 31st anniversary of the Bishop Conwell High School Class of 1979 Baccalaureate.  I attended the Mass as a photographer for the yearbook, using Warren Stewart’s 35mm camera, and when I was finished taking pictures I had a hard time re-winding the film onto the spool, as I did not know that there was a button on the camera bottom to release the film. I ended up winding the film too tightly until it snapped inside the shutterbox; I tried to be careful and not expose the film by opening the camera and removing the film in a darkened closet when I got home, and I put the film back inside the plastic barrel and then inside the film box and taped it shut.  The pictures I took that night have never seen the light of day, as that film has never been developed and still sits inside the container.  I really should take it out for development, but after this much time I’d be very much surprised if any images were still on the film. I do remember taking a picture of a daisy that Susan had given me at Joe’s party on the night of June 2nd…

This Sunday,  June 9th, will mark the BCHS Class of 1979 graduation; I was out on the front lawn cutting the grass on that Saturday morning when a car sped up my house, parked, and out jumped Susan to run over and give me an enormous hug of excitement.  Later that night, her family hosted a graduation party at her house on Fairview Avenue; I wore my rainbow suspenders, and briefly met her Mom before heading to the backyard to hang out with Joe and some others whom I no longer remember.  I vaguely recall Zsoka being there, and I think quite possibly I might have gotten a ride home with her; Jimi Hendrix was singing Hey Joe as Zsoka and I were leaving.

I rode my bike over to Susan’s house one or two times during the course of the summer, but by August, Susan and I were hardly speaking; she left for school at Davis and Elkins in West Virginia, and her house was sold out of her parents’ divorce.  When I finally saw Susan again in December of 1979, she was living at the Village of Pennbrook apartments and there was no going back to Fairview Avenue again.

Lastly, today is also the 23rd wedding anniversary of my dear friends Tom and Nicole.  They’re living in suburban Atlanta now for I think 14 years, and I don’t see them nearly as often as I’d like, i.e. maybe once/year if we’re lucky.  We used to spend quite a bit of time together in the late 80’s and in the early 90’s when I first moved to New Jersey (they were living in Somerset back then) back before we were all married with kids.  Their oldest now is preparing for her own graduation and college…