Way Back When-sday: 1979 - My Senior Year

1979 - My Senior Year

Today is the perfect day to reminisce about 1979, my Senior year of High School, because this coming Saturday night we will be attending my 30 year High School Reunion!!

Wow, has it really been 30 years...?? I'm afraid so. I've had some mixed emotions about attending this reunion (mostly because I have not been connected with most of these folks since school), but now that it's almost here, I am very excited! Johnny and I will be attending with our dear friends Connie and Buddy - Connie was in my class and my best friend senior year (and now again since I moved back to Houston). Should be fun! I've been digging around in my hope chest and found lots of senior year memorabilia that I will be bringing along to share...issues of our school paper, my senior year scrapbook, prom photos, prom program, etc. I've scanned a number of these things to share with you guys as well - please indulge me as I look back for a bit - I imagine some of this will trigger memories for you as well...

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Connie and I really got to know one another well our senior year when we were both in H.E.C.E. (Home Economics Cooperative Education). This was a program/class that worked with local home economic-oriented businesses to employ students. While in H.E.C.E. my senior year I got out of school at noon to be able to work half a day. I worked at Cloth World and spent a fair amount of my time there as a special order clerk in the bridal department. (loved that job - but overall was never a big fan of working retail)


Here is a photo of our H.E.C.E. officers (I'm 5th from the left - Connie is 3rd from the left) - somehow or another I managed to get elected as president of the club...we had SO much fun that year!!


In this photo, Connie and Buddy were attending Buddy's senior prom - he went to our big rival High School in town.

I'm happy that we will be spending the weekend with this sweet, wonderful couple starting Friday afternoon. We will ride down with them to the reunion on Saturday evening, then spend one more night with them Saturday night and head back home Sunday. We always have a blast with these two - never a dull moment...

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The prom at our school was such fun for me. I had a boyfriend my senior year so I had a built in date and didn't have to go through the angst of hoping for an invitation...

Here I am, getting ready (my brother's girlfriend was playing makeup artist) - and, what a shock...I was on the phone...I lived on the phone back then. (I guess today I'd be texting in this photo :o)

For a long time I had been dreaming of wearing a peach prom dress (my favorite color at the time) and my date would wear a chocolate brown tux with a ruffled peach shirt. So that's exactly what we did... My mom made my dress out of peach "Quiana" (do you remember that fabric??). I had it picked out at Cloth World for months before the prom. She also sewed onto the empire waist a little peach millinery flower accent that I had found while working in the bridal department. I guess it would be a vintage piece now...

I was on the Program Committee for the prom and was able to do several of the illustrations inside. Here's the cover (I didn't draw that one)...


I did this little pen and ink illustration on the menu page. Goodness I wish I could draw that over now! :o)....

I had fun doing this illustration on the Entertainment page...

I showed a set of student's legs wearing their everyday school clothes, then the same kids dressed for prom... hey, I think some of these looks are back again :o)

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Class Motto:

Yesterday is already a dream
and tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived,
makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness,
and every tomorrow
a vision of hope
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Class Song:

"Poems, Prayers, and Promises" by John Denver

I lobbied hard for having this song as our senior song - I nominated it and printed up the words to the song and passed them out all over school. I was a BIG John Denver fan and I thought the words (most of them) were great for this time in our lives. Here is a YouTube video of John Denver singing the song... (please ignore the little "Save the Tiger" blurb at the end)

Here are the words to the 2nd Chorus of the song...

I have to say it now - it's been a good life all in all,
it's really fine to have the chance to hang around,
and lie there by the fire and watch the evening tire,
while all my friends and my old lady
sit and watch the sun go down,
and talk of poems, prayers, and promises,
things that we believe in,
how sweet it is to love someone,
how right it is to care,
how long it's been since yesterday,
what about tomorrow,
and what about our dreams and all the memories we share...

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I also nominated and lobbied hard for the Class Colors - Pastel Rainbow, and the Class Flower too - Spring Bouquet...

And even way back then I was setting up and photographing still lifes...here is a vignette of my prom dress and associated memorabilia...

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My boyfriend went to a different high school in a close by town, so I was able to attend two senior proms that year. The dress I wore to his prom was a white gauzy tiered Gunnie Sax dress - remember those?? I loved anything Gunnie Sax! Here I am pinning on my date's boutonniere...

...and here we are in my front driveway in front of his beloved Camaro...
(recognize the "Tennille" haircut from the Captain and Tennille...?? :o)

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The year culminated in our graduation of course...it's mostly all a blur really because we had a class of 566, so it took forever. However, this day had extra significance for me because my Dad was in attendance - just two short weeks before graduation he had undergone 14 hours of brain surgery to remove a damaged section of his brain from the Cerebral Hemorrhage he had suffered several months prior. It was a real blessing for him to be there...for all of us!

Here I am getting my diploma...

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Now I really am looking forward to seeing folks again at the Reunion this weekend...I went to our 10th, but missed the 20th, but I know from looking at photos and reading bios on Classmates, Facebook, and our Reunion website that folks have certainly changed and matured a lot these past 30 years...I don't mean so much in looks, (although all of our looks certainly have changed)...but more the type of change that comes from a wide variety of life experiences that we have all had. It's that kind of change that I hope to explore as we spend time talking and getting reacquainted.

I'll have camera in hand, so I should have photos and stories to share for sure!! Please stay tuned!!

HUGS!!