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Show Ten O'Clock Whistle by David Fleisher graduation: a time for reflection Park City High School will conduct graduating ceremonies tonight. For some of those graduating, it will be a time of relief, for others, penetrating thoughts about their future, and still for others, it will provoke sadness at leaving what one has been accustomed to for many years. Do you remember when you graduated from high school? I think I may have missed part of the significance of my own graduation because on the night I received my diploma, I was absorbed in trying to remember everything I had gone through from kindergarten to senior year in high school. I remember a fellow classmate singing "Climb Every Mountain" at the graduation exercises. The reason I remember this is because she sang off-key and it was rather embarrassing. And "Climb Every Mountain" is not a particulary easy song to sing; if you miss a note, the whole world hears it. But she was a nice girl and made straight A's all through school. Two days before graduation night, class was let out in order to engage in that eternal ritual known as signing yearbooks. There were some students in my school who wanted a week to sign yearbooks, but the principal flatly refused. We all sat around the halls writing things like, "I would have never made it through geometry class if it hadn't been for you. You're the greatest. Best of luck later on. Have a great summer." Or something on the order of: "I'll never forget the time you almost got in a fight with Freddy in English class. I wonder what will happen to Freddy later on? Anyway, have a great summer." It seems like the key word was "great." Everybody was great or should be great "later on." Of course, no one knew what "later on" meant exactly. And by the way, Freddy was this obnoxious five hundred-pound degenerate who enjoyed throwing water balloons at people, even during class. It was really something to see Freddy walk through the halls. He looked like a war was going on, but he was the only one fighting. And then there was Clair. Now Clair was your typical high school beauty queen. She was voted "Most Attractive" in the yearbook. Everybody was afraid to talk to Clair; she was too beautiful. You might muster up enough courage to say, "hi, Clair!" between classes, but that was it. It was just too hard to think up a sentence with more than two words to say to Clair. If you can imagine someone who looked the exact opposite of Freddy, that was Clair. We had a great (there's that word again) principal at my high school. He was strong on discipline, but everybody liked him. And he got along with all the students-except for Freddy. But then, nobody got along with Freddy. Everything seemed to happen so fast on the night we received our -diplomas (it happened on a Friday night, I remember). After "Climb Every Mountain" was over, the class president said a few words. He was a great (not again, please) speaker, but I can't remember a word he said because I was too busy burning up. The auditorium was incredibly hot, and wearing a gown didn't help. The guy sitting next to me (not Freddy, thank goodness) was sweating so much, I thought he would melt into his seat. After we got our diplomas, we went to a party and celebrated. Freddy, Clair, even the school hoodlums. We were all celebrating. One girl was crying because she was either very happy or not sure what she would do with her life "later on" or maybe she was just sad because high school had ended. The girl crying was Clair. As I think of high school days, and especially graduation night, I hear the Ten O'clock Whistle. |