On Friday, May 26th 1967, I attend my high school graduation ceremony upon completing 13 years of education by many of Tracy’s finest educators at that time.
I don’t know who was happier at seeing me exit the district 417 school system –the many teachers I challenged and sometimes tormented over the years with my mischievous behavior or me. I tended to be a bit of a rebel and it isn’t much of an understatement to say I was a bit immature for my age. My wife says “I’m still working on it!’’
The graduation ceremony cumulated several weeks of many different activities leading up to graduation. First, we all had to make appointments to get our senior yearbook photos taken downtown at Stassen’s Photo Studio on Third Street.
For the girls, this entailed getting their hair done by one of the local beauticians while the boys had to find a suit to wear if they didn’t already have one. If you take a look at any of the old Teton Yearbooks from years prior to the 1970s, you will observe a very cleancut group of senior students who all pretty much look alike, a very homogenous example of small-town, middle-class kids much different than the diversity in Tracy today.
After getting your senior picture taken, the next item on your graduation checkoff list was getting measured for your high school graduation gown. Also, on the list was going down to the Tracy Headlight Herald and ordering your graduation announcements, which you then sent to all your relatives and parents’ friends.
For the closest friends and relatives, you always included a small senior photo with the graduation announcement before mailing them out in early May. While I was busy with the aforementioned tasks, my mother was busy ordering a cake from the Tracy Bakery and shopping for other items at Bill’s Super Fair for my graduation party hosted at our house. The annual high school graduation exercise generated a lot of business for many small merchants throughout Tracy.
Graduation week started off with the Baccalaureate Program on Sunday evening, May 21st, 1967, at 8 p.m. The program began with a processional in the old Central High School gym where the entire senior class marched into the gym for an hour-long program of music, scripture, and a sermon led by the Reverand Carleton Zahn. Religion was engrained in the public and private schools during that era, including the graduation ceremonies.
The program ended with a recessional where the senior class filed out of the gym to the music of “War March of the Priests,” an apt song for the soon to be men of the senior class, many of which would soon find themselves fighting in the expanding Viet Nam war in southeast Asia.
The next big event during graduation week was the American Legion Honors Program which was held on Tuesday evening, May 23rd, 1967, also at 8 p.m. in the high school gym. At this program (which is still held today), all the seniors who excelled scholastically or exhibited leadership skills were honored with various awards including some with college scholarships.
The program started with an introduction by Doug Johnson who was the Student Council President. This was followed with remarks by our high school principal, Mr. Art Marben.
The rest of the program was devoted to handing out various awards by teachers and community leaders to deserving seniors who had worked hard for the honors over their long journey through the Tracy school system.
The program ended with remarks from Mr. Curt Reinert, the commander of the local Earl Ray American Legion Post.
The next activity was Senior Skip Day which, as I recall, happened on Thursday of that week. This was like a school sanctioned “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” All the seniors rode school busses to the Arnold Amusement Park on Lake Okoboji, just across the border in Iowa, where we spent the day hanging out with each other.
After spending 13 years together with many of our classmates, it was a wonderful occasion to say goodbye to friends who we might never see again. Unfortunately, this long tradition was abused several years later with unauthorized alcohol consumption, and senior skip day is no longer part of the TMB high school graduation activities.
The commencement exercises, which capped off graduation week, were held on Friday evening, May 26th at 8 p.m. in the new Tracy Amory, next to the Municipal Building. The program started off with music by both the high school choir and high school band.
The traditional commencement address was presented by Dr. Quinn Brunson. I have no memory whatsoever of what it was about or who Dr. Brunson is. I think all the guys in our class were more focused on who was soon going to be drafted into the army while most of the gals were worried about their boyfriends going off to war – not that much different from our dads who went through the same exercise 25 years earlier during World War II.
The rest of the commencement program involved the presentation of various awards to seniors by Superintendent Dr. Bruce Govig, the presentation of the class by Principal Mr. Art Marben, and the presentation of diplomas by the School Board President Mr. John Vahle, Jr. This long program ended with a benediction by the Reverend Donald Eichinger and a traditional celebratorily yell by all of the graduating seniors as they tossed their mortarboard hats high into the air above the gym.
The long high school graduation week (actually eight days) ended on my birthday, Sunday May 28th, when my parents hosted a reception at our house from 2-5 p.m.
Almost all the graduation parties for my fellow graduates occurred at the same time and many of our teachers made the rounds to all the various parties. It was an exhaustive day for our poor teachers who did their best to make an appearance at each of their student’s parties. All my local relatives including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins attended as well as many of my parents’ friends. It was a long afternoon and unfortunately, at our household no alcohol was served – mom and dad were devout tea-totaling Methodists.
Maybe that’s why I’m now a Presbyterian!
But I digress, the lack of alcohol probably limited the amount of time some people stayed at our house but most likely not the teachers. At that time, teachers had an unwritten rule to not consume alcohol in public settings, especially when students or their parents were present. Throughout the afternoon, I met with my various teachers, friends and relatives as they congratulated me on my accomplishment. It was a long day but as a side benefit, it resulted in many cash gifts which I soon used for college expenses.
In retrospect, celebrating the graduation from high school is about marking when kids move from childhood into adulthood. Our senior year is when most of us turned 18, old enough to serve in the military. It’s also when many of us moved out of our parents’ homes as I did three months later when I went to college.
It was indeed a big event along the timeline of life.
Next month: Post Tornado Summer Construction Job
