Down memory lane

Today, my alma mater celebrated its 100th birthday, and I was so proud to go and help represent my class of 1971. High school was a bittersweet time for me. In my sophmore year, at the age of 14, we lost my dad. It was a difficult time for me and my sisters, and now as an adult, I can only imagine what my mom at the tender age of 31, with four daughters to finish raising, must have been going through. We persevered and made it through, with the help of family, friends, and our school guidance counselors. I even had a couple of teachers that wrapped me up in their arms, and I dove headstrong into school, and everything about it. I loved high school life!  A few months later, I met my high school sweetheart, and at the beginning of my senior year, we got married, and two years later, we started our family. Our son is the only one of our three kids who went to our alma mater, and it was only for a few months. I did, however, have three sisters, a grandson, and a niece that graduated from there as well.

            Looking down this hallway, my locker is on the right side at the top of the picture. (Not that
            that would matter to you, but I thought the hallway looked cool)

This is the ever revered senior square and we carved our names into the bench closest to the building. If you weren't a senior (and we knew them all!) and you stepped foot onto the square, you would more than likely find yourself being thrown into a trash can, ass first. Oh, the humiliation!

I was able to locate my locker, where my boyfriend would meet me at after each class, until he had me move into his with him. The layout of our high school hasn't really changed much...senior square is still in the same spot, and the same benches we carved our names into...Anton + Debbie....are still there....43 years later. It seemed like I was in a time warp. I went out onto the football field where we used to snuggle up together to watch the games. While we are no longer married, it is a time of my life with good memories that are forever imprinted on our brains.

Walking through those hallways today, all of the laughter, and the muffled voices came back. The school has since been remodeled into a more high tech school, complete with a culinary center that has an actual commercial kitchen. It's fantastic, and the kids that get to attend San Juan High School are very, very fortunate! It was so fun visiting with people that you've known your whole life, and reminiscing about the days of old. If I didn't know them personally, they knew my former sisters in law and their husbands, or possibly my siblings. I even ran into one of the women I knit with every Tuesday, and didn't even know she was a "Spartan". It really is a small world!

  My Dec. Arts class...it didn't look like this back then. We had tables to go along with the chairs. I'm not sure what this room is used for today.

I was able to get a picture of the one classroom where I had my favorite class, Decorative Arts. Things certainly have changed a lot in 43 years! This is the class where I started my knitting back up, after a couple of years break from it in middle school. Since I already knew how, I became an aide to my teacher, and helped all the other girls learn how to knit and crochet. My other favorite class was Home Ec, but the actual classroom wasn't opened up. I learned to perfect my sewing skills in that class, and still love it to this day!

I'm so glad the Booster Club was selling souvenirs, and the Parent-Teacher-Student Organization, was giving away some cool bracelets just for pledging to help keep young people off drugs.

                                                                   My Spartan hat!

                                                            My Spartan pride t-shirt!

And my most treasured....my class ring!!! (Yes, it still fits, but it was hard to take the picture with one hand.)

I was so happy to go back to school today, and look forward to continuing lifelong friendships with the people we grew up with!!