Beau Peep Notice Board
Beau Peep Notice Board => Outpourings => Topic started by: Diane CBPFC on June 26, 2010, 05:22:30 PM
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My oldest son is graduating from high school today. They make a big fuss of it in Canada with caps and gowns. I will be so proud as he walks across the stage to get his diploma. The parents escort their child down the isle too. We sure didn't do anything so grand when I left school in Wales.
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My eldest granddaughter is having a 'prom' night (whatever that is!) on Wednesday. Originally, they were all supposed to turn up at school be-suited and be-frocked to collect some sort of a certificate before going straight to the hotel/pub; as most of the girls (including Chloe) have acquired meringues to wear, the powers-that-be decided to just give them their bits of paper during lesson and let them get to the venue from home!
Like Diana said; we had nuffin' like that in Liverpool in 1961.
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I don't actually remember my last day at school. I remember going to school before it, and never having to go again after it, but the day itself wasn't very memorable in the slightest.
I think it's good that such an important occasion is now marked in some way.
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I wrote a huge response to this, talking about the Americanisation of U.K. culture when the computer cut out. Suffice to say I mentioned how my daughter had to get a ridiculously expensive "Prom Dress" and a limo to take her and her pals to the bash.
When I left school, we had a "school dance". The boys smoked in the toilet, drank smuggled bottles of beer and then threw up before asking if we could walk one of the girls home.
We were cool, we were.
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Same here, Roger, only in Oz they call it the "Formal". Our older boy is due to have his at the end of the year prior to him going to Schoolies Week on the Gold Coast, where they are exposed to the pleasures of the flesh, drink, drugs and whatever else at the age of 16.
Many Australians actually accept this as a rite-of-passage thing and no longer comment on it, but I see it as the continuing Americanization of Western economies, where our kids and the more boneheaded parents enthusiastically lap up the worst aspects of US society, whether that be WWE wrestling, Sex In The City, McDonalds, whatever, whilst rejecting the more positive things to emerge from America, such as....er...
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whilst rejecting the more positive things to emerge from America, such as....er...
...NCIS??
My friend and I gave up waiting to be walked home from the school dance and headed off on our bikes. My posh dirndl skirt got caught in the spokes and I just about did an Isadora Duncan over the handlebars...and not even an illicit beer to soften the fall (that was just for the cool crowd)
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whilst rejecting the more positive things to emerge from America, such as....er...
...NCIS?? AND CSI with Grissom ........
My friend and I gave up waiting to be walked home from the school dance and headed off on our bikes. My posh dirndl skirt got caught in the spokes and I just about did an Isadora Duncan over the handlebars...and not even an illicit beer to soften the fall (that was just for the cool crowd)
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Which prompts me to post my old avatar...
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Here is a picture of my beautiful boy...
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs162.snc4/37461_423909309760_545294760_4217541_1504069_n.jpg)
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What a handsome young man...you must be so proud, Diane
...and Malc's not bad, either!
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Yes, good looking and intelligent with a big future.
Diane's son, I mean.
I must add that avatar pic is about five years old. I'm a bit more grizzled now, but still worth a squeeze, I reckon.
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Did the whole cap-and-gown thing for university... not school though. Don't recall anything resembling any kind of graduation. Went to schoool, did exams, went back a month later to pick up our results, and that was that.
I don't think we ever had a "prom" or anything remotely similar at age 16. There was some kind of do after A-levels at 18, but frankly they charged £60 a go, and I didn't bother with it. Went elsewhere with mates instead.
Certainly there was none of the things you see in the local paper every summer now, with the big Proms, tuxedos and fancy frocks. Very American.
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Here is a picture of my beautiful boy...
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs162.snc4/37461_423909309760_545294760_4217541_1504069_n.jpg)
There doesn't appear to be anything there!
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What Jack said.
I decided to stay on to the bitter end of my final year, but midway through the last week, exams passed and results in the bag, I just got bored one morning and walked home after lunch, made myself a cup of tea and watched Trumpton on kids TV. Massive anti-climax to my education years. Less than two weeks later, I walked into my first full-time job on The Beano comic.
I've never been back, but my youngest daughter is now attending the same high school, and I'm hoping to get to at least a couple of her parent contact evenings over the next few years (sadly, we live 300 miles apart). She's not one for proms or the like, but she's only 12 and so far uninterested in boys, so it may all change. I'd have loved to go to one, and I'm delighted they're doing them to mark the end of not only secondary school education, but also in many primaries. These are very special years for many kids (although not for all, of course), and most won't realise just how special until they are gone. Well worthy of a big fuss at the 'end'. I can only dream of that fancy frock...
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I know you must be very proud of your son, Diane. I hope he had a fun graduation celebration!
My graduation from high school was a blast. We wore caps and gowns like Diane's son. Ours were red because the school colors were red and white. The party afterwards was an all-nighter at one of the nearby lakes. It was a wild night. The cops showed up at one point. I went to Prom and it was okay. Because I lived in a small town, there were no limos. You went in your date's car. The Prom was held at the school, but there were all-night parties afterwards at either someone's home or at the lake.
Malc, great new avatar!
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Thank you all. :)
Evan is known as a SHY, serious guy at school. When they were each called down to get their tassel flipped and pick up their diploma their “last will and testament” was read. Most of them were serious such as: “in ten years I would like to have a family and be a hairdresser”, some of them related to their super heroes (Iron Man was popular) Evan’s started off serious when it was read out that "Evan most associates with Martin Luther King" ...but then it went on.."to when he penned the phrase “Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, we’re free at last”. Well, this got the biggest laugh of the whole event. It was nice to see him up there with a little smile on his face.
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I'm a bit more grizzled now, but still worth a squeeze, I reckon.
Only if one is actually able to get their hands round your neck.
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Congratulations to Evan on graduating. He's a fine young man, Diane, no wonder you're so proud.
I didn't really graduate from high school. I went to an all girls boarding school and couldn't wait to get out of there, so as soon as I had enough Highers in the equivalent of Year 11, I was out of there. We did have a school dance, held in the school hall. They put benches across the stairs to the art room so that nobody could nip up there for a quick snog, or worse. Afterwards, the boarders and their partners were invited to one of the boarding houses for drinks with the housemistress - we were given about 5 minutes to get there - and she drove the girls back to the other boarding house.
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I too hated school Joan - hardly went very much always dodging home. I did manage to get eight "O" levels somehow though.
I can't imagine a boarding school - I was close to my parent who had me late in life. It wouldn't be so bad if you just stayed over Monday through Thursday I suppose - but in the movies it seems the kids get dropped off for months.
Do you still have friends from those days?
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Don't get me started, Diane! Boarding schools are not as bad these days, but ours was a place of petty rules. My mother even had to write to the headmistress to ask permission to take me out for the weekend! The good thing was that, yes, I do still have friends, two particularly close ones who live in the UK. I see one of them every time I go back and keep in touch with the other and saw her last time I was there - she lives in London.
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I would imagine that the atmophere would make for some close friendships as you survived together away from home.