SENIOR AT LAST!

In September of 1963, I started my senior year of high school.  Having spent my junior year trying to find my way in a new high school,  I hoped that this last year of high school would be a little better.  From the friends standpoint, I had found some kids to hang out with so the social life would be a little better.

 Having proved myself in the choral department, I was also in the A Capella choir and Madrigals.  A Capella was my first class of the day.  We had a lot of fun in the choir room waiting for class to start.  Those of us who played the piano would often sit down and play before class.

As a senior, we had senior privileges.  We could eat somewhere other than the school cafeteria, if we wanted.  There was a small courtyard between the two wings of the school that was exclusive to seniors.  Back in those days, students did not leave the school grounds AT ALL during the day.  Going to a local fast food place for lunch was not an option.  In fact, it was grounds for discipline if you were found in the school parking lot during school hours. Students bought lunch in the cafeteris or from home. So having the senior court was a big deal.

I was a member of the Future Business Leaders of America.  I guess I must have had grand ideas of being a business woman back then.  An event that the FBLA took on every year was the Miss JEB Stuart contest.  It was basically a talent/beauty pageant.  On the day that President Kennedy was shot, I was alone on the school stage preparing decorations for the contest that was to be held that night. When the announcement came over the school PA about the events in Dallas, I immediately returned to my English class.  We all sat, silent and stunned, as we listened to a radio broadcast.  When the President's death was announced, school was dismissed for the day...almost an hour and a half early.

With my group of friends, we went to football and basketball games.  There were also the occasional weekend party.  None of us really dated.  In fact, we called ourselves the "Stay At Home" gang.  Often when there was a big school dance, we didn't go, but opted for going to a movie together.  Back then, you didn't go to school dance without a date and with the exception of one girls choice dance a year, girls didn't ask boys to be their date to a dance.  I never went to a Homecoming dance or a Prom.  

One of my friends was a pretty girl named Kathy.  She was an occasional model for Seventeen magazine.  You'd think that a pretty girl like that would have boys after her all the time.  When she was chosen as the Sweetheart Queen for the Valentine's dance, she needed an escort for the dance. She didn't have a boyfriend and as the date of the dance got closer, she didn't have a date.  It never occurred to any of us that she should just ask a boy to be her date.  It was the football team quarterback who came to her rescue.  In a casual conversation with him, he found out she didn't have a date.  He stepped up and asked her to be his date.