Memory Monday-Graduation

Graduation, a conclusion of one chapter, a beginning of another." Catherine Pulsifer 

       We finally made it to graduation!! At least some of us did...as it turned out, there was one course that Dick had to pass in order to graduate and this one professor had given him a failing grade....so...on to MY graduation!

The Columns and Jesse Hall

     Summer graduation was held outside...between the Columns and  Jesse Hall. Chairs were set up on the grass for the graduates, kind of a quad area with a sidewalk all the way around.  A stage was set up for faculty and graduates to walk across....chairs on the sides for guests.  Well, we have marched in, cap and gown, and taken our seats...I am looking for my family...mom, dad, brother Jack, sister Judy, her husband, Jim, baby Doug, my three cousins, Carolyn Dale, Doll, Fran and my grandmother. And there they are....walking up one side of the walk, around behind the stage, and down the other sidewalk looking for seats!  The first commencement speaker had begun...and, of course, I am mortified...still young enough to be embarrassed by family!
      After the ceremony, time to spend with family...they are all staying in a motel in Columbia...I am still in my apartment which BTW is completely furnished so all I have to pack are my personal items...clothes, books, bar stool.  Out to a big dinner with the family..but I am most anxious to get to the PARTY!  After all, this is my final shot of freedom before becoming a real adult with a real job! I eventually get away and head to the Knight, looking for Dick.
        I am sitting there among my friends and in he walks....with this "susie" he had dated last summer!  I will not go into detail the words that were running through my mind....very blue!!! but Beth and I left there and went to other places with another group!  We ended up at the Coronado Club, one of our hangouts on the edge of town.
      Now, I am going to confess something here because it is part of who I am...so don't judge!! Here I am...newly graduated....just beginning to realize...oh crap! I'm an adult now...I'm in charge of me!  and the guy whom I was thinking I am in love with just really messed with me!!  So I am overindulging in the alcohol thing..sitting on my favorite bar stool, having a blast, extolling about how I am going to miss this bar stool. I am dared to "steal" the bar stool and I do!!  The place is so busy no one notices that I walk out with a bar stool and put it in the back of this friend's pickup truck which he delivers to my apartment for me later.

Very much like my bar stool except a single door rail rather than a double.

     Later that night, we end up back at the Knight...Dick is no longer with the "susie"...he has been looking for me...we make up...all is well! Except for the fact he was so angry with not getting to graduate that he had gone to the Air Force Recruiting Office and signed up for a four year hitch in the military!