Poll choice:
NONE OF THE ABOVE
Answer: “Impossible”.
My yearbooks were lost in a fire.
Before that, looking at them brought back great memories.
Last class reunion, fifty years after the fact, I was able to recognize just about all of my friends at a glance, after having gone through the books a few days prior.
@phendrick
Came to say basically the same except I tossed mine a LONG time ago… and I never looked at them… And I didn’t go to any of my reunions… Ok, so maybe not quite the same thing
@chienfou No, not quite…
I hope you have lots of good friends now. I had a lot more then than now, for sure. Living in a different part of the state now doesn’t help to keep up with those old friends though.
@phendrick
I moved out of the US, back to the US, to a different state, to a different different state, to another different state and now to the last different different state. I kept up with a total of ZERO people I went to HS with. Ditto for college. Made other friends along the way, a handful of which I still keep in contact with. Now have a core group of friends locally. But, most importantly, I still have my best friend. We’ve been married almost 44 yrs.
@phendrick
You can get reprints of old year books on the internet. I stumbled across it while looking for info about my class reunion. No idea what the site was, I just know it’s possible. Or check salvo if you still live in that area, I’ve seen old yearbooks there.
@chienfou Yeah, that’s part of my problem: My wife (= best friend) has been institutionalized with Alzheimer’s for over two years now. At this point, she usually cannot connect with any memories of our marriage; our wedding was over 25 years ago. When he visits, our son is not sure she knows him. I guess he is now my best friend.
@Star2236 I’ve got on-line access to my university’s year books, for both my undergraduate and graduate years (latter doesn’t do much for me).
Haven’t found such for my high school years (haven’t really looked). Even if I had such, I would not have the content that meant the most to me – all the signatures, notes, well-wishes, insider jokes written inside AND all the photo prints, newspaper clippings, and handouts from our clubs that I had stuck inside and between the different years’ books. I do still have some class pictures that were kept separate – they were very large format panoramic shots and kept at the other end of the house.
@phendrick
I couldn’t imagine if lost all of my photos from my youth, I feel very bad for you. When I lived in my apartment there was a flood in the storage room and I was the only person that had their stuff up on crates and it saved all my photos. The person next to me was cleaning out hers as I moved out and all her photos were mush in sewage water, I felt so bad.
@katbyter And that when I had to give a valedictorian speech, it was just before the era of portable VHS cameras (and a few decades before camera phones). So I’m going with the theory that no evidence still exists from that, which is a good thing.
@Kyeh I thought I hated it at the time, but when I look back, actually it wasn’t that bad. Socially, still mostly a disaster, but what isn’t at that age except maybe for the popular few? But in terms of the teachers and education and the resources the school had (early computers, electronics and audio labs, etc) I realize I was pretty damn lucky. And my first “job” running computers for school administration. This was late 70s.
@pmarin Well, if you were valedictorian, I suspect you had a better time than I did! I was bored, lonely, and alienated. College was a much better experience.
@Kyeh Well, yeah, not the bored, but the lonely and alienated definitely. Wasn’t easy being a geek (or was it nerd?) before that became fashionable. Thanks Mark Zuckerberg, you made it trendy about 20 yrs too late for my HS experience.
@pmarin Right! On the other hand, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with the social media stuff; social ostracism in person was bad enough but you could avoid it outside of school back then.
I always laugh my ass off at all the “clubs” that we had. Mini-golf. Ping pong. Chess (which, should be an actual thing, but it was just the soccer coach and soccer players). Etc.
My yearbook is full of long haired hippy people and flower children. It was the mid 70’s and Vietnam was winding down. It was the political equivalent to current day political and social activism. Pass blame on whoever was in office; Nixon then Ford. Smoking pot in the high school parking lot in your pick-up truck with two or three of your favorite rifles and shotguns mounted on the gun rack in the back window. No one shot up the school, it wasn’t even a thought. After my photo and name in my senior yearbook the list of clubs and achievements, awards, etc. is just a blank white space. I didn’t have time for any of that. I had to get home to do my chores and go fishing.
I look at mine relatively often. One of my kiddos is entering high school next year and I talk about my school days a lot. It was chaotic, fun, full of mental health issues… but I like to look back on it so I can see how much I learned then and have grown now. I did A LOT in high school: newspaper, yearbook, NHS, karate, cheerleading, theater, technical school, college courses, paid internships, and so much more… but mostly i did it all just so I wouldn’t have to be at my house which was a haven of bad moods since my sister had a baby when I was a freshman and she was a junior.
By senior year I had quit all my friend groups… gossiping, accusations, and small-mindedness just made me not want to be around them. So, I was in the yearbook a lot (because of all the groups), but I never made friend connections from it all. I was just there to do my thing because I enjoyed it.
I guess it depends on what year. My freshman year I was like everybody else wanting to fit in and be popular but then something changed sophomore year, I guess I really grew up. I didn’t care about being popular or fitting in, if people didn’t like it they could fuck off, I did what I wanted and said what I wanted and was proud to be me. Junior and senior year I really didn’t go to school much. My friends were 21 and I had a fake ID, so almost every night after work I went to the bar with them till close and was to tired to go to school the next morning. I didn’t even find I had enough credits to walk till the morning of commencements my mom got a call saying it was ok I go. Looking back it was still great times but something that I would not want to repeat.
Humbling. I look at the Oscar and Tony winners, the formerly youngest MLB manager, the MD who treated our last president, the newly minted Georgia State Senator, co-chair of the Facebook Oversight Board, and wonder how the heck I got into that school.
@galewarning Wow that’s quite a list. The late Robin Williams was the most notable celebrity at my HS but it was a few years before I got there. A bunch of teachers remembered him. I think he got the yearbook honor of “least likely to succeed” though I’ve never seen printed evidence of that. Might just be a good local myth.
I did work along with the future Facebook Director of Engineering in my early work career.
I was Home Schooled in High School because it was either that or Alternative School (bad kids school)… So my yearbook is just a picture of my mom and me at the kitchen table… and for the record… my mom was a teacher for many years… and she even failed me in two classes during those years… I was supposed to be the Class of 2000… So you could say I was Home Schooled before it was cool
Nostalgia. My grade school is gone; there weren’t enough kids in the area to keep it open. My high school is gone; the diocese sold it to the county school district when they opened a new larger campus at the expanding edge of town where there were more younger families. The old campus was used for about 10 years, I think as a ‘magnet’ school, then got demolished. Nothing left. Big dirt lot. And memories, some pics and more negatives from my Pentax Spotmatic F camera, and the yearbooks. Meh.
Depressing! What happened to those kids with dreams of slaying dragons?
Not to keep hammering on the trans thing but I’ll just say embarrassing doesn’t behind to cover it
@DoctorOW “behind”?
Whose behind?
Your behind?
You need to cover it?
(I often need to cover mine!)
Poll choice:
NONE OF THE ABOVE
Answer: “Impossible”.
My yearbooks were lost in a fire.
Before that, looking at them brought back great memories.
Last class reunion, fifty years after the fact, I was able to recognize just about all of my friends at a glance, after having gone through the books a few days prior.
@phendrick
Came to say basically the same except I tossed mine a LONG time ago… and I never looked at them… And I didn’t go to any of my reunions… Ok, so maybe not quite the same thing
@chienfou No, not quite…
I hope you have lots of good friends now. I had a lot more then than now, for sure. Living in a different part of the state now doesn’t help to keep up with those old friends though.
@phendrick
I moved out of the US, back to the US, to a different state, to a different different state, to another different state and now to the last different different state. I kept up with a total of ZERO people I went to HS with. Ditto for college. Made other friends along the way, a handful of which I still keep in contact with. Now have a core group of friends locally. But, most importantly, I still have my best friend. We’ve been married almost 44 yrs.
@phendrick
You can get reprints of old year books on the internet. I stumbled across it while looking for info about my class reunion. No idea what the site was, I just know it’s possible. Or check salvo if you still live in that area, I’ve seen old yearbooks there.
@chienfou Yeah, that’s part of my problem: My wife (= best friend) has been institutionalized with Alzheimer’s for over two years now. At this point, she usually cannot connect with any memories of our marriage; our wedding was over 25 years ago. When he visits, our son is not sure she knows him. I guess he is now my best friend.
@Star2236 I’ve got on-line access to my university’s year books, for both my undergraduate and graduate years (latter doesn’t do much for me).
Haven’t found such for my high school years (haven’t really looked). Even if I had such, I would not have the content that meant the most to me – all the signatures, notes, well-wishes, insider jokes written inside AND all the photo prints, newspaper clippings, and handouts from our clubs that I had stuck inside and between the different years’ books. I do still have some class pictures that were kept separate – they were very large format panoramic shots and kept at the other end of the house.
@phendrick
I couldn’t imagine if lost all of my photos from my youth, I feel very bad for you. When I lived in my apartment there was a flood in the storage room and I was the only person that had their stuff up on crates and it saved all my photos. The person next to me was cleaning out hers as I moved out and all her photos were mush in sewage water, I felt so bad.
Just plain weird. There’s not enough wine in my house to broach that subject!
@sillyheathen Luckily there is a site linked at the bottom left of the page that can help you with your wine deficiency.
@pmarin I may or may not have three cases enroute from the afore mentioned website… also we need to split the current deal!
Meh. 100% meh.
@bblood
One of the best tv show, so sad it’s over. Extremely hilarious.
Nostalgic for some things, and glad much of it is in the past. And that there is not photographic evidence of the rest.
@katbyter And that when I had to give a valedictorian speech, it was just before the era of portable VHS cameras (and a few decades before camera phones). So I’m going with the theory that no evidence still exists from that, which is a good thing.
Like entering a different zone.
I hated high school so I got rid of mine, but I regret that now. Oh well.
@Kyeh I thought I hated it at the time, but when I look back, actually it wasn’t that bad. Socially, still mostly a disaster, but what isn’t at that age except maybe for the popular few? But in terms of the teachers and education and the resources the school had (early computers, electronics and audio labs, etc) I realize I was pretty damn lucky. And my first “job” running computers for school administration. This was late 70s.
@pmarin Well, if you were valedictorian, I suspect you had a better time than I did! I was bored, lonely, and alienated. College was a much better experience.
@Kyeh Well, yeah, not the bored, but the lonely and alienated definitely. Wasn’t easy being a geek (or was it nerd?) before that became fashionable. Thanks Mark Zuckerberg, you made it trendy about 20 yrs too late for my HS experience.
@pmarin Right! On the other hand, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with the social media stuff; social ostracism in person was bad enough but you could avoid it outside of school back then.
Never had any yearbooks cuz we couldn’t afford them, and I was homeschooled for most of my schooling career.
Nails on a chalkboard.
Frightening, more so if you actually look in the yearbook
I always laugh my ass off at all the “clubs” that we had. Mini-golf. Ping pong. Chess (which, should be an actual thing, but it was just the soccer coach and soccer players). Etc.
My yearbook is full of long haired hippy people and flower children. It was the mid 70’s and Vietnam was winding down. It was the political equivalent to current day political and social activism. Pass blame on whoever was in office; Nixon then Ford. Smoking pot in the high school parking lot in your pick-up truck with two or three of your favorite rifles and shotguns mounted on the gun rack in the back window. No one shot up the school, it wasn’t even a thought. After my photo and name in my senior yearbook the list of clubs and achievements, awards, etc. is just a blank white space. I didn’t have time for any of that. I had to get home to do my chores and go fishing.
Old…it makes me feel old.
I look at mine relatively often. One of my kiddos is entering high school next year and I talk about my school days a lot. It was chaotic, fun, full of mental health issues… but I like to look back on it so I can see how much I learned then and have grown now. I did A LOT in high school: newspaper, yearbook, NHS, karate, cheerleading, theater, technical school, college courses, paid internships, and so much more… but mostly i did it all just so I wouldn’t have to be at my house which was a haven of bad moods since my sister had a baby when I was a freshman and she was a junior.
By senior year I had quit all my friend groups… gossiping, accusations, and small-mindedness just made me not want to be around them. So, I was in the yearbook a lot (because of all the groups), but I never made friend connections from it all. I was just there to do my thing because I enjoyed it.
I guess it depends on what year. My freshman year I was like everybody else wanting to fit in and be popular but then something changed sophomore year, I guess I really grew up. I didn’t care about being popular or fitting in, if people didn’t like it they could fuck off, I did what I wanted and said what I wanted and was proud to be me. Junior and senior year I really didn’t go to school much. My friends were 21 and I had a fake ID, so almost every night after work I went to the bar with them till close and was to tired to go to school the next morning. I didn’t even find I had enough credits to walk till the morning of commencements my mom got a call saying it was ok I go. Looking back it was still great times but something that I would not want to repeat.
Mostly hilarious.
Humbling. I look at the Oscar and Tony winners, the formerly youngest MLB manager, the MD who treated our last president, the newly minted Georgia State Senator, co-chair of the Facebook Oversight Board, and wonder how the heck I got into that school.
@galewarning Wow that’s quite a list. The late Robin Williams was the most notable celebrity at my HS but it was a few years before I got there. A bunch of teachers remembered him. I think he got the yearbook honor of “least likely to succeed” though I’ve never seen printed evidence of that. Might just be a good local myth.
I did work along with the future Facebook Director of Engineering in my early work career.
It’s something I do not do. I hated that school, and want to never think about the time I spent there.
I was Home Schooled in High School because it was either that or Alternative School (bad kids school)… So my yearbook is just a picture of my mom and me at the kitchen table… and for the record… my mom was a teacher for many years… and she even failed me in two classes during those years… I was supposed to be the Class of 2000… So you could say I was Home Schooled before it was cool
Nostalgia. My grade school is gone; there weren’t enough kids in the area to keep it open. My high school is gone; the diocese sold it to the county school district when they opened a new larger campus at the expanding edge of town where there were more younger families. The old campus was used for about 10 years, I think as a ‘magnet’ school, then got demolished. Nothing left. Big dirt lot. And memories, some pics and more negatives from my Pentax Spotmatic F camera, and the yearbooks. Meh.