Spectrum/I received my high school H20 (water) degree

We have been treated locally to several high school graduations. Marshall High School and Santa Fe High School on Sunday afternoon finish out the ceremonies.

When I think of high school graduation, I think of water. Lots of water.

Let me explain.

When the Bellevue High School Class of 1973 marched onto the football field so many moons ago in Pennsylvania, I took a glance up to the sky. Things did not look promising. Dark clouds were beginning to move across the sky and the wind was beginning to pick up.

But my high school principal, old Harry Williams, bless his soul, was not to be deterred by a little angry-looking weather. He knew that when they held the graduation out on the football field there was a lot more seating and it usually was cooler than the stuffy, dark old auditorium.

So even with the threatening weather, Williams pushed on. And so did the 133 members of the Class of 1973 -- including yours truly.

As we settled into the metal chairs, the wind began to increase in strength. It was blowing so hard that poor Dana Funk tried to give her graduation address, but the wind was blowing so hard that her long brown hair kept going into her mouth, making it pretty impossible to give a speech.

Another one of the speakers, his name escapes me now years later, actually lost his note cards to the wind.

And while he was speaking, the potted plants lined along the stage kept blowing off and landing ker-plunk on the football field turf.

In the audience my mother -- armed with an umbrella -- and my aunt Belle and uncle Jack were among those individuals keeping one eye on the graduates and one eye on the approaching storm.

Actually, it wasn't a storm.. Monsoon would be a better description.

But Principal Williams still wasn't deterred. Christopher Columbus Adams, one of the first graduates -- and we didn't know his middle name until graduation practice when they started announcing all those full names we seniors had kept hidden from our peers for years -- received his diploma as the first raindrops fell.

As I recall, a couple more diplomas were handed out before the heavens literally opened up with a deluge.

The boys were attired in gray robes, the girls in white.

We all scrambled to inside the auditorium, which was the hotbox that we all expected. Then graduation got even more comical, if it wasn't a laugher already.

First of all, those few lucky souls who had received their diplomas before the rainstorm had to give them back. And Principal Williams started the whole show again, minus the speeches.

As he called the names, we walked across the now spot-lit stage. Remember, the girls were wearing white.

The catcalls and whistles nearly drowned out Williams' announcement of the names as the girls tried to quickly run across the stage in their bedraggled states and not reveal too much to the hooting audience.

Decorum went right out the window. And then, there were some, appreciative of the extra attention, who strolled across the stage under the bright spot light. It was their moment and they were going to get all of it.

With all the commotion, Principal Williams mixed up his note cards and called one graduate's name twice. He only got one diploma.

I know there are many high school graduates who have made sure to keep momentos of their high school graduation.

However tempting it was, I did not keep the ruined white shirt that I wore under the gray robe that sported a high-water mark across the back.

Congratulations graduates. May the wind always be at your back and the road smooth (minus the rain).

Mason is the editor of The Marshall Democrat-News. Spectrum appears on Friday.