The Yearbook Revisit

Yesterday I received a friend request on Facebook from someone I thought I’d gone to high school with. I spent most of the day wondering why this person had a younger birthdate until I realized it was not the girl from high school, but someone I’d met through a professional organization years before. You’re probably thinking I must be some kind of special idiot to make this mistake, but both of them have very unusual names and look similar. Plus, in my defense, I haven’t seen my former classmate for probably 25+ years so I’m sure you can understand my initial confusion.

All of this prompted me to drag out my yearbooks to find a picture of the girl I initially thought had contacted me. She left Greenwood after our sophomore year. After finding her photo I decided to browse through the yearbook and laugh at all the pictures. This was 1982 and we were some stylin’ sophomores. My photo is in black and white but I remember what I was wearing: a pink oxford shirt (with monogram), dark jeans and my pink heart-shaped earrings. My hair is short, parted down the middle and feathered. Oh yeah, I looked good.

What really cracked me up was reading all the inscriptions in the yearbook. Apparently I was described by many as  “sweet,” “crazy,” “weird,” “funny” and “entertaining.” I was also reminded that during my sophomore year  I participated in a game of strip Crazy Eights while on a trip to the state basketball finals. That little game haunted me for many years and was even played at our senior skip day trip. In the grand scheme of things, the game was quite tame. We never made it past our underwear (which probably covered more than most bathing suits) and only four of us played. I believe, if memory serves me right, it was me, Chris Wilson, Dan Boone and Rachel Peace. We’d all been in school together since kindergarten so it was like playing with siblings. Still, the guys wasted no time telling the entire school about the game.

My sophomore year was also a time I apparently had a huge fight with my best friend, Cindy. I was reading what she wrote in my yearbook and I guess something happened where I became better friends with Rachel and Cindy got left behind. I don’t remember any of the details, but it still made me sad. Cindy and I became friends on the first day of fourth grade and had shared so much. I guess things started working out before school got out that year because there’s an addendum to Cindy’s original note. All I know is that by the time we’d reached senior year, she was my best friend and confidant. Cindy was the one I shared everything with and the one I trusted most. While I remember having a lot of fun with Rachel, especially during Driver’s Ed, most of my good high school memories involve Cindy.

The fashions really cracked me up. Greenwood was a preppy school and we embraced the look. In group photos I noticed that almost all the girls were wearing Topsiders, oxford shirts or polos and rolled jeans. My Topsiders were actually the first pair of shoes I wore out and still kept wearing them. I remember having a collection of plaid skirts with matching sweaters, penny loafers (into which I inserted Canadian dimes), pleated jeans and khakis. I dressed up for school. Cindy and I would spend the summer discussing what we were going to wear on the first day of school. The most memorable outfit was our white jeans, blue shirts from Steve’s Shoes and Nike tennis shoes. I believe that was worn on the first day of 8th grade. Cindy can correct me if I’m wrong.

Ahh memories.