Two Graduations, A Parental Visit and a Gold Award

 

OK, it isn't as clever as the movie title, but it does describe the last, hectic week.

For the first, but not the last time, we had two major graduations back to back. Rae graduated from grade school (although some would argue that isn't major) and Marlow graduated from high school.

Rae graduated first, from Orinda Intermediate School, on Thursday. The ceremony was held in the gymnasium of nearby St. Mary's College. Due to a lack of planning, the traffic leaving the Joaquin Moraga Middle School commencement was leaving just as we arrived, achieving total gridlock with no traffic control officers on scene.

Four years ago, it rained heavily on the day of Marlow's graduation from eighth grade. This year, it was breezy and in the 70s for Rae's. An outdoor graduation would have been comfortable. This one was indoors. At least the motivational speaker who interminably lengthened Marlow's commencement was absent this year. Gone too were the usual interminable speeches by school district luminaries. Several students spoke for three minutes each, the principal said a few words, and then we were off to the unavoidably long and boring part: the reading of every name.

You know, the best way to attend a commencement is the way I attended MIT's; come for an entertaining speaker, then leave before the names. Of course that only works if none of the names are related to you.

Rae was stunning in a long white dress. She was elegant as she walked to the stage and received her diploma. They don't wear gowns for 8th grade graduation. She went immediately to a dance that ran from 7:30 to 11 p.m. I arrived at the gym at 11:15 p.m. and by 1:30 a.m. we had disassembled the "Hollywood Night" theme constructions.

I know a lot of people feel 8th grade graduation is silly. Almost no one halts their education at that point, so what are we marking? We are having a ceremony for a change in status. I have long believed that one of the things wrong wit this society is that we have too few--never too many--ceremonies to mark life changes.

Thus, I have no trouble with making a pretty big deal out of high school graduation either. This is clearly a much bigger deal. For starters, Marlow won't see most of these people ever again, and she's been close to some of them for 12 years. For another thing, although 90% or so of the students are going on to college, some are not, and some of the college-bound students won't graduate. For them, this is it. Their last chance to shine.

And shine they did. Saving The Best For Last, the Miramonte High School Class of 1999 graduated on the football field, in front of some of the most splinter-filled benches it has ever been my misfortune to sit on. I lost all feeling in my hindquarters before the third student speech. By the time that Zimmerman kid picked up his diploma, I was lucky I could stand up.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and windy. The graduates faced into the sun. The parents and grandparents in the stands all worried about getting sunburned necks, even thought the ceremony started at 5:30 p.m. In attendance were Vicki, Rae and Me, my mother (also at Rae's commencement), the girls' godmother Sue Thiem and their cousins Kimberly and Kirsten Drake. Marlow's aunt Pamela Drake was riding a bicycle to Los Angeles to raise money to fight AIDS (she made it).

Once again, the speeches were mercifully brief (three minutes or less) and there were few of them. Despite a few outbreaks of beach ball bouncing, the grads were generally well behaved. They went immediately to an all-night party in the school gym featuring food and entertainment that lasted until 4 a.m. These school-sponsored grad night parties are apparently the norm now.

They don't call it commencement for nothing. Both of my daughters commenced on new stages of their lives, with bright prospects and an unknown by wide open future head of them. I am very proud of both of them, and always will be.

Never skip a commencement.

Oh, the parental visit was my mother's: she came on Wednesday and left on Sunday. All of you should be so lucky to have the relationship with your parents I have with mine. And she gets along like a house on fire with my wife and daughters too. Am I the luckiest guy on Earth, or what.

Finally, this weekend marked what I believe will be the last celebration of Marlow's Girl Scout Gold award. I only saw the very start of the celebration (the eating chips and drinking soda part), then had to leave for my band's Flag Day concert at the Rossmoor retirmenet home. It was the first time I ever missed the first song in a concert. I hope it will be the last. Boy is it embarrasing to sit down and join the band afte they've started playing.