Craziequeen's High School Meme

This interesting article popped up yesterday at Time Magazine online: Facebook - 25 Things I Didn't Want to Know About You. The article says that the "25 things about me" meme that apparently is running rampant on Facebook is "... just so stupid. Most people aren't funny, they aren't insightful, and they share way too much..." and that "...An estimated 5 million of these notes — that's 125 million facts — have appeared on the website within the past week. Assuming it takes someone 10 minutes to come up with their list, this recent bout of viral narcissism has sent roughly 800,000 hours of worktime productivity down the drain" (disclaimer: I don't use Facebook...my blog takes up time enough).

Do we really care to know that much about each other? Sometimes. I've made a fairly large number of virtual friends through this blog, people I will likely never meet in person, and I'm genuinely interested in them, in how they think, and in what they have to say. Well, except for the Japanese language videos Mike posted yesterday, maybe. I don't like to be tagged for memes, but when I find one, and it strikes my fancy, I don't mind doing it because I like to think it might be entertaining to my friends out there in the cyber world.

Which brings me to The High School Meme I picked up at Craziequeen's Palace yesterday, tucked in amid the photos of all the snow in Britain. I have mixed feelings about the four years I spent in high school, and doing this meme helped bring them back into focus for me. If you care, read on. If not, come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday...

1. Did you date someone from your high school? – Yes. Her name was Debbie. I haven't seen her since about 1970 (see #18 and #19 below).

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? – No.

3. Did you car pool to School? – No…we only lived about a half-mile from the school, and I walked. You don't see that happening nowadays.

4. What kind of car did you have? – I didn’t have a car until after I graduated from college. I was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force, and had to have my father co-sign the loan for the car because I had no established credit!

5. It is Friday night then; where are you? – Usually at home, reading or watching TV.

6. It is Friday night now, where are you? – Dancing, where else?

7. What kind of job did you have in high school? – I did lawn and garden work around the neighborhood. No one mows lawns, pulls weeds, and trims trees like I do.

8. Were you a party animal? – Not hardly.

9. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? – No. I did run on the cross-country team, though. At one time, I was a pretty mean long-distance runner. I never finished first, but I always finished. And I acted in the junior and senior class plays and the senior year talent show.

10. Were you a nerd? – I was the standard to which all other nerds aspired. Wannabe nerds had pictures of me hanging on their walls for inspiration. One of my female friends told me that in my yearbook picture I looked like a Presbyterian minister.

11. Did you get suspended or expelled? – No. I was a good boy. The nuns beat all the rebellion out of me in grade school.

12. Can you sing the school song? – Yes. But you don’t want to hear me do it. You can tell if I'm singing because you can hear the dogs howl for miles around. If Agnes and I are singing a duet, the dogs don't bother howling ... they just leave.

13. Who was your favorite teacher? – Mrs Penny Smith, the Humanities teacher. A wonderful lady who was the true Gold Standard for teaching excellence. She passed away quite some time ago, depriving generations of students of her love of the humanities and her gift for teaching. She and my mother were kindred spirits and good friends.

14. Where did you sit during lunch? – In the cafeteria with my friends. I was usually too shy to try to sit with the girls I admired.

15. When did you graduate? – June, 1969.

16. What was your school mascot? – The Tiger.

17. If you could go back and do it again - what would you do? – Skip high school and go straight to college.

18. Did you go to the Prom? – Yes, both the Junior and the Senior Proms. I had a different date for each ... I took Nancy L. to the Junior Prom and Debbie D. to the Senior Prom. My mother taught me to dance the clutch-and-shuffle before the Junior Prom. I sure wish I had the ballroom dancing skill then that I have now...

19. Do you still talk to the person you went to the prom with? – I haven’t seen or talked to either Nancy or Debbie since I graduated from high school.

20. Do you still talk to people from your school? – I’ve traded e-mails with a few people, and I know there are some who read my blog from time to time, but the last time I actually talked to anyone from my high school was at our 30th anniversary reunion in 1999.

Okay, once again more than you ever wanted to know. How was your high school? If you want to do the meme, have at it.

Tomorrow is Cartoon Saturday, and I've got a good crop of funnies for you. Be here.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo