Grad Night --1974!

*As I expected, the laptop is making its pilgrimage to the Apple HQ, where they will undoubtedly poke and prod it and declare it dead. Then, if I'm lucky, they'll replace it. If I'm not lucky, they'll send it back, I'll take it home, it won't work and THEN they'll replace it. Yes, I'm glad I have the warranty.*

Yesterday, we attended an open house for a high-school graduate, my daughter's second cousin. It was a lovely party, with pictures, a video, balloons, and lots of great food. Some of us older folks mused about the fact that we had not had such celebrations when we graduated from high school. Is it a new thing? a regional custom? a class-based ritual?

But then I remembered what we did to celebrate my graduation from Lowell High School in 1974: we went to Disneyland! I think I remember that it was about $19 to fly round-trip from SF to LA. I don't remember the price of the ticket, but it probably wasn't much. We had to dress according to the Disney code: girls had to wear dresses or skirts, or matching pantsuits, and boys had to wear a sports coat. No jeans! We, and hundreds of other high school kids, were turned loose overnight in Disneyland for Grad Night where we got to ride all the rides, see musical acts and buy souvenirs. None of us smuggled in booze, that I know of anyway. The hit show of the night was The Four Tops, in all their dancing glory, singing hits like "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch," Reach Out: I'll be There, Still Waters, "Baby, I need your loving","Ain't No Woman Like the One I got". My friends and I were all about R and B, funk and soul in those days, with a lot of love for local favorites War, Tower of Power, Sly and the Family Stone and Santana as well.


One of my favorite memories of that night is of sitting in a restaurant, and suddenly seeing Olivia Newton-John and her band rise up from the floor on a round stage, singing "Let me be there." Something like this: