I made time in my busy day Saturday to attend a graduation parade for the graduating seniors of Hooper Road and the neighboring streets. These seven neighbors who I’ve seen on the street but knew none of them individually deserved to be recognized as do all of the other graduating seniors from South Carroll and all of the county high schools.
My own high school graduation took place more than 50 years ago but I’ll remember that day for as long as I live. When I walked across that stage in the Baltimore Civic Center in which every seat was filled, and they shook my hand and handed me my diploma a giant weight was lifted off of me. I had relatives using all of my allotted seats plus two more that I scored from a friend who wasn’t using all of his. We all went out for a celebratory dinner afterwards. A majority of those guests are no longer with us.
The certainty of that event happening on that night was in doubt up to the very end. The problem was Mr. Kuder’s physics class grade.
Sciences weren’t my strong suit and I needed to pass his final exam which I studied very hard for. On the day we gathered to receive our final grades he was about to begin reading them when he was called out of the room. When he didn’t immediately return, we each went up one at a time and looked in his grade book. I didn’t ace it but I got just enough to pass. When a fellow student went up after I did he didn’t like what he saw and what he did next would change the next few weeks for everyone in the class. He took the grade book and rolled it into a tube. He then lifted the strainer covering the lab sink drain and pushed the tube down the drain and put the strainer back on.
This guy was the 300-pound, well-built football player. After he replaced the drain cap he looked up and said ‘anyone tells’ and pounded the fist of one hand into the palm of his other. When Mr. Kuder returned he went ballistic. He kept everyone for an hour after class as he searched everywhere in the room and all of our desks and possessions. He said if that book isn’t returned in 24 hours none of us were going to graduate.
That was the last day of class for seniors so I never knew if anyone ever ratted out the football player and no one told me not to show up for graduation so I assumed I was graduating. I went on to community college and the football player went off to Vietnam. When he returned he became a community activist. I learned a few weeks ago of his passing so I thought it was high time to set the record straight.
The entire world changed that night. People, including my parents, never looked at me as a child again. They began treating me like an adult. Time moved incredibly slower during those early years. Now it seems to fly by so fast that I often lose track of which day it is. It might seem like a simple act of just walking across a stage when your name is called but it is so much more than that.
To think that this horrible COVID-19 disease should rob these young adults of this rite of passage is frustrating. I think this parade should have included all of the Carroll County graduates and it should have woven down all of the streets of the county. This is their moment and they have every right to savor it.
Class of 2020. I salute you.
Steven Davidson writes from New Windsor. Reach him at Sdavid0419@yahoo.com.
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