It’s May 21, 2011. (Actually, it’s not – it took me a while to get this all written but I did start this during the party.) We all gathered here to celebrate and bear witness to the success of Lacey Jo March.  A recent graduate from high school (4 hours ago.)  In one of the longest graduation ceremonies that I’ve been to. Considering there were only 11 graduates.

 I did enjoy the Senior Class slide show. That was a nice touch. Too bad the projector had technical issues and some of the photos were black. But all of Lacey’s were clear.  Lacey, ever the rebel, whose favorite actor is John Wayne, choose the song "Stand Your Ground", sung by Johnny Cash. If you ever need a John Wayne quote check out her facebook page.

I don’t remember much about my own graduation 28 years ago.  It was part of a mass so it was long. John Rishea was valedictorian. Kathy Duhamel was salutatorian.  As Lacey’s class walked down the aisle I picked one of the girls as this generation’s Kathy Duhamel.  Tall, pretty, athletic, smart. And probably nice.  Some things never change. (I asked Lacey about Ruth later on and she confirmed my assessment.)

I’ll probably remember the benediction speaker (don’t remember his name, just that he called himself a “country  preacher” said. Lots of Ralph Waldo Emerson – build a better mouse trap.  And the closing beseechment to the Senior Class of 2011 – “Go to the top of the hill overlooking the Edgemont Airport and look down on the city that gave you your roots and remember from where you came.”  Or something like that.  It made me want to go to the hill.  But it was too cold, rainy and foggy to make the side trip.  I guess I’m getting boring with old age.

Small town Saturday night. Edgemont South Dakota. Edgemont Fair Grounds Exhibit Hall. Every time I come back to South Dakota, I always compare the life I’ve chosen in the big city vs the small town.  The eternal question – to be the big fish in the little pond or the little fish in the big pond. I used to think that I wouldn’t be able to go back.  But in the past year, I think my opinion has changed. I think I could live happily anywhere I was plopped down in.   In this scenario, I think graduation in a small school is more enjoyable that graduating in a huge school.  I think Ashley and Nicole had over 700 students in the class. Nothing personal there.                                                  

      

Getting family and friends together in the town fairgrounds is kinda fun.   

Desert Rat

The building is chilly.  Downright cold for those of us visiting from the dessert.  When I exhale I can see my breath.  It’s May.  I’m wrapped in a wool blanket with finger less mittens.  I want my 95 degrees back.

The construction heater blows smoke but not heat.

Beer Slingers is (or is it are -I don't remember my grammar)  playing.  The kids are red faced and dancing.  They haven’t hit junior high when everyone gets self-conscious and the boys sit on one side of the school gym and the girls are lined up on the other side, giggling.   Grama Donna and Lacey are Achy Breaky Heart Dancing. Never seen a dance like this before.

In the end, graduations are a celebration of endings and beginnings.   A dream of the future and the remembrance of the past.  You can’t have one without the other.  I remember a poem from a Hollie Hobbie book that was given to Kim and I when were ten and eleven (or somewhere around then)

Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver. The other is gold.

                                

 

Boyfriend (s)

  

Family you can't live with and can't live without



Generations. Grandparents, great and all
On this side and the Other.

             

Crazy Aunts, Annoying Sisters, and Mom

Friends to laugh and cry with.

Going to a graduation in a small town/state helps me to remember that it’s those closest to us (not in miles necessarily) that make a life worth living.  I can’t wait to return again in 2014 to send another niece on her way down the road of life. And the three after that-I can’t do the math so I’m leaving the graduation year off until it gets closer (sorry Jeremy, Cassidy and Audrey)