What was your high school graduation present?

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Tom Jones

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I think my Mom & Dad are the greatest! Back in 1978, when I graduated high school in Tennessee, my graduation present was the best. I got to take my Dad's 1973 Buick Electra 225 with the 455 V-8 and our 1972 Fabuglas bass boat on a week long trip by myself to Lake Eufaula in Alabama all expenses paid. Got to meet Tom Mann at his FishWorld shop and caught some great fish all week. One day as I was returning to the hotel having been out on the lake since 5 am on the lake, I saw some fish busting some shad by a weedbed, and stopped within sight of the hotel and landed 120 bass in the two 1/2 hours before dark. Had to quit due to exhaustion. WOW, some great memories and Thanks Mom & Dad!!:wub:



Tom J
 
As I recall... they paid my bail!!!!:eek: j/k



I got a very nice watch (that was a pretty standard gift "way back then")
 


When I graduated from high school my parents bought me a used 18 foot Ryan Craft bass boat. It was an aluminum boat with a 40 johnson. I had a previous boat that my grandfather passed down to me before I could drive (my dad used to drive me and a friend to lake, drop us in the water and wouldn't come back till much later in the day). I guess he would rather us be on the lake all day rather than getting in trouble somewhere else.





Wolf
 
I wil let ya no i is 43 an suposto get out nex yeer!



No I got a car (used) AMC Pacer the fish bowl on wheels! I called it my shag wagon!



The Dragon:D
 
A great Basset Hound and cash. It was pretty laid back!



Randy!
 
My best friend was from a poor family (not that we were well-to-do, that's what made it so great) so my parents sent him and I on a cruise to the Bahamas. Man alive did we have some fun. It's like the old saying "God gave men a brain and a male organ and not enough blood to run them both at the same time". We stayed stupid for 2 weeks straight.:huh: Beat prom night hands down:lol::lol: The stories from that trip live on to this day.



TOXIC
 
i did not get anything from my parents, my mom said congrats and never came to my graduation, and in my sophmore year at college, my dad asked me if i graduated high school this year or the next, needless to say we were never that close, and we still arent, but i am tring to fix that.

mike c
 
mike c, I feel bad for ya dude!



My dad was ultra conservative when I was growing up and gave me and my three sisters the opportunity to go to college after high school. Only two of us went. I jumped all over it and went to a small inexpensive tech college. School was on the trimester system and I was out of college in three years with a BSEET degree just shy of my 21st birthday. 26 years later I'm working for the same company. I can't thank my dad enough for being him!! He's 75yo and will be up here in 2 weeks to chase some turkeys around at my camp.



Bob G.
 
I got an electric razor for graduation. Two months later I got my dad to sign for me (I was 17) and I went to GLakes for boot camp. Those dang people wouldn't let me keep my new electric razor when I got there :( .
 
I got $100 cash from my Mom and and a huge surprise from my girlfriend that I can't post here!!;)



Tim
 
Dad informed me that I was still allowed to live at the house for 1 more year.:)





Steve
 
Uncle Billy and I didn't get anything since they didn't have high schools back when we were around! LOL
 
I got an all expenses paid 8 week reprograming at beautiful Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas.
 
...an open house...(a small gift,..can't remember what it was tho!!:eek: :blink: ) ..and a 5yr all expenses paid trip to FSU.:cool:;)
 
Like Mac, I had an open house. I'm sure I got some $ from them too.

Mac, I knew you were in high school with Peggy, but neither of you said anything about college. :angry: :lol:



Gene
 
Gene,...you're right,..Peggy and I graduated together,...we became pretty good friends our senior year...we had a lot of mutual friends that hung together!!! I really wish I wasn't so damn shy in HS....I never came out of my shell until college....then it was from one extreme to the other...my parents WANTED me back in a cage in college!! LOL!!



My college years were the BEST times of my life...by far!! It was fun, exciting, challenging, an awakening,..and VERY educational in EVERY aspect imaginable....but, I will say this...by the time my senior year rolled around....I had a really heavy workload...i had to take 20 hours in the summer to finish so I wouldn't have to come back for one more fall...to take ONE class.......so I bit the bullet and worked my arss off that June-August and actually graduated with a HIGHER GPA in college than I had in HS!! (That was another "opposite"..ahaha!!) Now when I get together every summer for a golf reunion with my old frat buddies, it's like a flashback to the late 70's!! We're all just older, fatter, balder, mostly employed, and putting OUR own kids thru school praying to God, that they don't act like WE did!! LOL But that 18 holes and banquet afterwards is usually one of my BEST days of the summer. It's AWESOME!!:wub::rolleyes::cool:



Can't wait to hook-up with those jackasses again this summer!!:lol::p It's so cool to see guys I haven't seen in 25 years, and recognizing "some" right away, and being blown away by "others" who I wouldn've have recognized at all!! I remember what jerks some of them were back then, and now, they're cops, lawyers, doctors, financial planners, bankers, sporting goods store mgrs, one is the FSU Head Football Coach, and then there's me...LOL

Oh and the one guy we use to dog CONSTANTLY because he had the WORST luck with women EVER!!!(I swear he was STILL a virgin after he graduated).....well...he's now a Gynocologist in the UP!!:rolleyes::lol:.......we always told him he'd have to PAY for it if he was gonna change his luck....now, 25 years later,..HE's getting PAID!! ;)

Oh the stories I could share about those guys!!! Man we had some fun,......and I met my wife there her freshman year too (I was a sophmore)...so my college years were AWESOME!!
 
Youre really gonna make my story sound bad Mac...lol



My father passed away when I was a sophomore in High School right at the tail end of the football season. I thank the Lord he was able to to watch me play one game. He took the day off his afternoon shift job at Chrysler Stamping Plant in Sterling Heights to come watch. It was the worst weather we had all year, rain, sleet, thunder lighting WIND!!! There was a tornado that touched down about 2 miles from the field. We won VERY handily and I only played the first half as we were up 34-0 at that point. Previous to that I never left the field, from calling the coin toss to kicking off to snapping on punts, kicking extra points and field goals all while being the team captain on defense (linebacker) and the center on the offense. I'll never forget him telling everyone he saw how I kicked off and the ball sailed through the uprights (of course he didnt tell them there was a 50 mph wind behind it)



But to make a long story short, I didnt get a high school graduation gift or a party. We were too poor to do anything. I did have a friend that let me weasel in on his Grad party open house though. We called it a co-party and when I invited my entire travel league baseball team to it I didnt expect there to be such a fuss. Growing up in primarily white suburban Detroit quite a few of my classmates had never been around African Americans in a social setting. Our centerfielder, shortstop and second baseman from my baseball team were great people and happened to be African Americans (and all were drafted and signed professional contracts). And did it ever cause waves! I remember throwing out a few of my supposed "good friends" that would not stop harassing them.....it really opened my eyes to what people think just because of skin color. I dont have a problem with it, no one I know should either.



To sum up, the gift that I got from High School was that my Dad got to watch me play a game of football (albeit it was my sophmore year) and that I got an education on how stupid racism can be. Things that money, gifts or prizes could not get me.



Mini
 
...GREAT story Mini.......it parallels one of the many lesson's Kathy and I try to instill in Jamie and Julie,....."Some of the BEST gifts in life are FREE...and many are unrecognizable and under or unappreciated for many years........until that one day when they realize....Hey,..our parents weren't so stuuuuuupid afterall!!" Chances are we already did it,..learned from it,..and passed it on...just like our parents did with us!!



You're a good man!!;)
 
Great story Mini... One month before my H.S. Graduation was due, my Dad died of cancer at home after a long and horrible illness. As I had a Mom that couldn't work and a 13 year old brother, I had to drop out of school even though I had more than enough credits to graduate with my class. That didn't matter in those days and you HAD to finish the calendar year with your class. After all of the insurance crap was straightened out, we figured there was enough to pay off the house and have enough left over to live for about a year. In early August my Mom and I went to school to see the administrator about my getting my diploma.

To graduate you had to have 16 1/2 credits (a mix of this and that) and I already had over 18 from taking advanced courses. My Principal looked right at my Mom after she explained everything, and said that for me to graduate, I had to go through the entire year with the class of 1967 like I had been kept back a year. My Mom reminded them that I already had enough credits without any more high school and that she and my little brother needed me at home! Well, no difference and no caring. While my Mom was talking to them about the unfairness of all of this I lost my temper (hard to believe huh?), had a few words for the people there who were there and, in my opinion, looking snidely at my Mom and me, and walked out and waited for my Mom down the hallway where, had there been a handy switch or belt she would have worn me out. I didn't care though because I knew I was right.

I almost instantly got a job locally and about seven months later I got another letter that started out, "Greeting, from the President of The United States", and I was drafted.

I went in and at basic in N.C. I made all of $97. per month and also had to read the desperation letters my Mom was sending me. We kept trying for a "Head of Household" discharge but it was just butting heads again and there is a couple of long great stories there that I will tell all of you when we are together again. BUT, instead of all of the standard tests given new recruits, I was given a few more including I.Q. and G.E.D. and that's where I got my High School Diploma. Shew, a long way around that huh?.

One day I went into my Company headquarters and asked to see my Commanding Officer. Unfortunately, I was intercepted by the Battalion Top Sergeant. This guy had stripes on his stripes. Generals didn't tell this guy what to do.. So we both sat down and he had me tell him my story. After a while like a traveling church salesman, he was saying to me "why not do the right thing son"?, "Stay in the service and do right by your family."

"With your scores you could probably get anywhere and do anything you want to do." Boy he got me!! I was a country boy who was so homesick I thought I was going to die and Top gave me some paper work to fill out ang get back to him. Those papers were O.C.S. Applications. I would have done anything to get back near home so I filled everything in, not easy, and applied for Officer Candidates School, Fort Belvoir VA.. It seems like just a few weeks later, though it could have been longer or shorter, when I received a notice from The Department of the Army. I had to take with me, 4-belt buckles, 2-belts, 2-pr low top shoes and 2-pr regulation boots, etc. etc., and etc... I don't know if the above is right or not but it's PART of what I remmember. Yep, I had been accepted and what do you know? I was going to go to Officer Candidate School, INFANTRY Fort Benning, Georgia.

I alomst threw up when I read that. So after a couple of days I did the HARDEST thing I have ever done in my life and that includes combat. I went to the company headquarters and told Top I wasn't going... BOOOOOOOOOM I thought I was going to die right there and then. He was about 6'6" 300 lbs. and I was 5'9" and 120 lbs. After he calmed down somewhat, I actually got up the nerve to ask him if there was anything else I could appl
 
Great story UB! I didnt include the part about me having to drop out of college to go to work to support Mom. My older brother's health was deteriating (diabetic) to the point that he could not work. Mom couldnt even afford the taxes (we paid the house off too) so I had to give up an athletic scholarship and come home to work so we could save the house.



My fathers last words to me were "John, you HAVE to take care of your Mother. You brother, Paul, wont be able to. It's up to you." Heavy stuff for a 15 year old to hear, especially when his older brother is headed to the University of Michigan in the spring...Dad was right though. Diabetes finally ended up taking my brother after numerous setbacks (blindness, kidney failure, transplant, etc.) when he was 34, and it was a LONG hard road for him (and us). I am doing the best I can to keep Mom happy, just for my Dad :) I have since bought the house from her and again paid it off. We both still live in the house.



But getting drafted, heading to Vietnam?



Thank you Uncle Billy!!!!



 
"Mini-Mom" seems pretty happy to me dude...;)...I think you're doing a GREAT job with that whole situation......your Dad would be VERY proud of you for doing that!! You've done everything he wanted you to do....and more!!:cool: Heck,..she's got her health, her freedom to come and go as she pleases....a good reliable car....a handful of lady friends and relatives she keeps in touch with, and a roof over her head!! She's livin' the dream and she's got YOU to thank for it!



Tox and C3,..(or anybody else who ever gets the chance to meet her,....feel free to call her "Mini-Mom"..:wub:..LOL....I've been calling her that for 10 years and she hasn't put the smackdown on me yet.) A very sweet lady with some pretty cool stories!
 
and she will drink you under the table :)



She is an old salty from Newfoundland. She was the only girl in a family of 11 kids....if she wanted to put the smackdown on ya Mac she would have immediatly :)



 
I'll take your word for it......I'm to old for drinking contests anymore. It already costs me enough financially and in pain and suffering just trying to hang with you on "tour"....I'm not about to challenge the Queen Bee of Bourbon! :eek:;):rolleyes::wacko:
 
Gosh Mini, you were only 15 years old!! What a tough break man. At least I was 18 and felt I was doing what I was supposed to be doing..I don't think either one of us got a very good break John..:angry: but we did do what we were supposed to, or so we thought.



Mac, I wish I knew more about when you're kidding and when you're not or even when you SHOULDN'T be kidding and when your not. I wasn't trying to win anything by expressing what I did in "that cool story." It was very hard to do and I was not arm wrestling Mini by any means. And Mini, if you feel I stepped on your toes/story when I shouldn't have, just please tell me. You're the only one that has a right to..



Uncle Billy
 
Unc,...I'm almost ALWAYS kidding,.....LOL,....but you and Mini both had to grow up FAST...faster than any kid should have to!! Admiration and kudo's to both of you for stepping up and doing what had to be done at the time...and especially a BIG thank you to YOU for serving our country. I wasn't trying to make light of what you had to do.....that's what sucks about "reading" something, vs. "hearing" the same words....the context inwhich it is said can change the meaning entirely. Someday we'll get to meet and I'll get to thank you again, face to face....in person!! (and I WON'T be kidding!:wub: )



Mac
 
No problems here...you are s little sensitive for an old guy arent you? lol



And again, thank you for your service!!!



BTW we may have been dealt a bad hand to start, but I wouldnt change a thing...unless I could have gotten drafted in BASEBALL :)







 
Thanks Mac.. You are so right about 'reading' vs. 'hearing' something. And I really wasn't questioning your veracity at all. That's why I said "I wish I knew." I'd love to get the chance to meet you.



Mini, Sensitive? YOU REALLY THINK I'M SENSITIVE!!!!:angry::p:( Yea, I am a little, but like Mac said sometimes it's hard to ascertain what is 'meant' when you're reading instead of listening..



I think we both had to grow up very fast and I wouldn't change anything either except I would have loved to have had my Dad around longer then I did.



Thanks again to both you and Mac..



Uncle Billy



 
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