Time to confess your roots!  Were you a bonafide jock, hippy, tree hugger, brainiac, or indy? In those days I wanted to be part of everybody's clique. Of course I failed, like most of us. I got along with some groups, and was shunned or mocked by others. I'll claim membership in the Jock crowd by virtue of lettering in sports, but I was a hippy wannabee with a crush on most of the hippy chicks, and surprisingly, most of my better friends ended up coming out of the nerdy intellectual types, chess club, science types, and game groups, which were generally totally 180 out from the image I hoped to project. Regardless - looking back on it all, everyone was cool in their own way, we just couldn't see it then.  Cheers! 

J.D.

Being a ROTC Cadet, we were military when military certainly wasn't cool.  That was the best course a kid could have taken.  It fostered esprit de corps, teamwork, discipline, plus we learned first aid/life saving skills, strategy, public speaking, and many other real-life skills.  I wouldn't trade those 4 years for anything.  It was a stepping stone to a wonderful military career.  God bless America and those who wear and have worn our Nation's uniform.

I was a secret admirer of you JROTC guys - having the guts to still affiliate with the military as our nation was "losing" the decidedly unpopular Vietnam war. At times I wished I had been part of your group as I liked history and military related things, but was too immature to trade my "Beatle's Bangs" for the opportunity and too afraid of the ridicule I might get from other friends. Seems silly now, but the desire to serve was definitely there and I later took a four year Navy ROTC scholarship to go to Auburn University and served. My hats off to you Charly and your clique with a salute.  It takes more guts to be "uncool" than it does to be cool!

:-)

Ok, my turn.  I was much like J.D. in spirit, but I wound up making the best decision of my high school years, although I didn't know it at the time. I also wanted to be everything.  I wanted to be an athelete most of all and wear a letter, but I was a late bloomer physically, so I did not have the strength or talent.  I wanted to be a geek because deep inside I thought they were the coolest people on earth.  They were kind and humored me, but they knew I could never keep up with them intellectually.  I couldn't be a hippy because I didn't know one who liked me at all.  I loved military history, guns, soldiers, ships, planes and tanks- so I decided to check out JROTC.  My uncle Don served in Vietnam, survived Hamburger Hill in May of 1969 complete with a 2 am assault by VC sappers slinging satchel charges inside the perimeter.  He was blasted out of a hole by a satchel charge and had his eyes knocked out of the sockets.  (a corpsman stuffed them back in with saline and applied gauze to fix it).  My Dad was a carrier sailor on the U.S.S. Kearsarge (she's now amphibious assault for the Marines).  Military was just natural for me.  I'll admit it was unnerving to wear the uniform around school being hated so much, but the espirit de corps we had and the comeraderie made up for it completely.  Mark McKown, George Hamilton, Carly Smith, Steve Canerossi, Charles Campbell, and a host of others.  Charles and Mark are still lifetime friends.  They were not just friends, they were comrades.  And I remember all the classmates who risked ridicule themselves by being friendly to us.  J.D. Webster was one, and I specifically remember John Cochran being one.  I ended up following Dad and joining the Navy, that's another story with plotlines.  The classmates who weren't so kind to us, I've kind of blocked it out.  To this day, I can't remember even one specifically.  And I don't hold anything against them.  Hey, it was just high school after all, we were all kids and self absorbed.

Nerd, geek, whatever folks called us. Mu Alpha Theta (math club). Mid-Guard IV (gamers). National Honor Society. And on the yearbook staff our senior year. Only a handful of very close friends. But casual friends with several folks who were bonafide members of other cliques. Thought the kids who hung out on the Smokers Court were the coolest, but avoided even passing near there most of the time due to the (duh) smoke - both cigarette & weed, at least our sophomore year!

I guess I would claim "hippie" although I really think it claimed me.  While I felt uncomfortable (maybe intimidated would be a better word) around other "cliques" I felt embraced by the hippies although I don't think we ever referred to ourselves as that.  Come to think of it, I don't know that we referred to ourselves as any type of group.  It just seemed to be a bunch of kids who had common interests, mainly music.  The smoking court conversations always seemed to revolve around music, at least for me, except when Steve Hill would sell his Duncan yo-yos.  Then it was a competition to see who could do the best yo-yo tricks.  There was other smoking going on in the stairwells until the smoking court was moved to the monitored bricked area outside the cafeteria.  Then it was just cigarette smoking...a nasty habit that I finally ditched in 1987.

My boyfriend at GHS was in the Class of '72 so I didn't really spend much time with my own class.  That's probably why I recognize very few people from '74.  I do remember several that transferred over from Mt. Gap (and even Weatherly Elementary) and some from my home room but, other than that, not many.  I went to several football games but it was mainly to hang out and listen to the band.

I've enjoyed reading all the posts especially as the Reunion got closer and then the post-Reunion comments.  It's great that you all (ya'll) have fond memories of good times at GHS.  Go Tigers!

So, we were all just human beings, of the ages typical of what is to be expected to attend high school, trying the best we could, with whatever mental, physical, and emotional assets and resources we could muster, to figure out how to address the challenges and opportunities we faced each day. And I guess, other than the high school attendance thing, we still do that today; now being in our 'senior', or 'twilight', or 'advanced, or 'whatever' period in life we are.

I am just thankful that we all had what we had, so we could all grow to be what we are today. My only regret is that along the way, I may have been hurtful (no, not physically) to some.

So I have tried to figure out what the clique I would best describe fitting in. But once I do, I come up with more of them. And then I find I just don't nicely fit in any one of them. So in the end, I'm just me! I'm certainly not what I was when I started this journey 64 years ago, and I most certainly will not be the same when I end this journey.

But I will say, I have been priviliged to have been at the place (GHS), and time (71 - 74), to have known all of you.

Cari Young Sauer wrote: