This past week (October 2016) I went back to Indiana. Went back for a number of reasons...but most of all just "for a visit" and in the words of a Willie Nelson song..."Just to drive by and see if things have changed." Of course I knew they had......coming into town I drove by the old shop I referenced in the "Just some thoughts" I wrote in 2013. I still remember looking at that old high school year book from 1960.
LA
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Just some thoughts:
Do you remember what you once wrote in someone’s high school yearbook?
This past week as I sat at my coffee place, a young couple sat down not far from me. They were high school seniors about to graduate. I watched as they traded their high school yearbooks. Each took considerable time as they wrote in one another’s book. He finished writing first. When she finishing reading what he had written, she brushed away a tear and smiled.
Seeing this yearbook signing between the two took me back to something that happened to me on one of my trips back home last year. Often I find myself stopping at old junk stores, antique stores, thrift shops, old goodwill type stores. I especially look for old record albums and books. Sometime this past summer found me doing such back in my old hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana.
A bit after 4 a.m. this morning I had left my home just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. I had made arrangements to try and be in my home area by ten a.m. to meet and play golf. I seldom listen to the radio these days, just music tapes, mainly country music or music from the late 50s; music I grew up with. It was a beautiful day as I made the five hour drive with the top down on my convertible and music playing all the way. You can get in a lot of Elvis, Jerry Lee, Fats, Chuck, Ricky, Hank and Merle in such a drive. No last names needed.
Later that day after golf, I stopped to wander through an old junk/thrift-type store in my home area. In doing such, I came upon an old bookcase. There I found a number of old books and, to my surprise, I found seven or eight old high school yearbooks from my time in high school. A couple of the books were from Gerstmeyer High School, two from my wife’s old school of Garfield, one from Schulte, one from Honey Creek and two from Wiley. My good friend Mike graduated from Wiley in 1959. One Wiley yearbook was from the class of 1959 and the other from the class of 1960. I knew both well. Yes. well.
For the next hour I found myself sitting and going through these two yearbooks from Wiley. I sat looking at pictures of athletic teams and various people I knew from those years, and thinking about people, places, and happenings from the years 1959 and 1960. The last page of the 1960 yearbook really caught my attention. It was the same year I graduated high school. There a full-page note was written. It began with, “Dear Bob.” The writing ended with, “I will always love you,” signed Sharon; no last names given. I thought a lot about what I had read, and as I returned the books to the shelf, I smiled but was also a bit sad.
Earlier in the day, I had been playing some music from an artist popular in the late fifties, Bobby Vinton. The words of one of his songs began to come back to me.
You handed me your book, I signed this way
Roses are red my love, violets are blue
Sugar is sweet as so are you
We dated through high school and when the big day came
I wrote into your book next to my name
Roses are red my love, violets are blue
Sugar is sweet but not as sweet as you
Then I went far away and you found someone new
I read your letter and I wrote back to you
Roses are red my love, violets are blue
Sugar is sweet, my love, good luck may God bless you
Is that your little girl? She looks a lot like you
Someday some boy will write in her book, too
Roses are red, my love, violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet, my love, but not as sweet as you
I wonder whatever happened to Bob and Sharon? I wonder if what they had once “Promised” ever came true for them.
Did you once write in someone's yearbook? Do you remember what you once wrote in someone’s yearbook?
Did you make any promises................... or were there any promises made to you?
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June 1, 2013
Keep on,
Larry Adamson