High School

Classmates.com is adding school yearbooks to their website, and they just happen to have the 1962 Purgold, North Kansas City High School's yearbook; that's the year I graduated.  
I've mentioned Miss Dedman, one of my favorite teachers, before.  I found a picture of her online some time back, but it was taken when she was younger than she was as my Senior Lit. teacher.  

That's her, on the right.  I had her in both my junior and senior years.  

I'm the one on the far right of the top row.  On my left is my cousin, Alice;  the first picture on the second row is my cousin Frances.  My dad and three of his brothers got themselves baby girls in 1944.  Lela's family never moved to the big city, so she isn't in the Purgold.  

This picture was taken from the second story of North Kansas City High School.  The facility was bursting at the seams by my graduation year, and a high school was being built to relieve some of the strain:  Oak Park High School.  Meanwhile, some classes were held in the old McElroy Dagg building, previously an elementary school.  It was a block away from the main building; we had to walk there, rain or shine, in the five minutes between classes.  
My high school years are pretty much of a blur because I was such a loner.  I joined nothing, participated in no extra-curricular activities, had no boy friends, and did not attend the prom.  You know how, when some crazed person does something like trying to kill a president or shooting into a crowd and killing several people, they interview neighbors?  And the neighbors say things like, "He really kept to himself; he was quiet and didn't bother anybody."  
If the cops were to profile me, I'd come up looking like a serial killer.  Don't worry, though; I've never had thoughts of shooting anybody.  
I look through the hundreds of pictures of 1962 and see only a handful of people I recognize.  Someone contacts me every time a class reunion is scheduled, and I think, "I didn't know any of you then; I certainly wouldn't know you now!"  
But it is pretty neat to be able to be able to look at the pictures in the yearbook.  
This morning I found out the 1961 Purgold has been put on Classmates.com.  That's good, because I was able to find a picture of the guy I had a secret crush on for at least four years.  

 The one on the left, Allan.  He must have dropped out of school after his junior year, because he isn't in the 1962 edition; but on the right is his twin brother, to whom I transferred my affections after Allan disappeared.  I'm fairly sure neither of them knew about my crush.  
And there you have it, a glimpse into the high-school life of a total weirdo and misfit.  
I think I might have done better in a smaller school.