Thinks happen: Seniors '48

Back when school pride was an undeniable element, when an education was a goal, not a sentence, when the small town high school teams were the featured entertainment every Friday night, signs like these were tradition. These “seniors” signs usually appeared overnight on the town water tower sometime around the local school graduation ceremonies. If the town’s water tower was inaccessible, it appeared instead on a board fence or on a wall of an old building. Sometimes it was a new sign. Sometimes if the old sign happened to survive a year’s weather, perhaps only the date was advanced. It was a senior class tradition; A bit of traditional vandalism, like out-house tipping or toilet paper wrapped trees.

The seniors often used whitewash, which was white and yes, often washed away in the next rain. But sometimes any available house paint from someone’s garage shelf would have to do. Some signs, and maybe some years were more permanent than others.

Come May of this year, this graffiti will be 62 years old. This Senior Class sign is itself a senior. Things change, yes they do. Things change, but sometimes not very much.

Just to remind you, Shelly Berman was born today in 1926. And in 1959, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash.

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