The Evening of the Party

... the first high school graduate in our family ...

At Ross Shepherd High School the grad comes in two parts.

 The first day the graduates walk across the stage.

 The second night is the banquet preceded by a group portrait on the steps of the legislature building.

 I was fascinated about how this would be done -- so many kids gathering at 4 pm sharp for that picture!

Anita dropped Dalton and me off on the legislative grounds.

I milled around in the background, not being able to keep my eyes off of the beautiful formal gowns, the women with their hair elaborately braided, the men in new suits and shiny shoes.

Some of them new not to treat them as runners and when gingerly beginning to scramble over barricades as though they had on runners, and then backing up again.

Photographs were being taken -- not too many selfies.

Mostly parents were taking picture of groups of friends who clustered here and there, all of them dressed up for the banquet which was to follow the picture, but at a different venue.

 Not too many people can boast that their group high school grad picture occurred on the steps of the legislature.

Dalton had different groups: those he had been in classes with; those he had performed with in plays and musicals; those he had done group work with; those who had been in clubs with him; all of them new friends, since he had entered high school in a new city.

Anita kept her camera in focus as groups of kids gathered, all wishing each other well.

Who deserves the biggest bouquet at the grad event is the person who does all of the chaufeurring, in this case, Anita.

She appears in few of the photos.

She was the driver to the group photo, to the banquet, and to the after-grad party, an event that lasted well into the morning hours of the next day.  As well she was the driver bringing Dalton back home in time for work the next day.  There is a special place in heaven for parents like her.

Arta