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For Whom the Bell Tolls

Once again, it's that time of year, when our educational institutions crank open the floodgates and release upon us a new crop of graduates, eager to take their place in the world. Most of us can remember that magic moment when the last bell, on that last day, finally rang. Even for those not graduating, the magic was there; that unmistakable “Last Day of School” feeling. Looking back at the younger years, I'm not so sure just what the attraction was, since a few days later most of us would be sweating in a hay mow or cutting thistles in a humid cornfield somewhere. Still better than algebra, I guess. But, for the graduates, there was an added dimension, they knew when they walked out that door, they weren't going back, ever again. There's a life lesson there. You really never can. “The moving finger, having writ, moves on”. We were all glad to get out, but most of us missed it when it was behind us. Departing the familiar for the unknown is not always a comfortable task. I fear that is more true today than when many of us were released to the world beyond those one-way doors. Just watching a couple segments of the evening news in recent months is enough to give a thinking person cause for concern about the future that awaits the class of 2008. The numbers on the sign in front of your local gas station are spinning up faster than the burger counter on the golden arches across the street. In spite of the new department, the old “homeland” still doesn't feel as secure as we'd like. The graduate that aspires to higher education will saddle himself with enough debt to last a lifetime, and find himself competing with hundreds of other well qualified applicants for jobs that may well be less desirable than they hoped for. Those of us in the “Boomer” era all grew up assuming that each generation would do better than the preceding one. That prediction seems a little harder to support with the evidence at hand today.

A prominent Presidential candidate promises to reward those who vote for him with “change”, as though he were its sole provider. Seems to me, based on several decades of observation, it kinda happens anyway, and I'm not so sure I like it.

Whatever the future holds for them, we gladly set aside this moment to salute the class of 2008 and wish for them that they aim high, dream big, and bring some balance back into the Social Security system.

For a little perspective on the last day of school and how things change, we offer the following photo of my Dad's graduating class (8th grade) in 1914. I think that was the school bus behind and to the left of the teacher (Uncle Frank)

Click photo to enlarge:

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