Most memorable yearbook moments

After I went downstairs to do laundry and I ran into one of my high school yearbooks, recalling BYH's thread about trying to save his high school yearbook got me thinking.

What was the most memorable moment from your high school yearbook? Did someone write something funny or profound? Was there a photo of you doing something you thought was so cool, but when you look at it now, you wonder what the hell you were thinking?

When I looked at mine, I saw a classmate's signing that still gets me to this day. It wasn't your typical "good luck in the future" one. It was a guy who left me some encouragement and wrote that he wished I hadn't left (which I did during the middle of my senior year). But the way he wrote it carried such sincerity that I still know exactly where that entry is all these years later.

 

I still have mine. I choose not to look at it anymore, though. I had the big ol' glasses and I defined the term 'nerd.'

 

My AP calc teacher (one of the funniest guys I've ever met): "Remember: However bad your lot in life, it could always be worse in Milwaukee."

Kind of stuck with me.

 

My senior class picture is the ONLY picture of mine I ever liked. Like, genuinely could tell you I liked what I saw.

Every other time, I've had pics of me that I've tolerated at best. Usually, I run, screaming in the other direction when I see a picture of myself.

 

Mine has one that says "I hope you die soon." Weird thing was, the chick who signed it dotted the i with a little heart. Ah, high school.

 

I was on the baseball team and we had a kind of eccentric pitcher. During one game he gets out of an inning and comes to the dugout saying, "Get me a couple runs and I'll win this f**ker easy."

One of my close friends on the team signed my yearbook, "Get me a couple pens and I'll write this sucker easy." He could have written something sentimental, I suppose, but 30 years later I still have that quote fresh in mind. And it captured his personality perfectly, too.

 

I was hoping Old Tony would fondly recall his picture with the rest of the Young Democrats.

 

BYH's was probably signed by every member of Night Ranger.

 

God I wish.

 

A memorial to my band director that was done my senior year in high school. Yearbook staff had to pull back a page and ask some of us students for funds and such. They did a good job on it, thank goodness.

 

In my senior yearbook, there's a picture of me running in a cross country race looking absolutely jacked. And a girl from my AP bio class wrote that she thought I was one of the coolest guys she knew. She was serious, too.

They didn't give us our freshman yearbook until July, so that one isn't signed by anyone. I refused to let anyone sign mine sophomore year. I can't remember why.

 

Boy, have I got yearbook moments ...

The first one involves my sister. In her senior year, she had the option of picking a generic quote or come up with one of her own to run with her photo. She came up with her own: "My life begins and ends with Barry." (Her boyfriend). Well, my sis and Barry got married the summer after her graduation (he had dropped out). When sis was five months pregnant, Barry leaves her for a skanky ho he had on the side. After my niece was born, sis got a divorce and set out to prove that there was life after Barry.

The next moment involves my brother. His real name is Billy (same as our father), but everyone called him Buddy. He was one grade ahead of me. Well, the dummy yearbook folks my freshman year mixed up names in the book, listing him as Billy and me as Buddy. Guess it was one of my first lessons as a budding journalist to get names right.

One of my best friends wrote this in my senior yearbook:

"To Bob,
DAMN!
-Jody"

Another classmate - a known pothead who ranked second in our class, made 30 on the ACT and was accepted into Vanderbilt - wrote that he was amazed I made it to graduation because I was "so tore up," a reference to our partying adventures. He also wrote for me not to "get carried to jail anytime soon" and to "don't forget where you came from - Highway 15 South."

The most beautiful Miss Everything sweetheart of our senior class, a lovely blond named Lana, wrote in my yearbook that I was one of the sweetest boys she ever knew and I always acted like a gentleman. She probably wrote that because I was one of the few boys who didn't try to get in bed with her. Hell, I wanted to, but that would've spoiled my good rep. I saw Lana a few months ago while visiting my hometown. She looks just as hot now as she did when we graduated in 1981.