Blast From the Past

This year is the 20th anniversary of my graduation from high school, and I had lately been entertaining some ideas of going to the reunion; my class, however, is apparently going to spare me from having to contemplate such silliness by not having one. I only attended the school and lived in the town where it is for two years, 11th and 12th grade, so I didn't have time to build up a lot of resentments and bitterness towards the place; indeed, I think of it fondly still, and am pretty certain that its effect on me was mostly positive, at least in comparison to the probable alternatives. I suspect not many people would have remembered me had there been a reunion, however, it is unlikely I would have talked much to anyone, and one never knows, at such occasions, what peculiar or forgotten melancholies, memories of lost chances or foolish actions, might be dredged up. It is probably for the best to leave it alone.

I did peak through my '88 senior yearbook--the signatures I gathered made for a pretty depressing collection. It was all males, a few of whom were men of wit and spirit but mostly nondescript boys like myself who were kind of waiting around for the major events in their lives to reveal themselves. There was one greeting so absurd in its prescience that it did make me laugh even 20 years on (grammar and spelling as written):

(Surrender)!,
Forget what anyone says. You are a genuine all-american loser. The Phillies, Sixers and Eagles all suck and always will. Just like you. Someday when you are feeding pigeons on a park bench somewhere, I will drive by in my new porshe + laugh in your face as L.A. will have beaten Philadelphia again. This is the part where I ussually wish the person luck but with you I won't waste my time.
(Surrender)--get a life!

The guy who wrote this, I must add, was of course more hopeless in many ways than I was, as you can probably tell by his describing a fantastical future triumph over me rather than alluding to the dominance he has long since and with minimal exertion established.