Living in the sticks I don't get the chance to observe mass numbers of humans on a regular basis like many of you in your every day travels. So, attending the grandson's Eighth Grade Promotion activities afforded a nice change of pace. There were 225 in his class so it took quite some time for each one to be announced in alphabetical order, walk to half court, shake hands with the principal and then go to their assigned folding chair on the basketball court for the remainder of the program. I was about midway between the doorway and the principal so had a great view of each graduate passing by within a few feet. Note to mothers of girls of this age: Put them in clothes appropriate for the occasion, they are not barhopping on spring break 1500 miles from home. But, I digress.
His school qualifies as a miniature United Nations so the surnames involved ranged from AlKassim to AuYeong to Flachsbarth to Hasiotis to Im to Khatib to Nobo to Padilla-Macias to Pickalkiewicz to Saripalli to Subrasmaniam to Wahquahboshkuk to Wakhungu to White Lightning to Zamora plus a wide variety of Anglo-Saxon names. There might have been twenty kids with first names that would coincide with my classmates from decades ago. We had no one with the first name of Chastain or Brooklyn or Turner or Gentry or Ja'Brandion or Raizer or Chuxiao or Genesis or Xavier or even Miles.
One of the students chosen to offer a speech had the topic: A new country, a new school and new friends. Her surname was Alabdulmunim. She was dressed in accordance with her faith, leaving only the front of her face exposed. There were two or three other young ladies in the group with similar backgrounds. Her English was excellent considering she has been in this country for less than 12 months.
The mass of students was interesting to observe as some had clearly hit puberty and others had not. There was one case of a young man walking in who had to be about 6'4" tall, 240 lb. of muscle followed immediately by another young man who was about 4'4" tall and appeared to be an escapee from the third grade. Some of the kids come from low income homes but most live comfortably. One young fellow must have had parents who firmly believed he needed to wear a suit despite no one else wearing one. He did his very best to proudly make his journey in the suit that was made for someone much taller and much heavier. I also learned that bow ties are back in fashion. I had no idea. Probably 30 or more young guys and several young gals were sporting them. The fashion of wearing a tie (bow or otherwise) with a nice dress shirt (long-or short-sleeved) with the shirt tail dangling along behind woke up this hillbilly. Maybe i should get some bow ties and start leaving my shirt tail dangle at the next funeral or wedding I attend. There were two graduates whose first names must have been Pat (just Pat) as it was impossible to discern the gender from ten feet away. Another interesting thing to note was how quite a few of the kids could not leave their electronic devices behind. Smart Phones, tablets, etc. could be seen causing pants pockets to bulge.
The highlight of the program occurred about the same time as the announcement of about the 10th graduate's name. That is when the fire alarm began blaring.
When my son graduated from high school there were about 600 in his graduating class. Before the ceremony began the audience was politely asked to save any applause until the end. Cheering for every graduate would either make the ceremony last for hours or drown out the names of the following graduates. Needless to say that lasted about two minutes. Then it got to be a competition to see who could cheer the loudest. Several times the principal asked for silence but I guess these may have been the first in their families to graduate because the cheering kept up. Sitting in a football stadium, in Georgia, in the heat of summer, for hours can be quite tedious.
Andy
Andy's story reminded me of my observation of the self-assuredness of each student passing by. Some were totally relaxed. Some were showing some degree of nervousness. Then there were the little robots with their eyes fixed straight ahead and their arms locked against their sides almost marching towards the initial destination where they would throw out their hand for the principal to grasp momentarily and attempt to shake it. The majority of those with hooters and hollerers in the crowd turned beet red, if they had that ability. "She's my sister.", was heard upon the announcement of one poor girl's name as she attempted to melt into the floor. The brother was in the far corner of the gymnasium at the time so he really had to belt it out.
The school has figured out how to limit the crowd to fit the venue. The program started at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday while the entire remainder of the school was still in session. No younger siblings in attendance unless they were four or less. All sorts of parents couldn't be there because of their employment obligations, including my son-in-law. Still, the full-size gymnasium was full and about 50 had to stand.
In the initial post I mentioned the attire of too many of the female students. They were wearing nice dresses of an appropriate length but that were of light pastel colors and from a clingy fabric that was too sheer for the lighting. As each one leaned forward a bit to shake hands with the principal, the material would suddenly clamp tight against their buttocks such that even an old guy who had left his glasses at home could tell if the panties were granny bloomers or bikini-style and precisely what the printed images were. You could tell horses from zebras from unicorns as you did your best not to look.
Names have definitely changed in the last 25 years or so.
Our future 8th grader neighborhood pals that he bikes and fish on the river with are
Talon, Trinity and Daquarius . ( i keep wanting to call Daquarius ...'Daquiri" but I don't. I expect that he will get a lot of that in the future from others.)
Our son was given a family given name dating back to the 19th century. It is now one of the most popular unisex names. He doesn't mind it.
I see a lot of strange names that I didn't know. One given name one on a soccer roster this year was Simri. He is of Guatemalan ancestry but Simri is a bible name that I didn't know.
I grew up in a melting pot city in the NE. There were always different names from different cultures, religion and countries.
Robert Hill, post: 374238, member: 378 wrote: Names have definitely changed in the last 25 years or so.
Our future 8th grader neighborhood pals that he bikes and fish on the river with are
Talon, Trinity and Daquarius.
Wasn't Daquarius the Roman God of Frozen Cocktails?
Last night we attended the 8th grade "promotion" ceremony (apparently it isn't called "graduation" in these parts any more) for our daughter. She's highly autistic, so it was a guess as to how well she would handle the ceremony that was definitely not part of her daily routine. Fortunately, her teacher came to the ceremony and was able to sit with her during the initial speeches and whatnot. Once the names started getting called, she was fine. She got her diploma and then we were able to leave before she completely flipped out for not being at home during her usual time of being at home.
Living in Central California, there are definitely many names from a variety of ethnicity and cultures. So hearing these various names isn't surprising to me. I think my biggest surprise is hearing the principal read them all correctly! He must have practiced because even though I have an interest in names and the origins and pronunciations of them, I still have difficulty with many of them.
It was an interesting event. One of the students gave a speech that I'm certain his middle-aged parents must have helped him with. I say this because the theme of his speech was very "mature" and talked about how the "little things" like what you scored on the math test or whether you were the best at basketball or not wouldn't matter in 10 or 20 years. It was a great speech, but either this kid was an old man in disguise or he was one of the most intuitive and insightful kids I've ever heard speak.
Overall, it was pleasant, the weather wasn't too hot, and it made momma proud of her "baby girl". We'll do it again next year with the other daughter. then, a couple years later, it will be high school graduation... and it keeps marching on.
[USER=6874]@skwyd[/USER]
I believe there were three of the students who were autistic at the grandson's program. All went well. Each was accompanied by a paraprofessional as they made their trip across the gym floor.
Trust me, I was more intrigued by the shirt tails flapping in the breeze while wearing a tie.
I've got one boy with a "normal" but not highly popular name and one boy with an unusual name--which is pronounced the same as a popular girl's name and a middle name that would not be much better. It may get interesting when he gets into regular school.
Slight shift of topic--I had to report for jury duty the other week and was surprised at how much trouble the judge and clerk were having with the prospective juror names. Even a bunch of Hispanic names were mangled. The worst case was the surgeon at a local hospital. No one managed to get close even though he corrected them each time. He had a South or Southeast Asian name that was at least 4 syllables wrong. I didn't manage to catch it either as he pronounced it very quickly.
Holy Cow, post: 374284, member: 50 wrote: [USER=6874]@skwyd[/USER]
I believe there were three of the students who were autistic at the grandson's program. All went well. Each was accompanied by a paraprofessional as they made their trip across the gym floor.
Trust me, I was more intrigued by the shirt tails flapping in the breeze while wearing a tie.
Sounds like how I would dress back in the 80's...
Gosh, I'm sorry. My mother wouldn't have let me out of the house like that.
At graduations I've attended it was traditional for the family members to express themselves with a "YEAH" or some other short remark of recognition when their graduate's name was announced.
When I graduated HS, the cap and gowns were locked in a room and issued minutes prior to assembly so they could inspect our clothing.
College was another world, there were streakers, moons and lots of screaming..........:-$
Holy Cow, post: 374332, member: 50 wrote: Gosh, I'm sorry. My mother wouldn't have let me out of the house like that.
Yeah, my mom rolled her eyes a lot. My dad did more than roll his eyes. He would regularly ask me "What the h&$! I thought I was doing dressed like that!?!" Of course, my very, very high GPA throughout high school and college deferred most of his wrath. He told me in later years that he couldn't understand how I would ever want to dress the way I did unless I was doing some kind of drugs. But then, I'd show him my academic progress (all while working full time) and he'd figure that I couldn't be doing drugs AND doing well in both work and school at the same time. So it turns out that I was just a weird kid... and now I'm a weird adult...
Holy Cow, post: 374192, member: 50 wrote: ...Living in the sticks I don't get the chance to observe mass numbers of humans on a regular basis like many of you in your every day travels. So, attending the grandson's Eighth Grade Promotion activities afforded a nice change of pace. There were 225 in his class so it took quite some time for each one to be announced in alphabetical order, walk to half court, shake hands with the principal and then go to their assigned folding chair on the basketball court for the remainder of the program....
That sounds like Monday morning traffic court here in a populated area....;)
