Senior Night

Senior Night at my high school took place on the night before graduation at the local athletic club in an attempt to discourage all the seniors from following the example set by our driver's ed teacher of drinking, driving, and getting a DUI (Yes, the same man who showed us "Blood on the Highway" was also spending his weekend getting liquored up at the local sports club and then attempting to drive home). The athletic club in my home town was huge. Each year it kept expanding in blob-like fashion absorbing everything around it, including a hair salon, a coffee shop, and a restaurant. There is an elementary school nearby that I think is next.

Everyone went to Senior Night, jocks, preppies, drama geeks, computer geeks, bowling geeks, literary geeks, ping-pong geeks, and just plain geeks. All I really remember from that night was wandering around the massive athletic club. I didn't bring a suit so I couldn't swim, I can't play basketball and so I didn't feel I was up to playing against the varsity team dominating the courts, racket ball freaks me out (I feel like I'm trapped in the future with those huge white walls all around), and no one was on the dance floor and I certainly wasn't going to be the only one to demonstrate my macarena skills. So my friends and I wandered from room to room. I think the most time I spent anywhere was at the snack bar.

We were forced to stay there until 2 am or if we left early our parents would be called to let them know we were on our way home. To entice everyone to stay they gave out prizes at the end of the night. I won a cooler, which has since been stolen by my parents, and a battery tester, which has followed me everywhere I have live, but I have yet to use. I guess I'm pretty good about keeping tabs on used batteries. One girl won two TV's. I mustered up all of my smooth skills to hussle one from her. I failed.