Today’s photo for Monday’s Memories is one from my senior year of high school. This was printed in our school newspaper, and my mom saved the clipping. (That’s me on the right.)
A little note about our wardrobe: for most of my school career, girls were not allowed to wear slacks. The dress code for girls was skirts or dresses. And boys weren’t allowed to wear jeans. As our junior year began, the girls in all classes were finally allowed to wear PANTS SUITS….meaning that the slacks and top were required to match. Well, there were some rebels who didn’t follow the rules, and so, it was back to dresses/skirts for our senior year. And yes, we did wear our skirts short. BUT, mine was not quite as short as this picture would suggest. (If I’d only known to wear a dark-colored skirt that day.)
So I edited it to show approximately where the hemline really was.
That’s my friend Shirley on the far left. Shirley is one of the members of our Surry Girls’ group, which gathers several times each year to celebrate holidays and birthdays. The other girl’s name is Gladys, and sadly, we’ve lost touch with her through the years.
This picture was taken as we were planning our senior class trip to New York City. Exciting, but scary, times since we were country kids from a small town, and many of us had never been to a major city. I daresay no one in our class had ever been to New York. We removed all doubts that we were country folk when we were walking down the street and turned to look whenever we heard a siren from a police car or emergency vehicle.
Our class split up into three groups to go to Broadway plays while we were in New York. One group saw “Hair” (and had to get signed permission slips from their parents to do so), some of the guys saw “1776”, and I was in the group who chose to see “Promises, Promises”.
It was definitely a huge event for me. For one thing, I’d never been that far from home. Because my dad had died when I was an infant, and my two older sisters married when I was just a toddler, my mom and I were very close. So it was difficult being away from her for those 3 or 4 days (and nights). But Mom encouraged me to go, and I was happy that I did.
Ah, memories of our youth….
~These Days Of Mine~
these days of mine 
Sweet Memories!! We had the same dress code rules, and Mom and I played the forever changing the hem-length ‘game’. I’d hem it up, and she’d make me change and take the hem down again. Makes me chuckle when I see my grandgirls’ hems today.
What an amazing opportunity – to go to New York City. That was definitely the Country Girl has gone to the City!
You sported the page boy cut well!
You look anxious / excited about the trip, but overall I see someone who’s ready to get the heck out of school – for good !
How wonderful the senior class got to go to New York City. Smithfield High did not offer that as far as I remember. Loved the picture of you, Shirley & Gladys.
I knew immediately that was you. Oh, those photos from our high school days are something, aren’t they? We weren’t allowed to wear pants until my junior year and yes, our skirts surely were short too!
Well that was quite an adventure. We didn’t have a Senior Class trip but it was a huge class so would have been impossible to arrange I think. Anyway, I know New York was like night and day from Smithfield but an important experience for everyone in many ways – the world is a big place but sometimes it’s hard to imagine HOW big unless you see it. A fun memory!
Hugs, Pam