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GORDON GARNOS
(5/21/2007)
What should be said to a 2007 graduate? A BRIEF EXPLANATION: Our first grandchild is about to step on the stage to receive his high school diploma. Your grandmother and I are just one set of grandparents among thousands, maybe millions, of grandparents who will or have already witnessed that graduation of their first grandchild. This is a traumatic time in our lives as well as yours as we ask, "Where did all of those years go?" Today's column is a letter to Marshall, our grandson who lives with his mom, dad and brother in Michigan, but it could be addressed to any son, daughter, or grandchild about to commence his adult life. DEAR MARSHALL: Yes, your grandmother and I will be attending your graduation and as we look forward to the trip to Michigan to witness your commencement I can't help but look back at my high school education in my hometown many years ago. I don't mean to sound like a teacher, preacher, or anything like that, but these 70-plus years I have in this old body are riddled with errors that I hope you will never have. Grandpa has never given a commencement address before and maybe he never will. But if this sounds like such a speech please try to remember at least a little bit of it. SPEAKING OF YOUR commencement, there is no way I could begin to tell you who was the speaker, or what he said at my high school graduation. Not a single word. This ought to tell a commencement speaker something. All I could think about at the time was "No more teachers, no more books, and no more teachers' dirty looks." Yes, I'm sure I got plenty of those dirty looks in that 12 years of learning. And I have been sorry about that ever since. However, if I were to be that commencement speaker I would probably hold my words of wisdom to only 10 or 15 minutes that stand between the class of '07 and... FREEDOM! I sure wouldn't want to get in the way of the stampede. But as you observe freedom, be sure you are acquainted with all of its ramifications. Freedom is never free as men and women have paid the supreme sacrifice for your freedom. If I ever gave a commencement address I solemnly resolve to set the all-time record for the shortest commencement address ever delivered. Thinking about what I might say, I would have to give the graduating class a glimpse of those teachers I had who pushed me down that 12-year academic road. First it was Miss Trobridge, later, after she married, Mrs. Libner. We didn't have a pre-school or a kindergarten where I came from. Maybe they hadn't been invented yet. So we started right out in the first grade. Mrs. Libner stayed right with us through the second grade as well. So if any credit should go to anyone about building my educational foundation, it had to be her. A little side note here: When our class returned to our hometown a few years ago for our 50th class reunion, there she was. I almost cried. The first thing I said to her was an apology for my antics during those two years. THE THIRD GRADE through the sixth was an academic blur. Mrs. Trimble started as the teacher for our seventh grade, but part way through the year her husband passed away so we had a string of substitute teachers that year. Mrs. Struble got us through the eighth grade. Some how. She was a brilliant teacher. Many years later on her way through Watertown she stopped in my office at the Public Opinion as she had read something I had written. That meant a lot to me. She obviously also remembered. We didn't have any middle school or junior high back in those days. Perhaps they hadn't been invented yet, either. This made our high school four years long. There was Mrs. Olson. I have written about her before because she probably made the biggest impression on me. Mr. and Mrs. Erickson certainly played important roles during my high school career as did Mr. Herbst and others. STUDYING, I ADMIT, was not my forte'. Music and sports, including six-man football, were more important to me at the time. Because of this it took many years of catching up on what I missed by not hitting the books harder in high school. I mention these teachers as each of them played a role that directed me throughout my life. I urge you to remember your teachers as well as they set the path that you will follow for a long, long time. They are some of the returns to your past that will help you as you commence that great step forward in your life. Congratulations! With lots of love, Grandpa
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.
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