Club Yachats
Menu
  • A View From Here
  • The Village
  • Food Thru History
  • About Us
Menu

It’s Graduation Time!

Posted on June 9, 2007 by Rick Schultze

The official definition of Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony that goes with it. You’d have to be living on the moon not to know it’s Graduation time of year.

Schools from the hallowed halls of collegiate academia to Dottie’s Day Care hold ceremonies and no doubt you know someone, or have a relative, or neighbor who’s in one! It’s a big deal and rightfully so, it signals an accomplishment of a mission; to finally get out!

But let’s take the term and liberalize it a bit. How about Graduating from riding your bike or trike without training wheels. Or how about Graduating from driving with a learners permit and an adult supervising you while you do it, to the wonderful time when you could do it by yourself! How about when you Graduated from playing ball in the park with kids to playing with the big kids on a regulation ball field. Or when you Graduated from being too shy to ask someone out for a date to the suave and debonair approach you use today. When you Graduated from being a bus boy to becoming a real waiter? Heck women always laugh about Graduating from their ‘training bras’!

In my case four Graduations stand out in my memory. The first one was when I Graduated from Basic Training in the Air Force at Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio Texas. The second one was Graduating from Guided Missile School in Orlando Florida. The combination of those two Graduations propelled me to whole new world; an assignment on the island often referred to as ‘the rock’; Okinawa. It was there on that military dominated island that I had a double Graduation. The first one was when JFK was assassinated. I was a young airman who was on duty in the middle of the night when the news hit. Suddenly I Graduated from being merely a worker in an underground missile complex to an airman on red alert as the countdown procedures began. At that moment the feeling among the top brass was that this was a precursor to a war. No longer was I an underclassman, now I was part of running the real big show!

Fortunately calmer heads prevailed and we continued on with our lives but I began to seriously count my days left until I could Graduate from ‘the rock’ and return to a life after the military. Well, that Graduation ceremony finally came and in the tradition of Graduations from the island my buddies and I bought bottles of Segrams VO Whisky, took off the yellow ribbon that adorned the neck of the bottle, and proudly placed the ribbons in our uniform button holes. That signified us as ‘short timers’ and on Graduation day we stood at attention on the base runway, saluted the Commander of the base, and boarded a plane for the USA. My Graduation present that day I still hold dearly in my memory; the sight of ‘the rock’ disappearing from sight as we rose into the clear blue sky.

To reach Rick Schultze email yarick@pioneer.net

Added 09 June, 2007 by Rick

Category: A View From Here
Tags: Rick Schultze, Yachats
  • February 23, 2022 by Rick Schultze Best time of year for The National Football League
  • August 16, 2021 by Rick Schultze Pre-Season Reflections
  • July 20, 2021 by Rick Schultze Degrees of Beautiful
  • July 20, 2021 by Rick Schultze The Most Powerful Sense
  • July 1, 2021 by Rick Schultze Boulevard of Broken Dreams
  • June 30, 2021 by Rick Schultze The Color Red
  • December 31, 2018 by Crystal Hayes Happy New Year!!!
  • August 8, 2018 by Crystal Hayes Tears Of Joy
  • July 1, 2018 by Crystal Hayes Ice Cream
  • June 24, 2018 by Crystal Hayes Cockle Shells - Oysters
  • June 15, 2018 by Crystal Hayes Whats up Doc?
  • May 30, 2018 by Crystal Hayes Jug of Wine
  • May 23, 2018 by Crystal Hayes The Mighty Pea
  • May 5, 2018 by Crystal Hayes The Stinking Rose
  • February 5, 2018 by Crystal Hayes Alligator Pears
  • A View From Here
  • Food Thru History
  • Oregon Coast
  • Sports
  • The Village
Home About Us Services Contact
©2025 Club Yachats | Theme by SuperbThemes