It is interesting to hear that the Grand Marais/Cook County High School has been holding graduation ceremonies for 100 years. Although it shouldn’t surprise me, as my own graduation from CCHS was 35 years ago.
Now that
surprises me. I can’t believe that I donned my black cap and gown that long ago. Although the fact that my cap and gown was black shows my age a bit, doesn’t it?
The Class of 1975 didn’t buy its graduation gowns. We rented them. They were heavy black robes that we returned after commencement. Caps too, which was actually quite nice. What do you do with a mortarboard hat after getting your degree?
Having to return the cap and gown made the tassel all the more precious though. I never hung my tassel on a car rearview mirror like some people do. I didn’t want my class colors (black and gold) to fade. Instead I hung it on my dresser mirror. It’s still hanging there. I still like the Class of ’75 colors—they are dark enough that they haven’t faded. I don’t feel old when I look at the tassel.
But I do feel old when I look at the youthful faces of the current graduates and hear about their dreams and future plans. I wasn’t as adventurous as they seem to be. By the time they reach graduation, today’s students have traveled to Florida to play baseball or to Chicago to compete in band concerts or to Washington DC to attend youth leadership training or they have taken guided tours of England or Greece. They’ve taken college classes and learned culinary arts and acted in one-act plays.
I hate to use the old cliché, but.kids these days.seem a lot more sophisticated than my friends and I were at graduation. They seem far more ready to take on the world.
I wasn’t one of those students who wanted to get the heck out of Grand Marais. I knew that there is something special about the North Shore. I loved being around friends and family that I had known all my life. And truthfully, I was afraid to head out into the big, wide, world.
My travel experience prior to graduation was confined to a couple of church youth groups to the Twin Cities and a family trip through the Dakotas to Washington State. Escalators and elevators and big city traffic intimidated me. I probably would have been content to live out my days in Grand Marais, next to the Big Lake.
If not for Chuck. Two weeks after graduation I married Private First Class Charles Silence and headed to Washington State once again— to live in Tacoma. It was quite a shock for a small-town girl. It took months for me to get my bearings and to feel comfortable in my rainy new environment. And just when I started to get my feet under me, Chuck received orders from the Army. We packed up once again and this time traveled much, much, farther—to Mannheim, Germany.
I thought I had gone through culture shock in the move from the Midwest to the West Coast. I was wrong. In Mannheim I not only had to deal with big city life—I had to deal with it in an unfamiliar language.
I survived. In fact, to my surprise, I thrived on living so far from home. Every day was an adventure. Just making a phone call or grocery shopping was a challenge. When we finally returned to the United States, my self-confidence had soared. I figured if I could live and work in a country where I barely spoke the language, I could manage anywhere.
And I did. For 20-plus years I followed Chuck around the country, to Colorado, to California, back to Germany, to Virginia and finally back home to Minnesota.
I won’t say I enjoyed every minute. Sometimes it was scary, living in unfamiliar urban areas. Sometimes it was lonely, living so far from old friends and family. Figuring out how to be married wasn’t easy. There were good times and bad, but for the most part it was wonderful.
I didn’t realize it then, but having PFC Charles Silence push me out of my comfort zone was the best thing that ever happened to me. Thanks, Chuck, and Happy 35th Anniversary!
Love is a friendship
set to music.
E. Joseph Cossman
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