I attended Humboldt-St. Vincent High School, class of 1977. The last time I was there was in 1992 when there was an all-class reunion. I took the time to walk around the school. It was very strange for me to see it all again with the distance of time and experience. I could literally hear the ghosts of the past as I went from area to area.

I could remember sitting in the hall at that spot on a stool after being sent out of Mrs. Younggren's first grade class in disgrace for talking during class; I could remember having a bloody nose all alone in the girls' lavatory; I could remember the strange smell of the milk that came from the white tubes at the cafeteria; I went downstairs and could almost hear Mr. Martin or Mrs. Docken telling us to sing a song during music class...

Walking in the gym, the old bleachers seems so much smaller than they once appeared. While all the past students milled around, I recalled ham suppers that took place there, with green peas and mashed potatoes that my mother always derided ("...they are INSTANT!" she would say) but we never missed a supper because it was a social event where you saw people from around the county you never saw the rest of the year.

I thought of the people no longer with us, who had died during the intervening years, from students to teachers; of the sadness that began during their school years that eventually consumed some of them to point of taking their own lives. I smiled when I thought of how once, it was thought almost scandalous to leave the school grounds to go up to Iten's to grab a hamburger. How innocent the time was...or was it just us?