God Bless The Class Of '95

My graduating class, the class of 1995, were never quite sure what year it was. It was 1995, yet if you walked out into the quad, you'd see birkenstock wearing, tie-dye sporting hippies with their acoustic guitars singing Dylan & Grateful Dead songs. Out on School Street (where the smokers hung out) it was divided into a few different groups. The Metal-heads were blasting Ride The lightening (vintage 80's Metallica), Punks dressed in CBGB shirts sporting Mohawks chilling to The Sex Pistols & Ramones (they thought it was the 70's). Then there were us Rockers, who most of the time where blasting Zeppelin, The Who, AC/DC, and the like. The hicks & jocks were all in the parking lot listening to Skynyrd & Allman Brothers, while out on the Bleachers the gangsters & such were hip hoppin to NWA & Public Enemy like it was 1989. I could go all day describing what everyone listened to, but you get my point. We where generation "what year is it"?

One thing that everyone had in common, was getting high. People in my class sparked up like it was 1969. I mean everyone. Jocks, geeks, smart kids, dumb kids, stoners, preps, gangsters. Everybody. So it was no surprise when the student body decided Rainy Day Woman should be our class song, which would be played at our Graduation ceremony. Our Senior Class advisor was hesitant at first but felt that if the senior class was really behind it, who was she to break tradition. The principal caught wind of our choice and said NO WAY. Looking back, I can't really blame him.

We signed petitions and fought it best we could. They say pick your battles, and this was a losing one. As an adult, I can clearly see why. That's certainly not the song I want my kids graduating too. By default, our principal chose Midnight Oil's Forgotten Years. I guess it made sense. A song that was popular back before any of us even entered high school by a band that had long been out of the mainstream. Maybe he chose some random song or maybe he felt bad and gave us some sort of angry protest type song to make us feel better. Whatever his reason, on that June day in 1995 as Forgotten Years played, I swear you could hear a 150 graduating seniors all roll their eyes.