Senior Year Photo

School colors and letters, Abstract by Matt Murray

If you were looking forward to seeing my Senior Year photo, I’ve got news for you, it’s not going to happen. It’s not bad or anything but we all look so different now. I don’t know about you but I haven’t looked at my yearbooks since I got them so many years ago. I would have to dig it up and find it.

So in its place I have done a digital abstract of my high school colors: green, white, and gray.

This story is about going to take my senior class photo. I graduated in 1989. The photo was taken in 1988.

I received a letter in the mail during the summer telling me to come to the school on a particular day. It was in either July or August. We were to wear our regular clothes as the correct clothes would be provided. My Mom (or Mum), for you folks overseas, drove me to the high school. I did not have my license yet. I lived nine miles away in Melbourne Beach. The school was located in Melbourne, across the causeway. It was called Melbourne High School. There was a short name for it, it was Mel-Hi. Whenever someone asked you where you went, you told them Mel-Hi.

There were multiple entrances into the school. The main entrance was in the front off the side road where the school was located. There was a second entrance which was about five classrooms down from the main entrance. You could also enter from the area between the auditorium and the library. Or you could enter from the southeastern student parking lot. This was also where the bus loop was. I entered the school this day through the second entrance in the front.

All the classrooms were located outside. The only way to stay out of a possible rain storm was to stay under the overhangs. That is not how it looks now. A few years after I left (somewhere between 1994 & 1996), they re-designed the whole school. Now the students go inside buildings to get to the classrooms. You can see a before and after overhead shot on the side-by-side shot below.

Overhead image by Google Earth, Image edited by Matt Murray

I had never been to the room where the photos were to take place. I put a red line from the parking lot to the actual room. It’s just above the word “Before”, if you can’t see it. I went in and saw one of my fellow students, a girl, D sitting at a desk. She was processing the students when they came in. She checked off my name. I don’t remember if I had to sign anything but I’m sure I probably did. She told me to go back to a room where there were multiple short-sleeve dress shirts. The initial room was the size of a very small bedroom. The room where the shirts were was even smaller. It was like the size of a bathroom you’d have at your house. I remember the walls in both rooms were dark wood paneling.

As I made my way back there, I got a surprise. My best friend, C (a guy) was back there. He had arrived a few seconds before me. Both of us had never worn a dress shirt before. So, we had no idea what size shirt we should put on. This proved difficult as you’ll see.

Dress shirts come in all kinds of sizes like 14.5-15.5, 15-15.5, 16-16.5, 17-17.5, 18-18.5. It’s all based on neck sizes. We had no idea. Who has ever measured their neck? We were thoroughly confused.

We started trying on all the shirts to see which ones worked. There were only 5 choices. So the process of elimination turned out to be the ultimate choice.

I would put on a shirt and then I would go up to D to see if it was the right one. She would tell me no and I would return and put on another shirt. Then I would come back and she would tell me no again and send me back. When I came back the fourth time and she said no. I told her that C had on the one I needed then. Because that was the last shirt. It had to be that one.

I waited until he was done with his picture and then he came back and tore it off and gave it to me. He ran out of there and left. I was now alone with my shirt.

I put the shirt on and passed by D at the table and entered into the room where the photographer was. He decided what size the jacket should be and I put it on. He put a tie with the shirt. I think it was a clip-on but I can’t remember. The photo was quicker than it had taken me to put all those shirts on. It was over in seconds.

Conclusion

I have a message for the school, even though this is many years later. Educate the students on dress shirt sizes if you intend to do it that way again. I’m sure we weren’t the only ones who had never donned a dress shirt. Maybe the photographer should have come in and told us which one would work for each of us.

Do you have any funny stories from your senior year photo? Or did everything go okay with your senior year photo?

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt