Larry Mixson, Gail and Athol experiment with geometric objects.

In May the school yearbook aptly called The Hurricane, came out and it was huge, 9x12 inches, an inch and half thick, it had to be with pictures of 3,000 students, and that didn’t include pictures of the black students from Lincoln High, although their names were listed in the back under “Transfer Students”.  In addition to my senior picture, I had several entries: the mathematics honor society Mu Alpha Theta along with a hundred other members including Ginny Gordon. I was a member of Science Investigators Club, a club that never did any investigation, with a hundred members, again including Ginny  Gordon.  Then there was a staged photo of me in math class helping a girl with an “experiment with geometric objects.” The yearbook had forty pages dedicated to sports, a couple of pages about the Vietnam war. Beautiful blue eyed Becky Keel, who was the yearbook editor for the Whirlwind yearbook in 9th grade, was again the editor for the GHS yearbook the Hurricane in 1970, she was also the Senior staff secretary. Susan Johnson, who sat next to Ginny in in Physics class was one of the seven seniors chosen for the 1970 hall of fame. The yearbook was filled with pictures of many of same group of popular kids that I had known since Junior High School.  I knew most of them, a few might have even known my name, but none would I have called friends.  Oddly enough, it wasn’t until I received the yearbook that I found out the Ginny Gordon was not a senior, but she was a Junior which surprised me for everyone else in Physics class were Seniors.  A whole school year had gone by, and it wasn’t until the last few weeks at school that I learned that.  I wondered what else I didn’t know about her.

The Science Investigators

Larry sitting second row, far left. Ginny seated second row, fifth fom right.

It is customary to have friends sign or write something in your Senior yearbook, but I didn’t have any friends, I even felt that my once best friend Bill had forsaken me.  I was alone and so I asked no one to write in my yearbook, like how I felt, the pages were left empty.   

 Note: A copy of my pristine yearbook with no signatures or writing is available at “Classmates.com” who requested people send in their yearbook for them to copy and so I sent them mine. If you go to their site and look up the “1970 GHS yearbook” you can see my name on the cover.  The only marking in it was where I highlighted Ginny Gordon’s name, twice.

Later in late May, the Junior-Senior prom was held in the GHS gym with the theme “The Age of Aquarius” after the popular song by the same name. Attendance was smaller than expected due to potential violence from white and black student conflicts, “but it was peaceful, in part to a large number of plainclothes police present.”, reported the Gainesville Sun.  I did not attend; Ginny is the only girl I wanted to ask, and I couldn’t bring myself to ask her. Remembering that dance I went to at Westwood in 9th grade, I sure wasn’t going alone.

Updated: 11-10-2022

Graduation