How do you feel about graduations?

[Karen]

Of the four of us kids, mine was the only college graduation my Dad got to attend. He worked rotating shifts, so missed both my older siblings' graduations from a huge University, where there was plenty of pomp and circumstance, speeches, etc. I went with Ma in his stead to my big sister's graduation.

My college - Mass Art - was a much smaller graduation, and because of the rain that day was held in a humid gym, and instead of the huge orchestra my sibling's graduation had, there was a hired oompah band, playing "When the Saints Go Marching In." Yes, we wore caps and gowns, the cheapest imaginable ones, some kind of polyester, and nary a one was unadorned - it was art school, after all. The most impressive were the industrial design majors, which tended to have seriously crafted structures on their mortarboards. It was not a typical college graduation, but it was unique, and dad got to come!

[smokey the elder]

The Archies (architects) at RPI would always do some kind of theme. For my BS graduation, Harrison Schmidt the astronaut was the main speaker; they did a space theme. When GB Trudeau ("Doonesbury" comic writer) did my PhD graduation they came as giant pencils! Only grad students actually walked across the stage.