Party To Follow Graduation Rites
Dancing And Games
Dancing will be continuous throughout the evening with the "Blue Notes" providing the music. Besides dancing will be some games and prizes.
"Bingo" will be the outstanding game of the evening," remarked Mr. Remche. And there are 200 prizes which were donated by the merchants of Lodi.
[article continued...]
The Flame, 6 June 1959
Lodi Graduates Enjoy Big Night At "Hotel" Dance
by Jane Lose
Each car was driven to the "Hotel Continental" Thursday Evening, depositing Mr. and Miss Senior at their destination for a night out on the town in the Twenties.
Girls in full, fluff gowns of all colors, escorted by suddenly mature gentlemen, arrived at the American Legion Memorial building which had been converted into the Hotel Continental via a yellow docrated and lettered awning guarded by imposing looking doormen and local officers of the law.
They were given favors of black derbies for boys, and "flapper" beads for the girls.
Immediately after the graduation exercises, most of the Lodi Union High School Class of '60 members gathered to enjoy socializing [stet] with their classmates, dancing, a buffet, and games, all following the dignified side of the them of the "Roaring Twenties".
The select clientele were envied to enter the hotel's lavish ballroom, decorated with large cluster of hanging balloons from the center of the ceiling.
Adorning the walls were simple framed paintings of old-time autos drawn by students mike Hayne, Dave Burson, Bob Lipelt , and Stan Melcher.
The boys also did the line cartoons depicting the hard times. Stockton's Stagg High School were dealt by the Lodi Flames, which hung as murals on the walls.
On the stage, garnished with balloons and decorated card tables, several groups enjoyed the buffet of fruit salad, meatballs, ...ham, and other favorites.
The graduate guests also enjoyed games downstairs, with prizes going to the winners.
Lively music emphasized by a multi-sound box system on the center stage was provided by the Blue Notes for the seniors.
This 10th annual affair which ended at 4 a.m. was made through the cooperation of both students and parents and the Lodi Youth Council.
[It continued.......]
Lodi Newsentinel, Lodi, California [don't have the date... _ June 1960]
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Graduation Night
ROARING TWENTIES
9 June 1960
My Graduation Night and A Broken Heart
by Judy A. Remmick-Hubert
Graduation night is suppose to be a night that one remembers because it's one of those special times which represents the end of your first 12 years of school and the beginning of the life as an adult.
On this night one is expected to talk about the happy future which encluded such things as going to college, or marriage, or going into the Army...... It's the night one can call their teacher by their first name.
I remember rushing around getting ready. I was so excited.
The photographs were taken....
My first hint that this night wasn't going to be one of those nights with glittering happy headlines in my book of life when my boyfriend, with whom I had been dating for more than a year, didn't arrive in time to go with my family and I to graduation.
At graduation I stood in my gown and cap with the tassel on the right side, while classmates, parents, friends around me were smiling, I felt like the clown that was crying within, "Laugh clown laugh although your heart is breaking."
Many things that had nothing to do with graduation and everything to do with my absent boyfriend were circling through my head. I was worried that something had happen to him..... It didn't occur to me that he was all right and fate had something else planned for me the rest of the evening.....
Many of the graduates went straight to the "Hotel" Dance , based on the Roaring Twenties, which was being given from 9:00 p.m. to 4: a.m.... Instead, I quietly sat in the car headed home with my folks and my grandparents [my father's father, his second wife and my mother's mother].
Over and over my step-mother kept saying, "Judy, if your boyfriend doesn't have the decency of being here with you on such an important night then drop him like he is a hot potato." Of course, she didn't understand... How could she? How could anyone, I thought.
We were at my home for about a half hour when the phone rang and it was my boyfriend who said he was going to be late. Going to be?! I thought. He was late and getting later...
When my boyfriend arrived, he wasn't dressed for a party. He had on jeans and a white t-shirt. We went outside and stood on the driveway by his car. He told me that he didn't want to go to the dance, and, he wanted to break up our relationship.
As he drove off, I had tears in my eyes and I was certain my heart was broken.
When I returned to the house, I had to face the adults who already knew that something was wrong. I announced, "He wanted his ring back and I was to go alone to my graduation dance."
The adults had their sympathy for me and someone must have said something right because I started to realize I was a victim of a immature young man.
My emotions turned from self pity to anger. He had chosen my special night to "dump" me.. He could have waited until the following evening and given me this one night to remember as it should have been remembered, "Happy".
My parents, who were to be chaperons at the dance the rest of the night, drove me to the dance about ten o'clock..
Thousands of thought circled my head that was only seventeen years old and full of anxiety of suddenly finding myself "free".
I don't recall the doormen or the decorations. I just remember thinking over and over the words I was going to say to everyone when they asked why I wasn't with my boyfriend... Gulp. I had to remember: Ex-boyfriend......
The majority of my classmates were already at the dance .
At the front table where I collected my favors were two mothers who were talking about their children and how marvelous they looked and something about how times flies....
When I entered the Ballroom, I felt like everyone who had looked my way saw immediately I was alone and without my ex-boy friend's ring hanging on a chain around my neck.
As usual there were girls and boys standing apart from each other and watching the couples dancing.
The Blue Notes were my favorite band and the Rock'n Roll was being sung, blown by brass, strummed with guitars and pounded on the drums to a great beat and I didn't want to be left on the side lines all night with wall flowers in my hand. There was only one thing I could do. I wasn't going to let my broken heart bleed all over everyone and my evening. I took a deep breath and marched toward the boys I knew. I stopped in front of one of my old boyfriends who was unattached and I announced, "I'm no longer going steady so I need someone to dance with me. Interested?"
The word spread among the boys that I was "free" and I danced and danced until 4:00 a.m. . I don't recall stopping long enough to go downstairs to play games.... I discovered I had a lot of good friends who understood what it was like to have a broken heart....
Old friendships are like old spirits lingering under huge sheltering trees and waiting to be needed yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever.
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Years later, when I talked to others about their own graduation night, it seems I wasn't the only one who suffered some kind of disappointment on the night that was suppose to have been a happy one.
