Stories From Under A Bootheel (Rants, Laughs, and Tears)

Chapter 7 My Dad Part 6 The Oldest or Youngest Graduate

"I'm here to pick up my son's diploma." My dad was talking to the dean's secretary. As several well-dressed family's passed by on their way into the dean's office. I can't really describe the scene as I was outside in the car in the freezing rain. "He is indisposed," My dad explained.  

"Oh, is he ill?" she asked.

"It's a serious case of blue jeans," my father assured her.

Somewhat puzzled and not being use to my father's dry wit, she responded, "Why don't you just give me his name and you can go in with the rest. The dean wants to say a few words."

Now that I've sparked your curiosity, an explanation is probably in order.

I graduated from Georgia Tech in an off-quarter. Off-quarter graduations were generally small with most people choosing to wait for the larger formal event in late spring. I wanted to be on record as having graduated at the age of twenty. Since my twenty first birthday was coming up in April, I didn't want to wait. Still there were enough graduates that a formal auditorium type event was planned.

It was December 1971 and my mother, father, and sister had all driven to Atlanta for the graduation ceremony. They arrived the night before the scheduled ceremony. We all stayed at a nearby motel just across from the campus. We retired early because a storm was expected.

If you were in Atlanta in December 1971, you will remember one of the worst ice storms in Atlanta's history. I tried to look it up on line, and apparently it isn't even in the top five anymore, but at the time, we were assured they had never had anything like it. All the streets were frozen over and virtually impassable. Atlanta was not equipped to handle such freak storms. Every event in the city was cancelled including my graduation.

By midday, the roads had begun to clear and my family just wanted to get on the road and get home out of this weather as soon as possible. The dean's office was not that far from our hotel and we had heard on the radio that those who wanted to could come by and pick up their diplomas there.

So, packed up and dressed for a road trip we headed to the dean's office. I planned to just run in and pick up my diploma. When we got there, there were several cars in the parking lot and as I mentioned earlier, there was a parade of well-dressed families heading into the building.

Then we heard on the car radio that the dean was holding an impromptu graduation ceremony in his office for families that had come from out of town. I did not want to be the only one in blue jeans amongst all of these dressed up people. I suggested we just go home and we'd get the diploma in the mail. My father had another idea.

My father who is not easily embarrassed volunteered to go in and get the diploma. Besides, he was in a suit since that was the only clothes he had brought for the day.

Now you are caught up to where my dad goes into the dean's office filled with graduates and their families. According to my dad, the dean gave a nice little speech and then began calling the names his secretary had given him. Each graduate proceeded up to the dean and received their diploma with a handshake. When my name was called my dad went up and...

Now I have to explain what happened next. There was a reporter from the Atlanta Constitution at the ceremony who saw a chance for a great human-interest story, "Oldest grad in Tech history." My dad was fifty-eight at the time and may have even looked older. The reporter quickly snapped a picture of my dad receiving my diploma and shaking hands with the dean. He then took my dad aside to get the full in-depth story. My dad explained the situation to the disappointed reporter. He didn't get his story, but he did send my dad a copy of the picture.

Thus, ends the tale of my unusual graduation, but for me the most unusual thing about it was that my dad did not make up some wild story for the reporter to print. It is possible that he was worried it might backfire and embarrass me. — Nah, more likely he was just having an off day.