Finding My Long Lost High School Senior Annual With Linda Lou & Others

Years ago, whilst packing for a move, taking books off a bookshelf, I came upon my ancient high school annuals. Four of them. Freshman through Senior year.

I had not looked at these annuals in years. I saw them and thought to myself why in the world am I hauling these things all over the world?

And so, on impulse, at that point in time the four annuals were put in the discard pile, left behind as I moved to a new abode.

A few years later I came to regret that discarding decision, a couple times, when someone would mention someone and I would find myself not remembering the person. And me no longer having high school annuals as reference books.

And that brings us to today. In this morning's email was one from something called Classmates.com, with the message in the email telling me there was "1 new note posted by a fellow schoolmate from Burlington-Edison High School for Durango Jones!"
 
I clicked the link, figuring pointless scam. I never found the note. But I did find a link to a digital version of the final annual, that being the senior class one.

I was sort of surprised that anyone would go to the trouble of scanning an entire annual. And yet, there it was. All viewable, page after page after page. With an offer to send a hard copy for 99 bucks.

So, clicking through this, I found photos of myself I had not seen in a long time. So, I copied some of them for blogging purposes.

In that photo at the top you are looking at Linda Lou on the left, and me on the right.

And above we have me studying hard on something. If I remember right, that is Sandy Coons sitting next to me. It has been so long I can't quite remember my hair ever being so long. And so dark.

And above we have a color photo. I recollect this was a big deal at the time. That some pages in the annual could be in color. That is me holding Janice Jackson above a trash barrel. I have no idea why. If I remember right the last time I saw Janice Jackson was in April of 2006, at nephew Jason's wedding, where Janice played the organ.

Okay, now the above photo looks to be a bit precarious. That would be me at the top. I can tell this was at the south side of the gym. The aforementioned Janice Jackson is directly below me on this totem pole. Were we standing on a ladder? Is that Beth Scheuerman below Janice? And Miss Lori Mason below Beth?

That would be me and my mop of hair sitting across from the aforementioned Beth Scheuerman. Martin Urbs Barnes should be shown sitting next to Beth, but this digitalized version of the annual cut Urbs off. That would be Wendy Newman sitting next to me. We are at the Broaster Cafe in Mount Vernon. 

Do most people still have their high school annuals? Or are most people like me and the annuals have fallen into the dustbin of history?