MHS Class of 2008 - From Graduation To Relaxation

It was a sight to behold! I was in my home on Orange Road and I ran outside to see what was the commotion...the lights, the sirens, the cheering, the clapping...I just stood there and waved, remembering my own feelings of joy and possibilities from my own REMOTE high school graduation. Best of luck to them all!

yes it was one of the hottest tickets in town - as it was held inside in the auditorium (due to threat of thunderstorms which of course did not materialize). So it was quite hot and sticky in there. My daughter reports having a great time at proj. grad. - one of the only opportunities for kids from all different spheres of h.s. to come together and hang out with no expectations or pressures.

So. very. inconsiderate. to. everyone.

Good for them for graduating, I'm glad they had a blast at D&B (we just got locked in the local Y for mine), and I'm also glad they stayed far away from N. Fullerton Ave this year so I was able to get a full night's sleep.

congratulations, grads. we wish you a lifetime of health, happiness and success.

I remember our trip through town as well. Done with school, ready for summer, ready for college, ready for life. What a great time. Congrats to the grads!

Good luck, grads, on your slide down the razor blade of life.

Wow, you folks here sure know how to celebrate! My HS graduation was held not at my school but at San Diego State in the outdoor theater. I remember the grads wishing we could walk at our own school. As it was we all drove ourselves (licensed at 16!) because no one wanted to drive with their folks. So there were double the number of cars and associated pollution. Then afterwards, nothing. No school-organized event, nada. Maybe there were private parties but I guess I wasn't on the "A" list! Think I drove myself to a restaurant afterward to meet my parents for dinner.
So from my perspective, Project Graduation is very cool!

Inconsiderate? It's a celebration of accomplishment. Some honking horns is too much? I hope you can get up some enthusiasm for your own kids when they do something positive and want to have some fun. Fun can be a little noisy sometimes!

Honking horns at 10pm is excessive. I get up before 5am and I'm usually in bed by 9:30 or so. When I lived in Upper Montclair, I dreaded the graduation cacaphony. I wish the grads well but they should learn consideration instead of being treated as if they're the center of the universe.

Spot- it's ONE night. And what's wrong with feeling like the center of the universe for a couple of hours?

At least they're bussed out of town and not getting wasted, toilet-papering your yard.

Oh yeah, when the bus would go by and I was walking on the sidewalk, the young people destined for greatness were screaming swear words out the windows. Lovely.

Pretty impressive college admissions! Our schools are succeeding after all. I don't think MKA did nearly as well.

hold on to the feelings you're having right now, grads. as you land in all those different places--apart from each other after all those years--you will look back and smile, smile, smile. Bravo and brava!

"I wish the grads well but they should learn consideration instead of being treated as if they're the center of the universe."

uh.. they kinda are the center of the universe. For chrisakes, can't you grouchy old farts give them one freaking night! What a bunch of pantywaists.

Awrighty, MellonBrush, let me know where ya live and I'll come by with an airhorn to blow as your fast asleep. Don't worry. I'll only do it once a year.

"What a bunch of pantywaists."

Ditto! Remind me never to go out for a night on the town with you whiners. "10pm is excessive" - is it really? Do any of you early-to-bed people have any teenagers? Methinks not.

Why do people think if they work early in the morning they are entitled to quiet but the rest of us are not? Complaining of some noise at the early and reasonable hour of 10 p.m. is incredibly self-centered. I often work until 2 in the morning and am not up until 9. So please honk away at 10 p.m. It's the annoying morning commuters that earn my wrath.

I live on Cleveland Terrace in Bloomfield.

:-)

STL,

If you 'air horn' me. I'll have "Fart Man" go blow down your house with one of his massive emissions!

Unbelievably selfish to demand a pristine night's sleep on the one night when our entire community celebrates the young people's accomplishment.
How tough would it be to forego a little rest and get out on the curb to applaud as they pass by?
In fact, given this attitude, how *do* you sleep?

What a great tradition! I wish my buttoned-down CT private school had had anything nearly as fun. If we had, though, our class would've only needed one bus.

Impressive list of colleges. And hey, two going to my alma mater. Neat.

"It's the annoying morning commuters that earn my wrath"

It's the annoying 6:15 am Saturday garbage truck that earns mine!

Actually, I sleep quite well since I moved away from Valley Road in Upper Montclair. Bloomfield's not as loud and showy. ; )

The board of Ed should consider backpack checks and hiring buses for the proms. This maybe the solution to the alcohol problem.

GO CLASS OF 2008!

The parade went by my house and with all the emergency vehicles, we all thought there was a big fire or something. Having lived in the house for 5 years, this is the first time we ever saw this. With this town being as dangerous as it can be, it seemed like a big waste of emergency resources.

Poor Spot got swear words.....

As I blinked by porch light on and off, I heard a number of students scream:

"WE LOVE YOU (MRS. PROF*)!!!!"

Great to be married to a wonderful teacher whose students go on to great schools and lives!!

* name changed to protect the innocent-- unlike the NY Times......

profdude, as a member of the educational profession, I take it that you encourage our youth to spew profanity at strangers, right? I thought you would.

Transplanted,
Did you graduate from HS? If so, after graduation did you go home and enjoy a quite dinner with your parents listening to elevator music?

Being Class of 1980 in a state with a drinking age of 18, my parents sponsored a keg party in my backyard. Nobody drove away drunk, either (although it took removing the distributor cap from one of my friends' cars -- he fell asleep in the driver's seat after giving up on starting the thing).

goodthangs, the tragic flaw in your posit is that a private function in one's own home whether it's listening to grindcore or drum and bass is still another world away from wreaking havoc and disturbance through the whole town.

Transplanted, be sure to miss Montclair's 4th of July parade, too. Now THAT showy display of emergency vehicles will surely send you reeling.

I guess we'd better cancel July 4th fireworks displays. Those dang things are really loud and, wouldn't you just freaking know it, they sometimes go on until the wee wee hours of 10PM.

The Independence Day parade is a highly publicized, nation-wide event that happens on the same day and (in this town) along the same route every year.

Independence Day fireworks again happen with much publicity.

The incredibly noisy party on wheels that is the prelude to Montclair's Project Graduation celebration is on a different day every year, takes a different route every year, and only people who have kids in the HS or who go to the town website know when/where it's going to be.

For someone who doesn't know that it's going to pass in front of their 20-something unit apartment building to be waken up from a deep sleep by what seems to be every siren in town driving by their house is a very disturbing experience.

If they really want to do this, then the students or PTA should send mailers to every residence along the celebration route so they can decide whether or not they want to "participate" in the events (or at the very least not wonder if half of their apartment building is on fire because 3 fire trucks are racing up the street in their direction).

Geez. So many rules & regulations for something that seems so simple. How do you keep up? Seems like a drag of a way to live life in my book.

Poor poor Spot.....

I got sweet kisses from our youth.

You got what they thought you deserve.

So, ah, yea. I have no problem if they thought you needed a little salty language for your time.

Sticks and stones and all-- Next time, smile and wave. Instead of looking at them like they're crazy for screaming in the MIDDLE of the night, or 9:30...

(I love that you are still scarred. Did you get picked last in school too?)

Babies have almost no fears, with loud noises being one of the exceptions.

I used to live about 75 feet away from the firehouse @ 28th and Federal in Denver.

Geez, I must have woke up dozens of times thinking my house was on fire..

Please, spare us the mock outrage, you embarass yourself.

(Or is it scared?)

Got an idea. Next year -- April, May, June, whenever you think it timely enough -- go here http://www.montclair.k12.nj.us/UserCalendar.aspx and find out when graduation will be. Then plan accordingly. It can (*really*) be just like Fourth of July -- you can know in advance. Sorry if you were alarmed. Sorry, too, that your first impulse wasn't "What a delightful tradition, and what a marvelous community I've joined that comes together to celebrate in this way!"

Git2itGal,

Why should I have to go to the further inconvenience of checking a web site because something that *I have nothing to do with* is going to be annoying me all night long?

A warning should be mailed out by (and paid for by) the parents of the graduating students.

You people have high hopes. You're setting yourselves up to be constantly disappointed/angry. Better to just accept it and go with the flow. You'll love longer and be happier!

Amandala, please, all night long? Best I remember, the parade had come and gone in less that five minutues. Lighten up.

If you read the Montclair Times, you will know about the Project Grad. parade in advance.
Congratulations '08!! You are a great bunch of kids!

OK, everybody--especially Amandala--next year's MHS graduation will be on June 25. Buy those earplugs now, or plan a vacation!

prof said, "You got what they thought you deserve."

What a foolish statement from someone who purports to be a teacher. I never knew any of the students. They didn't know me and yet they chose to and were allowed to yell things like MFer out of the bus windows at a pedestrian on the sidewalk minding their own business. Again, I'm very glad that I moved away from Montclair.

Spotty!!!

Just noticed you got a trifeca in the recent posts. Very good, indeed!!

And keep on complainin'.

Educator or not, that you got called an "MFer" is hilarious!!

Perhaps they saw something about the lonely Loon walking down the street by him or herself-- ignoring their good cheer-- and thought what a jerk, here's one for you pal.....

Kids tend to speak the truth.....

prof, I agree that those who are complaining about one hour, at most, of disruption on what has likely been the biggest night thus far of their young lives are behaving like crotchety oldsters. Still, NO ONE deserves to have MFer screamed at them out of a bus window. It is not hilarious, and if your wife is indeed a teacher and is as capable and respected as you say she is, I am certain that she would have had plenty to say to the offender(s) had she been on board that bus.
At least I hope that she would not have viewed as hilarious.

Wow, maybe I'm glad after all that I drove myself to graduation and then to a quiet dinner with the family! what a ruckus!

Sending kids off with some fanfare = cool!

Hearing nasty things yelled by nasty kids out the window = not cool!

What my momma said was true, bad apples spoil the whole barrel.

Dave & Buster's? How tacky. Still, it's never too early to try to reach your kid's Inner Gambler.

I also note that there isn't a D&B's in Jersey. Presumably they went to the one in Times Square? Ah well, if that's what passes for fun these days....

Crank, there's one at the Palisades Mall, just over the border off 287. We went up once on a weekday just to see what the hoopla was all about. I was not impressed. The place smelled weird, too.

But I'll bet the grads had fun!

The bus ride through town is completely tame. It went by our house and was over in less than 2 minutes. A few sirens and horns. Big deal.

After high school graduation most of our graduating class would go to the S Jersey shore ("down the shore") to Wildwood for Senior Week. I'm not sure how we were able to convince our parents that this was a good idea, but we did. The stuff that we did during Senior Week makes the Montclair bus parade seem downright Normal Rockwell by comparison.

"Norman" Rockwell

For me it was "cocktails" at a classmates house(parent sponsored), then down the shore. The whole bus ride thing to the Dave & Busters is kind of tame, but then again kids are doing more crazy stuff than when I was in high school. So maybe rounding up kids and taking them to go play ain't such a bad idea.

For me it was "cocktails" at a classmates house(parent sponsored), then down the shore. The whole bus ride thing to the Dave & Busters is kind of tame, but then again kids are doing more crazy stuff than when I was in high school. So maybe rounding up kids and taking them to go play ain't such a bad idea.

For me it was "cocktails" at a classmates house(parent sponsored), then down the shore. The whole bus ride thing to the Dave & Busters is kind of tame, but then again kids are doing more crazy stuff than when I was in high school. So maybe rounding up kids and taking them to go play in the indoor playground ain't such a bad idea.

For me it was "cocktails" at a classmates house(parent sponsored), then down the shore. The whole bus ride thing to the Dave & Busters is kind of tame, but then again kids are doing more crazy stuff than when I was in high school. So maybe rounding up kids and taking them to go play ain't such a bad idea.

We only heard the grads hollering and cheering as if at a football game. Parents were the same. That is the parents who were able to see the parade because it didn't follow the published route. As for the venue? Our graduate came home and admitted he found the whole venue a bit tacky but also said the food was good and that he enjoyed being with all the other grads. Would that we didn't have to subject our kids to a night at a mall (typical New Jersey?) and could trust everyone to have a private party at one of the pools or something......Instead, Montclairites go on and on about whether the graduates parade over a bridge. They publish a route for a parade that is led and followed by police and emergency personnel but then change the route because of safety....Worried about appearances as usual???!!!!Then, sadly, a woman is killed at the local Y. People in this community need to begin working on making it a community or the town will devolve even further.