We’re doing a fun little project at work right now. The idea is for people to bring in photos of themselves in their teenage years. Each photo gets scanned, cropped and cleaned up in Photoshop (mostly just to correct the weird colour tones we know and love in old photos). The printed photos get arranged in a large picture frame, with a corresponding “key” showing who is who.

This, of course, has me sifting through my old yearbooks. And what a trip it is.

I started high school in 1989. The cover of that particular yearbook looks a bit like a poorly designed movie poster for a B-grade Japanese war flick. Ironically, the title - “The Dawn of a Decade” - reminds me of the new years celebrations I enjoyed at my neighbour’s house. In the company of Stephen’s parents, sister and Oma and Opa, we “jumped” into the new decade off of chairs as we sipped champagne from little plastic cups.

But back to high school.

My yearbook comments are voluminous and varied in content, and I offer a few here for our collective amusement. (and for the sake of everyone involved, I’ll keep it to first names and last initials)

Hey Mike! Get funky! Have a wild summer! No studying okay! We can’t have you to smart!! P.S. Just kidding! Love Jana. PPS Don’t ever drive your parents car! Okay!

See ya in math class you sex pot you. See ya next year. Meagan

Mike Mike Too Too Much Much Sex Sex Makes Makes You You See See Double Double. Have a great summer. Rick A.

MIKE, I’M USED TO THIS NAME! SO MIKE I’M GLAD TO SAY YOUR AUTOMOBILE KNOWLEDGE HAS RUBBED OFF ON ME. SEEING HOW CARS ARE AN INTEREST OF MINE TOO. HAVE A RAD YEAR AHEAD PROB SEE IN NEXT YEARS SCIENCE CLASS LOVE ERAN

C’était un semestre intéressant, Mike, mon volountaire préféré. Merci et bonne vacances! B.T.

Now, the Mini Nerd was a man of few words in this particular yearbook, but he did take artistic liberties with *many* of the photos. This was a cause of some irritation for me at the time (not nearly as much as my sister’s friends cutting out photos from some of my later yearbooks), but his art is something I’ve grown to cherish. And I wouldn’t have Chairperson Brown’s portrait any other way now: