Up the road

Last night (Tuesday, June 24, 2008), the local TV news brought back a flood of long-ago memories.
The weatherman mentioned weather would be hot and sultry for the last final exams, so the head honcho, our age, picked right up on it.
In 1962, my final year at Brandywine High School, everyone in our class had to take 12th-grade Problems of Democracy, the social-studies regimen.
So a final-exam in it could be given to all 250+ students in our class in one fell swoop, unlike other classes, which could only be given one class at a time.
So the POD final was a big affair; 250+ desks arrayed in our gym — open windows, gently wafting fans in the open doorways.
So study for it could be a singular affair.
Most students went outside in the glaring sunlight, and across the street up a dirt road next to an elementary school; i.e. far away from the high-school.
I went up the road with my friend Brooks Parker, and remember splaying on a hillside eating lunch.
It certainly was nicer than the school cafeteria.
Some studying was done, but not much. Just batting things around with possible exam questions.
Like define “bicameral;” and what year was our nation’s Constitution adopted, and who wrote it?
Possible essay question: Why did we do a Constitution when we already had the Articles of Confederation?
Our long sojourn at Brandywine High School was winding down.
Somehow, going up that road in the steamy sunshine was more apt than studying in the school Library.

“Brandywine High School,” north of Wilmington, DE; is from where I graduated in 1962.

“Brooks Parker” was my friend during my senior year at Brandywine. We had formed a small dance band.