Fast times at Laguna High

SHERWOOD KIRALY

Thoughts of a dad standing in line to register for his vacationing

ninth-grade daughter:

Well, the quad looks nice, and the line’s moving finally ... I’m

not the only parent; there’s a few others, all saying pretty much the

same thing: Time flies. One minute your daughter’s in pre-school,

next minute the other girls in her class are wearing jeans that say,

“I’m studying to be a plumber.”

The A-through-L kids had to come at 8 a.m.; the M-through-Z kids

don’t come till 9:30. I wish some of Katie’s friends were here for me

to talk to, but she has more M-Z friends than A-L friends ...

The boys in line are all acting blase. They probably are blase;

they’ve been in lots of lines ...

Reminds me of when I was a freshman boy -- the least prestigious

of God’s creatures. Back then I was trying to be Steve McQueen. Now

I’m just trying to be responsible ...

I hope I’ve got all the forms ... the whole packet. You get a lot

of packets in high school; they love a good packet ...

I can’t believe Katie’s a freshwoman. It seems like just yesterday

she was telling me about her favorite X-Man -- well, actually that

was yesterday, but the point remains, we’re zipping right along. That

old James Taylor song says the secret of life is enjoying the passage

of time. I’d enjoy it more if I could retard it.

You appreciate life more when you stretch it out. I try to explain

that to our puppy, Booker. He doesn’t savor his walks; he just runs

down the street. I tell him, “You need to stop and pee on the roses.”

I’ll tell you, though, time slows up in a line like this.

Surrounded by 14-year-old girls chattering past me as if I weren’t

here. It is like being in high school again ...

The problem is the line is slow but everything else is too fast.

In five minutes Katie will be graduating and then she’ll be leaving

home. That’s unacceptably quick. But what can you do? You can’t ...

wait. I should lose the packet, is what I should do. In that handy

trash receptacle. Without the packet the machinery seizes up, the

whole process breaks down. She can’t go to high school; time stops.

Yeah, along with your marriage. Patti Jo would never go for it;

she’s so traditional ...

Oh, my turn? Hi. Yeah, I’ve got the ASB thing, I got the PTA thing

in here somewhere, too ... Here ya go ... Yeah, I’m Katie’s dad ...

Yeah, we used to live right across St. Ann’s ... Yeah, it does fly,

doesn’t it?