♫Sweet Home Alabama, play that dead band's song!♫

[captainsblog]

At this ungodly-for-a-Saturday hour, Emily is slaving away over section I of the SATs. Her own construction zone of a school isn't offering it this time round, so the closest alternate site was the high school in the district occupying the northwest corner of our quaint little town. For reasons never quite made clear to me, the district, high school and the road leading to it are all named "Sweet Home."  So naturally, ever since she printed out her admission ticket last night, I've had Skynyrd on the brain, and am doing all things possible to clear it out.

Warren Zevon's answer song to it, first line of the chorus noted above, has certainly helped. So has this: it's a poem written by Amherst native and faboo author Laura Pedersen, back when she was a senior at Sweet Home around the same time I was still in high school. It was her contribution to her senior-year literary magazine, and on first reading it reminded me a great deal of the same kind of smarmy shit we got contributed to our literary magazine (which I, the editor of, would always summarily reject):

Impressions

Finally we understand the
Caring and kindness which
You generously offered to
Us.
And so now we appreciate
Each and every special
Teacher who helped cultivate
Our integrity, maturity, and
Excellence.
True, but tile ultimate and
Real test now begins
Impressions of nostalgia shouldn't
Hinder our every move.
Lovely memories last forever.

Fortunately, no such editorial discretion was applied to this fine work, and it made it into the final edition unscathed. Unscathed, that is, until the principal figured out the secret code in the poem. While the capitalized first letters of each line didn't amount to anything, the first letter of every other word spelled out Fuck You Sweet Home Burn In Hell.

He made Laura rip the page out of every copy and banned her from graduation ceremonies. From what I remember of my graduation, I'm not sure I see the deterrent effect in that second part of the punishment.

Comments

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but I need to have an aged-curmudgeon-from-the-boondocks moment and say that my mother had to drive me 50 minutes each way, to go take the SATs. I would say uphill in the snow both ways, but I always took it either early in fall or late in spring.

And I concede that the scarcity of SAT sites was somewhat contrived in my state-- in the midwest the ACT is more popular, it was cheaper anyway I think (?), and had more test sites. I LOVED that test. I did fine on the SAT, but I LOVED the ACT.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

The kid was so nervous about me going to the right place today, she first asked if "that was it" ("that" being their middle school) and then, after about half a mile up the road from there, wondering why their middle and high schools were so far apart (hers are on opposite sides of one street). I told her my junior and senior highs were more than three miles apart, and that one year with an austerity budget and there were no buses to the high school, I had to walk 50 miles in the snow, uphill both ways.

And when we get home, I'll probably yell at her to get off my damn lawn.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

*grin* And she'll probably just laugh at you. She sounds like a marvelous kid, and such a good name! (My sister ayrshire_of_elm is an Emily as well. I really have not met an Emily yet that I did not like.)

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

Ooh, good luck, Emily!

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

Ah, she's taking them in the exact same room as I did, lo these many years ago. I don't envy her! I hope they got the ventillation fixed...

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Did they ever explain to you what the name means? Before they rerouted Dodge Road and stuff, there used to be this bar-looking place named just "Sweet Home," which looked old but not old enough to be what it was named after.

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

no, that particular bar was a biker hangout but didn't pre-date the school. no idea why it got the name, I'm afraid. I'd always have voted 'irony' as a reason...

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Grandpa's pissed hisself again; he don't give a damn...

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

It's so good to have friends here who, like us, have been properly schooled in the classics;)