Happy faces, sad eyes, tears in a few

Hip huggers, pedal pushers, some with no shoes.

Tattered jeans, tailored suits, dressed for comfort or class

Girls with new makeup — wearing out the looking glass.

 

These are the styles, these are the faces

Of junior high students, busy going places.

Eager to learn, eager to please — young minds ripe for molding

Learning to challenge a world that is theirs for the holding.

 

All too soon, all too fast, they reach that magic day

When school is out, youth is gone and life has gone its way,

And they’ll look back with wonder upon those golden years.

Now, with mist filled eyes, I realize — I ONCE WAS HERE!

 

© 2000, David B. McCurley

 

Note: Pop was a big fan of teaching. He worked with Little League, Cub/Boy Scouts, the Civil Air Patrol, Kiwanis Club, and numerous other groups, and also frequently applied himself as a substitute teacher. Decades of life experience and a long history of learning pretty much anything he could paid off when he was able to pass on the things he knew to others. He originally wrote this one and dedicated it to a group of students whose class he taught — sadly, I do not have the details on which class/year/etc..