A few days ago the kids had pulled out one of my old HS yearbooks and we paged through it for shits and giggles. Kelly is 16 now and (fairly) active in different school programs/drama/sports. I was showing her exactly why I didn�t fit in in my school and the clubs they had to offer. Now let me start off by saying this was Duncan, Oklahoma circa 1986-87. It was a lot like The Outsiders with the Socs/Jocks and Greasers except that they were the Preps and Thugs in 86. So anyway if you wanted to join a club you could join DECA (some sort of delegates), Key Club (???), FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), FHA (Future Homemakers of America- gag me), FFA (Future Farmers of America- It was Oklahoma remember??), Student council (all the Preps) and Letterman (jocks). For a boogie boarding, heavy metal listening, hippy-type girl from Calif. None of these were for me, although it was funny to look at. Kelly wouldn�t have cut it either. Besides, all the prep kids wore prairie skirts, cowboy boots and large bows in their large-assed hair. This is just a travesty in fashion if you ask me.

That wasn�t the thing that got to me though. I never really looked all the way through the yearbook before so towards the back of the book I was shocked and amused at what I found. Well, those words don�t adequately describe what I felt but I�m too lazy to look for something else. You�ll understand in a sec. So towards the back amongst all the pages of classes and clubs and whatnot offered were two special pages. The first page had the bold large print at the top �Learning Disabilities� with a tiny paragraph on the recipe book the students put together for Christmas and 3 large pictures of students in the class. The second page with equally large bold font was �Special Education� with accompanying paragraph and class photos. However, these kids are all covering their face and looking down. The final sentence in the paragraph says (and I shit you not) �For their special field trip that they take each year, the students went to Lawton to the Goodwill store.� WTF???!!!? I would be mortified to be on one of those pages. It�s hard enough to have difficulties in school but to freakin broadcast it and let it go down in yearbook history that in school I was a dumbass would just�.well it would suck. If I were a parent I would�ve pitched a major bitch. I say this because my son has some mild learning difficulties. He�s only in 8th grade but hated going to so-called special classes since 2nd grade. He was fully aware without the advertisement. He would have a hernia if this happened to him.

I have no idea what the yearbook is like there now but for the kids� sake, I hope times have changed some since 1986. Of course it is Duncan and the biggest thing to hit there in years was the opening of the Golden Corral.

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