Bright-eyed and Bushy-tailed indeed!

Continuing on the path from last week, here’s another gem of a picture, shot by my good friend Spencer Manning on the morning after our high school “Senior Banquet.” The Senior Banquet is a large dinner held for the Senior class – it is effectively the Senior year equivalent of the Junior Prom. In truth, it’s probably cheaper for the school to hold a dinner than another large dance at some rented hall space. Either way, the Senior Banquet is great and all, but the only thing it really represents is the hors d’oeuvres to the main course for the evening – the party afterward. I’ll spare you the details and I am guessing this post will generate some comments about the party, but it was a humdinger, held at Rebecca Mansfield’s house in Stow, MA. I am fairly confident that just about everyone has a good story about that night, because it was madness. I certainly have a couple of good ones. I have no idea how the Mansfield parents let it happen, but they did. And yes, the cops came and much of us ended up herded into a barn, like the animals we had become that evening.

Anyway, I specifically remember this picture being taken. My memory fails me, but I do believe I didn’t sleep for even ten minutes that prior evening, so I was running on alcohol and fumes. This was shot pretty early in the morning on the way out from having breakfast at the Clinton, MA McDonalds on our way home.  I look so soundly defeated, don’t I? Alas, it was a very enjoyable time, despite the look on my face. More fun detail for you:

• Yes,  I am wearing jeans and a black suit coat, undoubtedly taken from the suit I wore for the actual banquet.
• Even better, I’m wearing a green hat along with it. I think it’s a Nashoba Regional hat, which is odd, since I never owned one.
• …..aaaaaand under that suit coat is, yep, a Tasmanian Devil t-shirt. These are the reasons I am so glad for cameras.
• Note the horrific area across the street from McDonalds. You can make out to the right side there an old car dealership or body shop or something. That had been there, empty and rotting, my whole life. Today most people in Clinton may not even be able to guess I was in Clinton, because now there’s a big Walgreen’s there, among other things. They also actually moved the McDonalds over a few hundred feet and rebuilt it, so this iteration doesn’t even exist anymore.

So there you have it. Me at 18. Ready to take on the world. Bonus points for the people who know the origin of the subject header for this post (should be easy for some of you).