Graduation Day

By TERRY TALBERT Staff Writer It was Friday the 13th, and it was pouring this morning as seniors at South Hagerstown High School gathered at the school on graduation day. Despite both the superstition and the weather, commencement went off without a hitch for the 155 graduating members of the Class of 1997. Before ceremonies began, several students talked about their feelings, and plans for the future. "I feel happy and even though it's a rainy day, it's a good day," said Alphonso Bingham, who is 17. Bingham, who admitted being a little nervous, said he planned on going to Hagerstown Junior College (HJC)

andrewm@herald-mail.com HERSHEY, Pa. - The longtime dream of graduating high school with a state title quickly vanished for the seniors on the Chambersburg baseball team Thursday night. But don't feel too badly for the Trojans. They still can win states; they'll just already have their diplomas with them. Just hours before the majority of the Chambersburg team had to put on caps and gowns, the Trojans knocked off Whitehall 8-3 in the PIAA Class AAA state quarterfinals Thursday afternoon.

Men's basketball Where - HJC. When - Tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. Cost - $5 for adults, $2 for students and $3 for senior citizens HJC men's basketball team will play against Baltimore today and Prince George's Saturday. Call 301-790-2800, ext. 289. Women's basketball Where - HJC. When - Tonight and Saturday at 6 p.m. Cost - $5 for adults, $2 for students and $3 for senior citizens HJC women's basketball team will play against Baltimore tonight and Penn State/Altoona Saturday.

Once spring rolls around, it's perfectly normal for high school seniors to start looking forward to breaking free of the chains that have bound them for so long - yes, the education system. Graduation day is like Independence Day for those in 12th grade. Those of us who've been there remember it well. You're so ready to put the daily grind of high school behind you that you can't see how easy you really have it. The seniors at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, Pa., haven't had it so easy the last 10 days, though, and that group of students is probably thinking that its Independence Day can't get here soon enough.

kristinw@herald-mail.com The No. 2 pencils are sharpened, notebooks are crisp with blank, white pages and the crayon box colors are still lined up in rainbow order. Going back to school brings with it a fresh start: a chance to make new friends, make the basketball team and finally understand algebra. It's no wonder then that back-to-school resolutions can be just as strong as the resolutions made on New Year's Eve. Some students just want to make it through football season, others have their eye set on graduation day. School administrators want to see enhanced achievements among their students and parents want to smile on report card day. Dori Widdows, high school intake coordinator at the Washington County Family Center says many students prepare for the new school year by making mental lists of what they intend to achieve and also of what they are definitely not going to do. In a way, a new school year is like building a new identity for students, she says.

Boonsboro Middle School student Grace Li cleared two onstage hurdles Wednesday at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Now, she must wait to learn if she advances. The 14-year-old Hagerstown resident correctly spelled rambla - defined as "a dry ravine, or the dry bed of an ephemeral stream" -in round two of the bee, the first of two oral rounds Wednesday at the national bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. In Wednesday afternoon's third round - a second oral round - Grace correctly spelled eigenvalue, a word defined as "the change in magnitude of a vector that does not change in direction under a given linear transformation; a scalar factor by which an eigenvector is multiplied under such a transformation.

I'm wearing a big hat today, as I sit here typing. It has a lot of feathers and netting and wax fruit and looks much like the one Hedda Hopper wore on the old "I Love Lucy" show. I am doing this because I read where Vikki "The Hat" Nelson has entered the state Senate race against incumbent Don Munson. If she wins, hats may become trendy in Washington County, and I do not want to be left on the platform when the fashion bandwagon leaves the station. Although Vikki might be the first to toss her hat into the ring, only to have the ring toss it back.

Scott sees plenty of St. James in choice of Texas A&M ST. JAMES - Some colleges will do just about anything to lure a prize athlete into its doors. With St. James basketball star Larry Scott in for a visit recently, Texas A&M had an ace in the hole - and didn't even know it. [cont. from sports page ] As Scott and the Texas A&M coaches were eating lunch near campus, into the restaurant walked an older couple who just happened to be ... President and Barbara Bush.

When someone has all the promise in the world, all the talent, all the goods, and then throws it to the wind, it is always a time of sadness. All one can do is shake his head at what might have been. The bouvier des Flandres named Opie was primed to excel as we walked into his graduation day competition at Peaceable Paws. He had come a million miles since his first class, when he was so hyper and out of his mind with unreasonable excitement that he went full TV weather girl and had to have visual barriers placed around his person so as to put the brakes on overstimulation.

When the United States became embroiled in the Civil War 150 years ago, people such as farmers, schoolteachers and business owners were caught in the chaos. Saint James School was not immune from the ravages of the war, according to Ted Camp, who talks about the school being in the middle of “Route 1 of the Civil War,” in the path of retreats from major battles, including those at Antietam and Gettysburg. One of the times Saint James School found itself in the middle was in 1863, after the Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., when Union troops were pursuing Confederate troops and both sides reached the Episcopal boarding school five miles southwest of Hagerstown, according to Camp, who is chairman of the school’s history and religion department.