Days of future passed
By Mark Voger, author
‘Son of Monster Mash’
The 50th-anniversary reunion of one’s high school class sounds like something not to miss. But I suffer from what I call “appointment anxiety.” If there are too many upcoming appointments on my calendar — be they doctor, dental, tickets to Shen Yun, whatever — it’s a trigger for me. I know, I know. Not normal.
Is this a real malady? I’ll Google it.
What do you know? Something turned up:
“Appointment anxiety is a form of distress … where individuals experience extreme fear, panic, or avoidance regarding medical checkups or other scheduled commitments. It causes physical symptoms like rapid heart rate, sweating, and trembling, often fueled by fear of bad news, unknown procedures, or past negative experiences.”
There! I guess you can just make s*** up these days, and they instantly come true.
Anyway, above is a group photo from last night’s reunion of the Class of ’76 of Cherry Hill High School East in Cherry Hill, Camden County, NJ. I’m 11th-from-left in the back row not counting the two guys standing on chairs (see red arrow).
There were around 120 attendees out of the 1,000 students in our class. The gig took place at a fancy country club in Mt. Laurel, NJ. When you signed in, the first thing you saw were clear plastic bowls of tinted “pillow” mints sorted by color, with a sign that said FREE MEDS. (I’m a fan of self-deprecation.)
I went with my friend of 54 years, Tom Vo, who flew in from Burbank for the occasion. There we are above, two high school boys in the hallowed halls of East. (I’m the guy on the right wearing a printed-circuit-board shirt.)
The admission was $95 a head. I heard someone say, “Everyone looks like they’re doing well.” Someone else replied, “Everyone here.”
I had a better time than I’d expected. I met someone from my kindergarten class; a gal I knew from first grade through senior year; three old football buddies; a fellow member of the Freshman Chorus and East Side, the school newspaper; a fellow cartoonist; and members of a “rival” rock band. (We sniped at each other a little back in the day, but at heart, we were all buds.)
It was a thrill to meet “Janice” (I won’t share her full name; I’m a privacy proponent living in a surveillance state.)
She was the cover girl of Eidolon 1976, the yearbook of the Class of ’76. Over five decades, people have grumbled that they don’t understand why one person’s face was on this cover. On the Class of ’76 Facebook page, Tom Vo argued: “Today it is iconic.”
I told Janice that I spent my life designing for print. I found the cover arresting. You have to pause when you see it. There is so much sophisticated graphic stuff going on, especially for something that is a half-century old when tech moves at the speed of light. There’s the high-contrast treatment, the embossing, the silhouette, the silver “spot” color. There’s also the audacity it took to see the idea through.
What a risk. What a result.
I’ve never seen another yearbook cover like it. I told Janice that when I look at this cover, I think: “This is my yearbook.”
I apologized for all my gushing. She must be sick of the topic, I told her. But Janice was gracious. She said, “I am honored to represent the Class of ’76.”
Parting shots
Below is Tom Vo’s post about his time-trip from Burbank 2026 to South Jersey 1976:
“These guys are my musical family.” The guys in the above photo were in the following bands: Dr. Scarabus & the Sponge Reunion, the Crimson Cult, Scream, the Creeps, Squadron, the Back Street Kids, Photon Madness, Wild East, Sordid Past, the Burners, Snafu and Mad Jack.
Here’s me ‘n’ Tom playing Gloucester City, NJ, “the rock ‘n’ roll capital of the world,” in 2007. (That’s JohnYoung, our drummer, behind us.) I’m the guy on the left who doesn’t yet realize that his hair is disappearing. Tom is the guy on the right who leaned in and moved on.