We did the cap and gown thing in Kindergarten over twenty years ago.
For our yearbooks, Jostens would come to school and take pictures of everyone in 9th-11th grade. These pictures were printed in the yearbook in black and white. Seniors could get their pictures taken at school too, but it was customary to get them done by a private professional (there was a dress code, but we weren’t told what to wear). The senior pictures were in color. There were also pictures of the sports teams and clubs, faculty, an aerial group senior picture (with the students forming the shape of the year they graduated in), random color snapshots of people hanging out, along with thing others have mentioned…baby pictures of the graduating class, ads etc.
There weren’t any pictures of graduation or prom in ours either, because those hadn’t happened yet. Yes, our prom was in June.
On one of the last full days of school, classes would let out an early, and everyone would go down to the gym to receive their book and get them signed.
On rings, mine was about $300, but you could pay a lot more or less. It had my birthstone, the school mascot on one side, and a cross on the other.
Did anyone else’s school have a baccalaureate service for the seniors? Do schools have them in your area, Chowder?
In addition to the high school yearbook, there was also a book for college freshmen. Like the yearbook, this contained pictures of all the students (usually your high school yearbook photo), except these were of all of the incoming freshmen and was distributed at the beginning of freshman year. It was useful to figure out who that weird guy in your physics class was or to figure out who the hottest woman was (the consensus was that it was Annika). We used to call this the “facebook,” which is, I believe, why the social networking website is called that.
Class rings were sold as something one could wear socially or to a job interview so as to be recognized as a fellow graduate of the old alma mater. Yes, I recognize the silliness of that idea, but remember that in the UK you have university and regimental ties, which are just as silly.
I still wear my class ring every once in a while. My mom got mine my sophomore year. What I don’t use is my letterman jacket, purchased my freshman year, that way I’d wear it longer than most people did and she could “get her money’s worth.” I think she borrows it to wear at football games sometimes, since it has her last name on it. (she works at my high school and is weird)
Not as far as I’m aware, we don’t even have the yearbooks, rings, proms, homecoming and all the rest of the stuff you have in the US.
Our kids just go to school, learn sod all (with a few exceptions) the girls leave school and get pregnant so they can get a council house plus other assorted state benefits.
The boys leave school and sign on, they then get girls up the duff and both claim benefits.
There’ll always be an England, innit?