For 28 years, it has been literally true that John Stark seniors graduate with a bang.
Once again Saturday, the cannon dredged up from Portsmouth Harbor decades ago and now owned by the Hatfield family in Henniker was on hand to celebrate the handing out of diplomas.
“Be warned,” Principal Brian Emery told the assembled parents and well-wishers. “It’s louder than you expect.”
The cannon tradition started in 1991 when John Harrington graduated from John Stark Regional High School. His father, Robert, had brought the cannon home after the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard didn’t want it, and got it mostly working. The breech-fire mechanism is frozen but it can be muzzle loaded.
“We used to fire it on Fourth of July, but now it just comes out of the garage once a year, for this,” said John Harrington as he awaited his moment in the high-decibel sun.
This year, 187 students graduated in the ceremony under the huge tent on the athletic field after a fast-moving ceremony that included lots of jokes about life at John Stark Regional High School, which takes students from Henniker and Weare.
Lucas Guerrette from the Senior Executive Council, for example, drew a big laugh when reminiscing about the first day as a freshman at the “bottom of the food chain,” surrounded by “130-plus Weare kids and five or six Henniker kids.”
But more serious advice was also on hand.
“I would encourage my classmates to welcome the unknown. … It will allow us to experience all that life has to offer,” said Alexa Archambault, salutatorian. “As we continue to change, accept ourselves. Don’t be afraid to accept your failures … and accept the changes.”
Superintendent of Schools Lorraine Tacconi-Moore built her talk about the R.E.M. song “It’s the End of the World As We Know It,” a very appropriate title for the graduates. She began with a rueful acknowledgment that since the song came out in 1987 it was 15 years older than most of the seniors.
Zach Lawson, chairman of the John Stark Regional School Board, talked about how all stories have a beginning, middle and end and how high school graduation was one of the big traditions in life.
“This is the end of the middle,” he said.
Emery, who drew praise from several speakers and a rousing hand from students for his work as acting principal during the second half of the year, noted that more than $99,000 in scholarships had been awarded to seniors at the school.
He also reminded the crowd of teen-agers eager to get on with life that speed isn’t always everything.
“It’s so easy to get moving so fast, but take a minute at some point today to slow down, take a deep breath and enjoy the moment … to cherish this moment,” he said. “Then on Monday, or maybe Tuesday, it’s time to get on with it.”
The senior class gift to the school was picnic tables to the patio outside the cafeteria.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
