Three down...

 ...one to go.  Today my third grandchild, of four, graduated from high school.  They are stair-step cousins which means the first graduated in 2019, the second in 2020, and the third today.  Each graduation has been memorable in its own way.  The first was a nail biter - would he get his last assignments in on time?  He did.  The second was during the Covid shut down so I attended by livestream from my recliner (not all bad).  Today it was back to the coliseum for the Carroll High School graduation.  Families had a limited number of tickets (my dear son-in-law gave me his) and alternate rows were blocked off.  On the floor of the arena the graduates were spread out in their rows, about three feet apart, a sea of blue, and all of us were required to wear masks.  The grads were allowed to take them off when they walked across the stage to get their diplomas.  Everything went smoothly and 600 grads walked across the stage in a reasonable time.  One large burly young man did fall down on his way across the stage, but he rolled and got right back up.  Probably lots of practice as a foot ball player.  I was concerned when he fell, of course, but at the same time I thought it looked a little staged.  Later my son-in-law told me that this is becoming a dare at graduation ceremonies. "I'll pay you $50 if you fall down on stage."  I did find it interesting that there were three valedictorians and two salutatorians.  The vals spoke at the beginning of the program and the sals at the end.  Each of them limited their speech to five minutes.  My granddaughter was not one of these, but she did get a 4 year scholarship for college so I think she'll be ok.  All in all it was a nice event and fun to be in a crowd.