A tale of two pretties...

 Here's a small point in my background of growing up: I went to one school district for seven years, and then another for five.

We all know people who went from the first day of kindergarten to graduation in the same school district. We also know people who bounced from district to district growing up - this is especially common in military families.

I am right in the middle. I spent seven years in one school district north of Boston, then we moved when my father was transferred in his job to a town south of Boston.

Although I spent more years in the first district, I've always considered the second my home because that's where I graduated from high school.

Now, because of the internet and digitization, high school yearbooks are now available to view on-line. I had a thought the other day - to look up the yearbook of the Class of 1975 at the FIRST school district I attended to see what it looked like.

In other words, what did the school and the students look like in the school I MIGHT have graduated from?

It looks a lot like my own yearbook - mainly because, I suppose, they're contemporary. The clothes and hair styles and furniture all look the same.

I was a bit surprised at how many of the seniors I still remembered despite not having seen them after seventh grade. The girl who I gave my first elementary Valentine card in second grade to. The girl I had my first serious crush on.

One thing that jumped out at me is that I somehow knew some of those students would have filled the same relationship roles as other students with me at the second school. The quiet friend. The goofy friend. The wild friend. I saw one student and he even had the same hair and expression as the guy who was my best friend in high school.

I thought to myself, "Omigod, if I had stayed there, HE would have been my [best friend's name]."

It's personal alternate history. I guess.

There was a girl in the first school who struck me years ago as having been very much like the girl in my graduating class who I took to the Senior Prom - the girl I dated my senior year.

When I looked up the first high yearbook, I read her entry, and yes, she was involved in many similar activities.

But what was the most striking is how much the two young ladies even looked alike. So I've cut and pasted the photos here.

There an alternate history triple play here. In one parallel world, my family didn't move and I dated and married the first girl.

In another parallel world, I dated and married the second one.

Now in point of fact, the girl I did date in high school had the good sense to dump me, and left me to mature and get a little wisdom so that years later I would be able to date and marry my wife. This is the best of those possible worlds, I'm sure.

Oh, you may be thinking, which of these girls is the one I dated and which is the one that was left behind when I moved.

I'm not saying. Does it really matter?