Photographer SEPpics

When I was in high school, we had a birthday tradition. If it was your birthday, your friends would plot and plan and (with your parent’s permission) they would sneak into your bedroom and wake you up with loud, off-key singing.

Photographer Bill Bradford


Next you would be pulled out of bed, have slippers shoved onto your feet, possibly have make-up put on you by people who claim to be friends but really want you to look like a drunk clown, and then be taken out to breakfast. Yes, you are dragged from your warm, comfy bed looking like an escaped mental patient and taken into a public place.

After breakfast was school, where flowers and/or balloons were added to your festive ensemble, completing your look. Teachers would roll their eyes. Fellow students would laugh. Thank goodness there were no camera phones back then!! You would shuffle through your day blushing and wishing you had a hairbrush in your locker.

Photographer genildo

It was the best! I got kidnapped for my birthday several times and loved each one. It was always something to look forward to. Birthdays haven’t been that exciting in a long time.

What do you miss from high school? Have you ever been kidnapped for your birthday?