Dramatic Graduation Day

Yesterday, Friday 9 June, was Graduation day here in Sweden. Every country has its own traditions to celebrate high school / upper secondary school graduation, I suppose - and here it includes wearing special white hats, running out from school class-wise, getting greeted by friends and family on the school yard, and then go riding around town on the back of lorries or other open vehicles, making a lot of noise. We did this even back in my day (49 years ago), and they're still doing it - just making even more noise these days (or so at least it seems to me...)

At my own graduation (7 June 1974), it was rather chilly, and even raining. Yesterday's graduates here got perfect weather for the event, sunny and yet not quite as hot as earlier in the week. Myself, I did not know any student (graduate) personally (it's been a long time since I last did); but when I went out for a walk in the afternoon, I could hear the noises from far off, and decided to go towards the city centre and see if I could get a glimpse of the parade of vehicles. Actually I did not have to go very far at all to suddenly find myself in what seemed to be the centre of total chaos - which somewhat surprised me, as I seemed to recall that it's usually another street that is used for the main parade. Where they were driving now they were also mingling with lots of ordinary buses and cars not having any other choice. It seemed a bit odd (and not very well planned) but on the other hand, it's been years since I was last "attending" the event, so I didn't give it all that much thought (just "inwardly shook my head" a bit)...

Photos taken on my way downtown - a parked vehicle in a nearby street + a close-up of a lot of litter ('confetti'...) on the ground... (Who's going to clean that up, I wonder?!)

Ooops - suddenly here is all the action, and they seemed to be basically driving back and forth between two roundabouts at each end of a street also quite busy with normal traffic...

You have to imagine the noise: Constant honking of car horns (and possibly other instruments as well), plus hundreds of people shouting or singing at the top of their voices... 

For the top and bottom left photos in the last collage I went up the hill (to the right in the bottom right photo) and took the photos looking down from an old cemetery up there. Then I went back home, as I felt I had seen (and not least heard) enough, and found no reason to continue down to the city centre. 

 In the other cemetery, closer to home, sprinklers are on in various places pretty much all day now, because of the drought.

I took this shot of the football (soccer) field close to home, to show you just how dry the ground is when not being watered... And another dry "roadside" photo below:

Along my walk, more than once, I also heard sirens, which could mean either police or fire engines. Both seemed likely enough, on a day like this...

Checking my phone after I got home, I had an 'SOS' message, indicating a fire in central town. I checked the local newspaper app + local radio to find out more. At first it seemed to be "just" a fire on a balcony of an apartment on the top floor of a building (started by a barbecue) - but it soon spread over the whole top floor. All those living there had to be evacuated, and customers in the shops on the ground floor as well - and other shops in the neighbourhood had to close too because of the smoke. People living in the area were advised to stay indoors and shut doors and windows; and visitors to leave. The fire proved hard to put out, they worked on it all afternoon and evening and it wasn't until very late in the evening that it was considered safe. The top floor I understand was totally demolished, and probably apartments below damaged by smoke as well, and perhaps even the shops down on street level.

The two photos below I found online; published by one of our national evening tabloids.(Aftonbladet)

 

 

I learned later that the outbreak of the fire was why the graduation parade had to be redirected to the "off centre" street where I came across it - which explains the mix with ordinary traffic in that totally chaoitic way. Normally they would have been using a street now suddenly needed for fire engines and other rescue vehicles.

 

Some time after I got home, a sweet teenage girl from the Muslim family living above me knocked on my door to tell me they would be having a graduation party in the evening, for her brother - "just so you don't have to wonder what we're up to". I said I would probably have been able to guess :) and told her about having been out to see the parade. It was she who first confirmed for me that they'd have to move the parade because of the fire.

Fortunately the smoke from the fire was not blowing in our direction, but I ended up keeping my windows and balcony door closed most of the evening anyway - which also pretty much shut out noise from celebrating neighbours both indoors and outdoors. As for the family above me, I continue to be amazed at how little noise they normally make. I long ago lost count of how many children there are (or have been) in the family, because ever since they first moved in (many years ago now) there's seemed to be a constant range of them from babies to upper teens (with older ones moving out and new ones born). But I rarely hear anything from them except sometimes coming or going up/down the stairs (but they often use the lift which I don't hear). Even with their graduation "party" now there was just a bit of music in the early hours of the evening (and with my balcony door closed I hardly heard even that) + a little bit of extra noise from feet running back and forth over my head for a while. None of it lasting very late. I kind of doubt that anyone else but this particular family would even have thought it necessary to issue "warnings"!

To finish off this post, here is a collage from my own rainy graduation back in 1974. Me and my classmates were riding on that truck in the two bottom photos. However, as I recall it, we were pretty much just sitting down quietly rather than jumping up and down and shouting... (But then we were a rather well-behaved all girls class all through those three years!)

I did not have a graduation party, nor did I go to anyone else's, because the next morning, I was off on 3 weeks holiday to Britain with my parents and brother - the last long family holiday with all four of us.