If you graduated from high school in the very early '70s then I was way off with my guess about being older than you. I was born in 1963.

While I never did any Middle English (and thus missed out on Chaucer, for example), I did take a class in Old English. I studied Old Icelandic and Middle High German and took a couple of classes in Old High German and Gothic. I still have all of my books from this era but it's been a long time since I've done anything with these languages, having gone in a different direction.

I've recently gotten a few books out of boxes and may start reading some things I started back then and always wanted to finish.

I must admit that reading Beowulf, for instance, or many of the Old Icelandic sagas, was much more rewarding than reading almost all of the SF and Fantasy literature I've read. However, maybe that's comparing apples and oranges.