Who Are These People…Including Me?

I DIDN’T GO TO MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS REUNION THIS WEEKEND. Will that get me sent to the Principal’s Office?

This reunion was to commemorate 55 years since graduation. I went to the 50^th and was appalled by how old they had become. All this reunion would prove is that none of the attendees had died in the interim.

Fifty-five years ago – 1964. When I think about that span of time I shiver. So much has happened – some good, some not so good. There have been some astonishing changes in our lives, and then again – some things have defied change no matter how hard we have labored to change them.

Fifty-five years.

How many people have come and gone through our lives? Strangers and Family, Allies and Enemies, Friends and Lovers. Some of them will always reside in our memory and others we will continue to struggle to forget.

Over a span of fifty-five years the number of people who have passed through our lives must be, at least, in the thousands, but the number we actually remember well would comfortably fit around the dinner table at Thanksgiving.

In 1964 there were three hundred and some kids graduating along with me. I was not a “cum laude” anything. I helped make those kids rank so high by being far below them in academic standing. Now, when I look at the list of names of those who did attend the reunion I can’t put a face with more than a Baker’s Dozen or two. They had become strangers in my mind. Some of them were classmates all the way from first grade onward. Now if you introduced me to them they wouldn’t ring the faintest of bells. I’m sure that I’m as much a stranger to them as they are to me.

So, I figure that I’ve saved a lot of time and money by not going to the reunion. Who wants to drive six hours just to look down at a plate of rubber chicken at a table with strangers?

I did go to the Fiftieth Reunion and it was a case of trying to remember who everyone was and which ones had married Plastic Surgeons. Another lowlight of that evening was when the old “Jocks” – the football players – showed up. Most of them entered using either wheelchairs or walkers. I was in the Choir back then and I can still walk, albeit rather rickety. I didn’t even take “Gym Class” upon Doctor’s Orders. The Doctors were afraid I’d kill myself or someone else. That’s the same reason I was removed from shop class. Everyone paled when they saw me with power tools. But I can still walk. I didn’t take Chemistry or Trigonometry either, but that was because I wasn’t that bright – but I can still walk.

1964 – Graduation

1965 – I moved out of town

2019 – I stayed out of town

Maybe in another 50 years.

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