Given a Little Time

Marline, me, Richard, September 2018

No one leaves a high school reunion shrugging their shoulders, thinking, "Well, that's over."  We either leave it wondering why we came, happy we came, or totally energized that we have reconnected with old friends.  This year we celebrated 50 years after graduation.  Fifty years having left teen years behind.  Fifty years as adults.  There were 130 of us celebrating our youth.  Fifty years.

It was a grand celebration.  Thanks to social media like Facebook, many of us have kept up with each others lives to some degree; so having a face-to-face party was grand.  Some of us haven't seen one another in 50 years.  It was a total love fest.

The first day of the Reunion Weekend was a pizza party.  I spent most my time flitting around, camera in hand, hugs available.  The pizza parlor was glad to have us; the line for orders and drinks was out the door :)  Old friends greeting, chatting, laughing...the best of times. 

The second night of the weekend was the actual reunion

dinner.  We held it at Kellogg West at Cal Poly in Pomona, CA.  My good friend Richard and I spent the first half hour greeting incoming.  Everyone looked so good,  We might be older, but damnit we were pretty :)  

We honored five of our former teachers.  What fun that was, chatting with the teachers like we were peers.  But, laughingly, we all still called them "Mr." or "Mrs." rather than their first names.  They even asked us to call them by their first names...most of us couldn't. :)


Some of the fun things we had was a photobooth, some goofy trophy give-aways, and a presentation of Quilts of Valor to our veterans.  The idea of a photobooth was great--all of the committee were pleased with the idea but it almost didn't come to be.  We sent out notices early so people could rearrange their lives around the event, so confirmations were slow in coming.  Fortunately as the event neared, we swelled to over-expected.  

The Elizabeth Taylor Award was a tie--it went to Patti and to Mike with four marriages each.  The Ponce de Leon Award went to Nancy, who still looked 18.  The Marco Polo Award went to Alan, who came out from Maine.  The George Burns Award went to Gary and Char, who were married a week after we graduated.  And finally the Rose Kennedy Award was a tie--it went to Harriett and to Patti, who each have 18 grands and great-grands.

The short ceremony in presenting Quilts of Valor to our veterans was moving and lovely.  We presented 10 quilts during the reunion.  I also presented two others during the weekend to two Vietnam vets who were friends of mine, but not of our class.

The final day of the weekend was the picnic.  By now us old people were pretty tired.  The group was smaller but the chatting and laughter was just as grand. 

This bbq gave we who party hardy a chance to relax and talk more.  We had plenty of food, a nice group of about 50, and lots of hugs.

The amazing thing about a reunion is that the older we get, the less we hold grudges and the more we seek out childhood memories.  People we really didn't care for became interesting classmates we wish we would have known better 50 years earlier.  Old loves became mellow loves.  Playmates became precious to us again.  Our 10th reunion was fun to see each other after 10 years but our 50th is much more nostalgic, softer, mellow..with still great life to play and goof around.  For a few days we were 68, but 18 again.

Steve and me October, 1967

peace~~~