50 th Class Reunion

When you graduate from high school in 1961, you must remember that the 60’s did not start until about 1965. So 61′ was in the 50’s. What was memorable was that Buddy Holly died in a small plane aircraft and that Jack Kennedy was elected President.

Wikipedia puts us as not part of the Boomers or the Silent Generation or The Greatest Generation. We were in a crevice of generations. We grew up with hoola-hoops, black and white television, and the beginning of rock and roll. The song of graduation night was “Climb Every Mountain and Cross Every Stream.” We were graduating into an overblown, but continual promise of an American Dream. It was a metaphor for hope. We enjoyed the most prosperous of times and the most innocent of crimes.

We knew little about the world around us, which was not necessary when you are the center of the world. From that great perch, I went straight into lawn work at a city park. Although we had power movers, all else was non-electric and hard. Our boss from the “Old World”  was a perfectionist. With a hand cycle, and elementary clippers I and my colleagues made the park perfect. It was hard, sweaty, and gave me a wonderful idea that if I could only graduate from college, I could avoid a lousy job.

The fall of 61′ was a shock as I attended a very small college in which the entire enrollment was just a bit larger than my high school graduating class. I lasted one semester and headed toward a university in my hometown.

By the end of the 60’s, I had my masters, a sweet wife, and alcohol and depression rehab. I remember saying good bye to the decade  in our third move and still remember the book that I was reading as well as the next morning when those on television were saying there would never be another decade like the 60’s.

The Class Reunion of 71′ most everyone was talking about sex and the war. The main speaker described the decade and then segued into his choice to become a Born Again Christian. All hell broke loose. We were soon drinking and dancing and the rest of night sullied by alcohol was/is a blur.

By 81′ we were living in another city and my wife was homesick. In our hometown, we had a bevy of relatives and friends and our new setting we were living like many  in a lonely crowd. She wanted to go back home and take one son and I would live where my job was in our current home with another son.

At the last moment, she changed her mind and the separation was aborted. We had planned to meet once a month in a motel that was equidistant from both residence if we separated. Perhaps the motel would have a year around pool and we could go out to eat and perhaps go see a movie. This would be the time when the boys could see each other.

I remember when she changed her mind and when we decided that we would keep the family together. That Class Reunion of 81′ came and went. So I don’t  know much about the story in our hometown.

By 91′ we had moved now about 10 times and settled into a nice two story house. It had street appeal. Off we went to the Reunion. It was a sober bunch. Folks were being introduced to the Global Information and so that meant that individuals were being fired and salaries were downsized. After my wife left, one of the school queens pulled me aside and reminded of the old days and that she was not asked to the senior prom. At any rate, I felt good and I did not clobber the night with inappropriate social skills.

“Linda” was becoming the back bone of the class. With her BA in business and the skills that were needed she has led us down the yellow brick road. I was excited to go to the  96′ and a day or two before we were going to the class gathering, I had a very severe quadruple open heart by-pass surgery. It was a cardiac infarction. I was taken to be prepped and pumped up with  feel good pain meds. The next morning the patient who was scheduled died and so they started the buzz saw on my  sternum and I was  off in a parallel universe. Coming back I heard “Paper Back Rider” followed by “Good Vibrations” on one side and

“Strawberry Fields” on the other.

The night before, in the middle of the night, my oldest son came to me and we talked. I did not realize that I was crying but he did and that night we thoroughly bonded. Afterwards, there days of rest and re-education for me and I also learned about how to live with a mended heart. At home, got the news of the 96′ reunion and then started my journey back to main stream. I had become a pump head and there were terms and language that I had to re-learn along with dealing with depression.

“Bill” had a band since he was very young and could read music. He had ballrooms and cocktails lounges totally full demanding more for his music. He was the #1 percussionist in the city and on the side earned a PhD in the social sciences and became a full professor at a nearby university. So he gave me the description.

That was valid in 2006 and 2011. I had decided that class reunions and cardiac functions do not help each other.

At the 2011, there were many that I had talked to on the phone or on Face book. Further, “Linda” had sent all the material. So the big night of the class function, I was proud to hear that “Bill” a grad from a rival school was given an honorary membership in our school. He had played 3 successive times.

Incidentally, you can be in your late 60’s and look half your age. A few were noted for such  a  visible a

tribute.

For me, the news and the reflections were just  enough. After a second heart surgery, I am still alive. So I never thought that I would live to the 50th. I recall the day I left my high school and the Principal said, he would be happy to come to a reunion that I thought was a really, really bad idea.

The last time, I left the doors of the school, something very heavy came off my back. Where was I headed? What mountains and rainbows might be in my life? Just a few years later I got real close to ending it all and decided to march on. I am glad that I made that last second choice.

For the 55th reunion, the year before, I broke my leg and later infected with galloping pneumonia, severe sepsis, and a mild heart attack. My near death experience including walking along the bank of the river seeing a group looking at a light. We held each other and then looked at the light. I had to come back. After recovery, the following January, I got galloping pneumonia again and was ill for about a month. I hope to be able to stay at home and watching the world go by.

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