Humboldt High graduates of 40 years ago and more will flood the Community Field House tonight for the biennial all-class reunion, next door to where we once labored over studies — and, for most, had the best times of our lives.
There is something about seeing “kids” you haven’t for a spell that makes the event meaningful and often mesmerizing. Conversation will be stimulated by “remember the time …” and “whatever happened to …” as well as solemn talk about who passed along since the last gathering — hopefully to stroll the golden streets of Heaven.
Wife Beverly and I graduated in 1961. I don’t think those in our class we were cliquish, although anytime 49 people, of any age, are thrown together for long, friendships and interests create divides. In more recent years, a handful of us who live close enough, gather once a month, an occasion I’ve come eagerly to anticipate.
One my best friends in high school, David Taylor, died years ago, far too young from kidney disease that probably could have been dealt with in today’s medical environment. Another, Ron Middendorf, lives the life he always wanted somewhere in California, after a long career in banking. I’ve not seen him in several years, but the last we were together, we talked easily for a couple of hours.
I count many others as friends, and in years since I’ve developed closer relationships with several, in part because of our monthly soirees.
I doubt if many of us — my age or those much younger still trudging through what seems like an endless journey in high school — realize how formative and lasting were what occurred during our school days.
You grasp that better each time you come together for a reunion. Memories stream back; mention of something or someone triggers recollections that trail in quickening pace from one event to another.
Nostalgia is a mind-gripping force, one that grows and often is supplemented when accomplishments, and occasionally reversals, are tallied — then you realize just as quickly they don’t matter all that much among friends.
If I’ve learned nothing else over the years, it is that we all need to take time to remember where we came from and those who walked the path with us. As the years slip by the passage narrows and failing to take advantage of each opportunity is one lost — forever.
Reunion a time to reaffirm friendships (At Week’s End)
