Catching Up on the Last 40 Years

As I looked at the nametags of my classmates, I found myself constantly trying to fast backward to 1967. It was obvious that time had been much kinder to some than others. There were pounds gained, hair lost, and in some cases even more extremes like hips replaced and even a walker. Perhaps most shocking was the list of 36 names of departed souls.

I had kept touch with my small group of close friends, the ones pictured above in 1967, the ones with whom we were staying. Although each of them has had definite challenges in these 40 years, there were no real surprises. We are amazingly the same people we were back them. We’re spread out across the eastern part of the country and two of them are currently air hostesses flying all over the place, but when we get together, it’s as though we pick up where we left off.

The most striking change in the class as a whole was the total absence of clickishness. Those groups that used to be so sacrosanct had simply dissolved leaving a bunch of 58-year-olds that were looking back with a certain acceptance and fondness and forward with a desire to be just one happy family.

I looked around the room at guys I had once been interested in. There was Bill from 3rd grade who was very tanned in flip-flops and had a young trophy (second) wife. There was Ray, my football-player heartthrob since 8th grade, who never even knew all those years that I liked him. By the time he finally asked me out in college, my crush had passed. I caught up with the last 4 decades in his life as a Navy man. Turns out he and his family live just a few miles from me. There were numerous others, like Tommy and Graham and even a newly found friend Richard, who were always good for a conversation about just about anything. But then I looked at the one sitting right next to me and realized I had chosen the best of all.

One of the girls in our class, Jennifer, had been a wild child. Ray, the big strapping football player, admitted that he had been scared of her growing up. In fact his mother had warned him to stay away from girls like her. Jennifer had managed to marry a former NFL player as her second husband. He had been one of the duo who perfected the short 3rd down pass that FSU popularized in the last 60’s.

We sang along with and danced to the music of our high school years – some of the best songs ever. Songs like Double Shot, My Girl, Stop in the Name of Love, When a Man Loves a Woman. One of my classmates had gone to the trouble of making a CD of those songs for each of us.

I’m glad I came. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed talking to people I didn’t even know very well. I absolutely loved my reunion with “my girls”. We captured our feet in the sand this morning.

As for the location, you can’t get much better than Panama City Beach, “the world’s most beautiful beach.” Here are a couple of pics in and around our (free) condo.


I’ll be back for the 50th. But meanwhile I will be in close touch with the fearsome foursome, the best of friends.