The Fib, Lie, Untruth, Whatever you want to call it....

One by one, my class reunion committee members have been finding classmates' information. The goal is to find as many classmates as possible to be able to invite them to the next big class reunion. One of the members said, "Oh, Brian lives in my neighborhood. I will see if I can get his email address so that we can send him reunion updates quickly." By the next committee meeting, she had obtained the email address to go along with his home address. Great! We were happy to add him to the list.

The next email updates were sent out to the class and Brian was included with the list. That night I received an email back from Brian. To my surprise, he wrote that I was mistaken that he was in my class. He said he had graduated in the class before mine. An untruth. A fib. An outright lie. Could I please take his name off of the list of contacts?

Wow! I was stunned. Surprised. Shocked. We had some classmates, who, when contacted, asked to not be contacted any further concerning reunions. They had their reasons, I am sure. We didn't ask why. But the difference was: they didn't lie about it.

We have been talking it over as to why Brian did that. Some classmates thought he was a jerk for doing what he did. Some thought it was a cheap way out. A stupid excuse for not getting together with old friends. My thought was that perhaps Brian's high school years and memories were not as happy as his classmates. I didn't know him well, so I really had no idea. Perhaps his memories were so painful that he couldn't bear to see classmates again. Whatever his reasons, I wrote back and said that we would, of course, honor his request and remove his contact information from the list.

However, Brian and I had a moment in time that I could never forget. Graduation night. I will always have the memory of graduation night at Whitney's farm, way out in one of the pastures, of smooching with Brian while the rest of the class was drinking all around us. He had great hair, like a surfer-boy, long, but not too long, dirty blond. We were an incongruous couple. I am not even sure how or why we ended up together. He was in the drama club and I was into sports. He was friends with a friend of mine, with whom we had both come to the "party". We spent a bit of time that night in each other's company, thoroughly enjoying each other without any future thoughts. I was in heaven for a few hours. We never saw each other again but the memories are still lovely.

Confessions of a Wallflower

Remember those high school dances? Guys on one side of the room, girls on the other? Chaperones watching your every move. Awful. Embarrassing. Stressful. Wondering if anyone would ask you to dance. Hoping that you would not be the only girl not asked to dance.

We actually had real bands at my high school dances. Most of the bands were high school kids playing cover tunes. But they were pretty good and fun to dance to.

My high school friends and I would go and, because we were not the popular girls, would dance with each other out of boredom. Really not cool. We all went hoping that some classmate would discover that we were fun after all and ask us to dance the whole night. Nope. Never happened.

I would wait the whole night for a guy named Mike to show up, always somewhat inebriated, and we would dance to "Purple Haze" or "Color My World". Mike was short, cute, and had some of the most amazing blue eyes ever seen. He wasn't in any of my classes. He was more of a shop kid. But he could dance and we usually ended up dancing at the end of the night. He would cling to me during "Color My World" and I would wonder why. I barely knew him to talk to. I had no idea why he picked me, but I guess I will never ever know.

Mike passed away of cancer last year.

Mini-reunion 2013

Last summer, through the magic of Facebook, my class made the effort to get together in a non-reunion year. It was fabulous. Communicating through Facebook and word of mouth, we had more than 40 classmates out of about 180 still living, show up, laugh, and share memories. The president of our class came home for the first time in 25 years. It was wonderful to see him carousing like he did in high school. It was fun watching him laugh and speak with people he hadn't seen in so many years. The lesson learned? We all grow up and become the people we are destined to be, but our personalities are still there after so many years.

The Detroit Lions recruiter classmate bought me a beer. He was buying for everybody. Nice to see him sharing the fruits of his labors. Another classmate who had just become a grandmother for the first time shared her ordeal of almost losing her daughter in the birth process. So sad. But glad that all turned out good. The daughter and granddaughter were both just fine. Some of the people who came hadn't been to a formal reunion in many years. They liked the casual atmosphere. Lots of locals, but many who traveled 3-4 hours to come. What a nice mix of folks.

Did I fit in? I guess time makes a difference. Yes, after 43 years, I would say that time is an equalizer. I am no longer the girl who felt that she didn't fit in. Strange how time changes everything. We all become a little wiser and less critical as we age. I used to feel so inferior as a high school student, despite the fact that I was salutatorian of my class. I never felt that I could be a leader. But, in spite of everything, I have become someone who has made a difference because I cared enough about my classmates to help collect us into a group again. It was a great feeling.

Reunions

Wow, it's been more than a year since I updated this blog...where did the time go?

More high school ramblings...

I have been working on my high school reunion. For the first time ever. The 40-year reunion was disappointing because the group of classmates who had normally prepared for it did not have it together for year 40. There were no planning meetings and it just kind of thrown together by word of mouth and Facebook. The classmate list had not been updated in years; it was very outdated and there were no email addresses for anyone. So one of the guys and I have been going crazy for the last 4 years to try and find everyone. We have done pretty well and at this point, we are missing only 33 people out of a class of 198. We now have email addresses for 125 people and the rest either have not been found or they have no email addresses. We have a Facebook page with 82 folks signed up. We are LinkedIn with many more.

We have been meeting regularly as a reunion committee...at least, the 4 people who are committed...or maybe should be committed. We laugh, gossip, commiserate on being old, drink wine, and have a great time planning. As representatives of the class, we have found common ground. We are all old. We all have health problems. But we are enjoying each other as we plan. And we have other classmates who come to the meetings, are maybe not quite as committed, but care just as much about making the reunion a success. It is a fun time of life. So funny that after all these years, we can get back into each other's lives like it was yesterday. I am one of the few who travels a distance to make it to the meetings. But last week, our class president came from Duxbury, for his first meeting ever. It was such a nice surprise. And, through the magic of Facebook, another classmate who was in town visiting his sister, came because he saw the message on Facebook about the meeting. It was fabulous to have the extra people.

We have a venue, a caterer, a date. We are sponsoring some scholarships for graduating seniors in 2015. Life is good. We have sent out Save-the-date emails to those for whom we have email addresses and will be sending out snail mails to those who have no email addresses. For the first time ever, the class of '70 is organized and I am liking it! Hoping that the 2015 reunion is a success!