This is partly why my 40th high school reunion was so much fun

Bill and Candi and Carmel and Gar and Rick and Fred ("Sugar Lips") and JoAnn and Mary and Connie and the Julies and Myra and Pat and Becky and Jane and Rosie and Hilda and Val and all the other kool kidz were there. Jan came all the way from Shanghai and Cindy came from San Diego and Holly from North Carolina and the two Jeffs from FL and Reno, and Pork, er...Mark from NY, and Mike from his plantation in S. Carolina (shades of The Big Chill).

Bill is the lead singer for Wally and the Beavs and, no, they didn't play.  But as Jeff put it, once the music starts the talking stops.  And we had 40 years to catch up on, so we talked all night long.  And laughed and laughed and drank a bit.  But if I ever go back, again I wanna be sure that I see Wally and the Beavs and dance.

Nick did not make it.  He was valedictorian of our class and became a lawyer.  He was convicted of something involving money more than 15 years ago, and disbarred but he showed up at the 25th reunion, just having gotten out of prison.  This time was a no go.  I heard that he had registered but his check bounced.

Barry and Tom did not show up.  They were the class heroes 15 years ago, the main characters in the non fiction book by Seattle attorney Gary Kinder, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.  Gary gave a class on legal writing to the attorneys at the Washington Attorney General's office before the book came out, and I had a great time after the CLE, talking with him about Barry and Harvey and Defiance.

But Barry has now been missing for more than ten years.  He went down to Panama and just vanished.  Even his immediate family doesn't know where he is, which is sad because his mother is (like my mother) getting on in years.  He could be dead for all we know.  And Tommy, who we knew as Harvey (he took the name of the rabbit from the Jimmy Stewart film), has also gone to ground.  Seems that he never paid the investors of the SS. Central America project back.  They were mainly in Columbus, but there were some folks who worked for the project in the Seattle area who also were waiting to be paid. So we missed both Barry and Tom.

But we didn't seem to have enough time to visit with those who did make it.  Both Friday and Saturday night went by swiftly.  Although I understand there were some young ones at the bar Friday night who were impatient to get rid of the old folks who were cramping their style and their cigarette smoking room on the patio outside.  Tough nuts because Candi put them in their place.  You go grrrl!!

The town is the same, yet it isn't.  It looked significantly smaller and there were certain landmarks gone, like the railroad station where we boarded a train in elementary school to ride to Hicksville.  And the hospital where my dad practiced pediatrics was gone, replaced by a fancy new hospital on the other side of town. And all of our elementary schools, Brickell, Spencer, Slocum and Anthony Wayne had been centralized in one new building.  It was a weird time warp.

Luckily I had saved lots of school newspapers and some English class compilations so we had several dramatic poetry readings Saturday night.  The one that had me in tears I was laughing so hard, was "Skippy" by Rick.  A copy will be posted as soon as my s drive comes back up.  Or unless Rick decides to buy me off.  Just kidding Rick!  I'm sure with your 4 marriages you don't have much discretionary income, even though you are a fat cat GM executive!!  ; )  xoxoxo

May Dance, 1967

from left to right: Linda, Rick, me and Barry

P.S.:  Mark has written far more eloquently about our reunion.

PPS: 

"Skippy"
 by Rick McCurdy

Skippy was that dog's name.
He wasn't wild; he was tame.
When out for a walk on a sunny day,
Along came a car and there he lay.
Skippy was man's best friend.
The end.