November 7, 2014

The Baby Boomer Reunion Report

By Eloise Graham
Editor-in-Chief

Editor’s note – First and foremost, I want to welcome Joe to the helm of 50+ Lifestyles. He will be a great addition as the
publisher. Secondly, I want to thank him for allowing me some space here to do a follow-up on class reunions. Last month I mentioned that, as a first wave baby-boomer, I would be going back to my 50th high school reunion.

There have been a lot of changes in fifty years. The beautiful high school/junior high complex that we graduated from has gone through many transitions. It is now a beautiful restored building that has been renovated into senior housing. The downtown has lost some buildings, had some fires, but is now rejuvenating. A couple of pocket parks and green space have been added since 1964, some new construction has occurred, but many of the buildings built in the late 1800s are cleaned up and listed on the National Historic Registry. Many of the brick streets have been paved over, and the trains no longer go through town. Hence, the tracks have been replaced with bike and walking paths. Many changes in the downtown, as well as the sprawl of new homes and businesses into what was once “out in the country.”

But what about the people in the class, you ask? We have changed, too. A few pounds added here, loss of hair noticed there, but the love for our classmates hasn’t changed. We were never really a class of cliques. We did have small groups of people that ran together but there were no distinct lines of “membership” and the groups would overlap each other – thus including everyone at one point or another. No one was left out. Of course, at the time, many of us thought we were left out of some groups, but we fit in others. That feeling was probably because of the insecurities of adolescence. This reunion confirmed that we were still a great group of people.

The weekend began at the “new” high school, now 47 years old. It was homecoming weekend. We started with a chili supper in the commons area, sponsored by the junior class. That was followed with the football game. It was cool and misty, so some didn’t stay for the game, others (myself included) left after the crowning of the king and queen at halftime. And yes, our team was ahead and managed to keep the lead!

Saturday was a busy day. The morning started with some of us meeting downtown at one of the pocket parks to walk around the town and reminisce. The afternoon, one of the classmates that had not left the town opened up her home for us to drop by and chat. That evening was our reunion dinner followed by great conversations, recalling teachers, events and antics. A live band played later in the evening for our dancing and listening pleasure.

Sunday morning we had a brunch at the same place we had been the night before. Then the activities were concluded for the weekend.
Our graduating class had about 120 in it. We have lost about one fifth of our classmates. We had about 80 classmates in attendance. Not all had graduated together, but had been in the class at one point in time. Many of those classmates brought their spouses and we had some upper and lower classmates come to the activities. It was great to see everyone. To be able to recall the times that helped mold each of us into who we are now. So if you have a chance to reconnect with any of your past, do it. We missed those that couldn’t or didn’t make the reunion – and you can be sure we talked about them. We talked about how much we missed seeing them.

I want to thank Joe for allowing me to write in his column. If you have any comments, concerns or ideas, pleas do contact Joe at publisherjoe@gmail.com. He want this to be your magazine with what you want in it.

Filed Under: Community, News

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