My High School Reunion. O.O

This was me back then. 🙂

So yeah, just got back from my 40th high school reunion about a week ago. Above is my “official” graduation photo and here is how I looked the night of our reunion dinner:

This is me now. Well, me a week ago. Gravity and time show no mercy.

I had a really good time hanging with the high school peeps. It was great catching up again (this was the first reunion that I’d managed to make since we graduated, so I had a LOT of catching up to do) with everyone and hearing news of those who didn’t make it. Sadly five of our class have already passed on.

I catch up with my best friend from high school.

I’ve had a week to sort through my impressions from going home for a high school reunion and have not yet achieved clarity. If that is possible? My first thought was, “Wow. We all grew up.” LOL To understand that thought, you probably need to understand the when of our period of maturation. We are part of the hippie, we’re-not-going-to-grow-old generation.

Yeah, that went well.

Life has pretty much had its way with all of us, one way or another. Mostly it erased the boundaries that separated us in high school. I liked that. I didn’t get a chance to visit with everyone, but I did get to hear how they were doing. And I got to remember.

This is my view from the flatbed we rode on during the Lovell’s Day parade. Yup, I was in the parade with the rest of my class. You can’t “see” the heat, though. Cause dang it was hot.

I grew up in a very interesting time, with a lot happening both in the world and within our own country. Things like putting a man on the moon and the Viet Nam War. Pluto was still a planet and Uranus wasn’t. During my progress from birth to graduation Godzilla was “born” and JFK died. MLK “had a dream.” And my teachers kept hoping that I’d “perform to my potential.”

It’s still bothers me that The Lion Sleeps Tonight was the theme for our Junior Prom. I should probably get over it. It’s past time. Though if that is my only issue from high school… LOL

My sister took this shot of us riding the flat bed (sitting on hay bales) in the Lovell’s Day parade. (I’m kind of in the middle of the top row wearing my dad’s fishing hat cuz it was HOT.)

Mostly I came away from the reunion feeling really proud of us. We’d all lived, laughed, taken some knocks (some have taken a lot of knocks), and most of us were still standing, still smiling, still living.

A close up of me and the class riding in the Lovell’s Day Parade. Yeah, that’s me in the fishing hat. It saved my life. Seriously.

Maybe it is because I’m a writer that I’ve been examining my own navel so much lately. And because I’m getting old (or already there) and it’s turned out to be not at all what I expected. Maybe it’s because the hubs and I are in a place of looking back, while looking forward. Whatever the reason for being reflective, I know that 1973 was a very good year. And I came from a great class. 🙂

The class of 1973. 🙂

What about you? Do reunions make you reflective? Paranoid? Surprised? Leave some comment love! All comments are entered into my monthly drawing for $10 AnaBanana gift card. Winner is announced in the first blog post of the new month. And don’t forget to check out my “Taking the Scenic Route” posts this summer, for a chance to win one of my audio books.

Perilously yours,

Pauline

Pauline Baird Jones also looked back when she wrote Relatively Risky – back to her and the hubs 18 years in New Orleans. She loved remembering The Big Easy as she launched her Big Uneasy series. You can find out more about Pauline and her books by visiting her website at www.paulinebjones.com.

New Orleans. A girl. A guy. Bullets and bad guys. A normal day in the Big UNeasy. Well, what passes for normal…