Gettin’ On
This weekend, back in my hometown in Ohio, they held my 40th high school class reunion. I had originally planned to go, tagging on a hop across Lake Michigan after working last week in Milwaukee. It would have worked out nicely, since my mom still lives in town and I could have combined the festivities with a visit with her and chores around her house. However, my client decided he wanted me in Milwaukee a week earlier, so I sent my regrets.
Since my high school social life revolved almost exclusively around the band, my friends were drawn from 5 or 6 different classes (older and younger) rather than just my graduating class. And while it’s true that Mrs. Perils and I met in high school band, she was in the class of ‘69. For these reasons, plus the fact that we’ve lived in Seattle for the last 33 years, I don’t have super-strong ties to anyone from my class. There are people I’d enjoy seeing, but it’s not like we correspond, or even send Christmas cards.
Still, it’s a milestone of sorts, another chink in my armor. The reunion committee did a really nice job of reaching out to find people, and I got nicely reacquainted through a website they set up to post photos and stories. Some of the stories, of course, were startling in their portrayal of lives that you could never have imagined for certain individuals.
Maybe I’ll make the 50th. From my senior class yearbook:
(Click to enlarge)
Guess I wasn’t what you’d call a varsity athlete! Pitiable male pride probably led me to list “Intramurals”. Sheesh. Also, they misspelled my name - it’s one “l”. Yeah, I was on the yearbook staff, but I did the sports. Still, you’d think I’d check my own entry.
And here’s one from the Perils archive - that’s me and Mrs. Perils gettin’ down at the senior prom. Please be gentle if you comment (Click to engorge):
I’ve seen that prom picture before. I remember remarking on the way the guy next to you is ogling your date. I think you should go to the reunion just so you can punch him out!
-snort-
Rock it out, Phil. Rock.it.out.
Also, Ohio … close to MI … you know where I am going with this??
Snort, kathyr - That’s a friend of ours, whom I dated a couple of times. He was also the best man at our, uh, interesting marriage, which you’ve also read about here in these pages. It’d actually be nice to see him, but he died at age 28 in a drowning accident; he was reported to have been rescuing some and went down himself. Seriously a sad thing.
Locomotion, mashed potato or watusi, Phil?
A nod to Mrs. P for the elegant lines, and also for having the good sense to shuck the shoes. And to you for the noble middle name, which I share. And to the class of ‘49…not uber but primoboomers I watched you guys when.
Kathy - I’ll just add to Beatriz’ comment - he was a sweet guy, and the first I’d have sought to meet at the reunion. There was an interesting evening just after Mrs. Perils and I started dating where I had committed to attending some dance event with his (new) girlfriend, and he’d committed to attending with Mrs. Perils. We posed for pictures with our announced dates at the home of his (new) girlfriend, then switched out when we got to the dance. His (new) girlfriend’s dad wasn’t pleased, I guess, although it certainly wasn’t because he liked me. I never got the knack of making my dates’ dads happy. They all wished it was some other guy. (There’s a school of thought that indicates they were right.)
Nancy - I’d love to hook up sometime when I junket through DTW. We’re going to a Mud Hens’ game on Sunday of Labor Day Weekend. It’s my OSU marching band reunion weekend, so I’ll be praying at Mecca on Saturday. Flying home from DTW on Monday.
Dick - Jesus, I haven’t a clue - ask Mrs. Perils. She was hip and my social savior. I was just doing my best to emulate the White Man’s Overbite.
Chuck - You’re right on, I’m eternally grateful for her “elegant lines”, which she’s maintained and, arguably, improved. I presume you mean the birth class of ‘49 (which, dammit, I am), and not the HS graduating class. I’m really enjoying your UB40 series.
you’ve both aged quite well young man.
You two have been shaking it together a long time. Great photos. It makes me think that Roger and I should post our high school yearbook photos. I don’t have an actual yearbook, because I was protesting everything at the time, and yearbooks seemed so conventional. Luckily an old friend contacted me in 2003 and volunteered to copy her yearbook for me. So, I have a xeroxed yearbook. Always fun to look back.
My 40th was last week, and I attended, having tacked it on to the tail end of a business trip to MN. I was relieved that I didn’t have to get as drunk as I thought I might in order to survive. First time I’d seen any of those people since I graduated. It wasn’t too bad, although the people I had any interest in seeing weren’t there.
I LOVE the shoes tossed aside!
Hard to believe so much time, so much water beneath the bridge….yeah, make the 50th for the sheer hoot of it.
That is the cutest photo.
Of course, I don’t know what the chaperones were thinking, letting you all dance so close together!
Roger - thanks!
Robin - you should! As you can see from the pictures, “protest” hadn’t really pierced our school’s consciousness except as scurrilous rumors. That’s pretty funny about the Xeroxed yearbook. Not conventional now, is it?
Molly - yeah, I think that would have been my experience of it, too.
TD - I was hoping that was a premonition of a predilection!
Imp - now, that was freak dancing. Required a real freak. I haven’t often been a trendsetter.
I clicked on a link at the top of “Middle of the Week” and here I am. You were a cutie back in 67, that’s for sure. I’m skipping my trip down nostalgia lane this year (40th for me, too, but I just can’t get excited about it.)