Saturday, June 23, 2012

Fifty Years

Time flies when you're living life.


Fifty years ago my classmates and I graduated from Molalla High 
School, in a small town in Oregon's Willamette Valley.  There were about 120 of us.  We were a collection from various rural elementary schools, and the big consolidated grade school in town.  Many of us spent all twelve years together, and then upon graduation, we all went our separate ways.


Over the years various groups of us have attended previous reunions.  I have made it to the big tens: 10, 20, 30, 40, and now 50.  In between I have had little or no contact with my classmates, since I moved away to Seattle to go to college and never returned to live, only to visit. A local core has kept us together over the years through our reunions.


In preparation for meeting people I had not seen for many years, I got out my senior yearbook, of course, and my scrapbook of my grade school years.  It is these classmates that I spent all 12 years with that I remember most.
                                 Grade 1
 I was a bit nervous about seeing all of these "strangers", introvert that I am, but I knew I would find my old best friend at some point. I had heard that she would be there.  As we crossed the parking lot, I looked at another couple approaching, then looked again, then stared, I do believe, and then the young face appeared in the older one, and there she was, my best friend Sandra.  I called her name, she looked hard at me, and then we embraced.  We walked in together.
Inside we were soon surrounded by more vaguely familiar faces, including my classmate and neighbor all those years ago, Dave Koch.


Thank goodness all of the classmates had their senior pictures on their name tags.  I think by the time the evening was over I had talked to each one of them.


Our classmate Richard Reasoner was honored for all of the work over all of the years he has devoted to our class and to the Alumni Association.  

 It took some doing to get everyone in the class photo, but I think you can see almost every one's face in this one.  I had my Nikon with me and Tom ended up taking the photos.
It looks like there are 53 of us.  We named those who have passed and missed those who were unable to come. And we all just enjoyed each other.


Age is a funny thing.  We look at old people and think, oh, they are old.  Old people are different.  And then suddenly we ARE the old people, and we know that we are only old on the outside.  Inside we are still those young people who spent our childhoods together.

14 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed your reunion Linda. As we get older it becomes more difficult to recognise our old friends I think? And them us - Dave

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  2. How wonderful Linda. So glad you had such a great reunion.

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  3. We are attending David's 45th reunion in September. Expensive. $125 total. We are looking forward to it.

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  4. aging is a body thing but the spirit within stays young...lol!

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  5. It is interesting to read about different reunions. Some reconnect with old friends, some have on-going relationships with old classmates even when great distances separate them and reunions happen more often. I have been to a couple, but I really think that part of my life is done. I would never have talked to so many people. I'm admitting here that I am a pathological introvert.

    Your school picture really shows such a strong resemblance to Irene's picture!

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  6. I was not fortunate enough to have good friends to remember all those years ago. Moving around with my military father took a toll on us, one I didn't realize until I saw this picture. What a great reunion you had!

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  7. Sounds like a fun time was had by all! I haven't been to any class reunions as I haven't lived in Texas in a very, very long time, but I have connected with several classmates over the past few years and we stay in touch by email. I did get to meet up with several when I was visiting my son in Dallas several years ago. So hard to believe that I graduated sixty two years ago!! Surely I'm not THAT OLD!! Yep, afraid so!! Hope you have a great day!!

    Sylvia

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  8. Our 50th high school reunion sounded wonderful. Mine, if we have one, will be in two more years. There were only ten in my senior class, so rounding us up isn't too time consuming!

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  9. Linda, this is sooooo neat! Your granddaughter sure does look like you (in the photo album picture). Glad that you guys had a fun time.

    Kathy M.

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  10. Oh...we are all the same age inside.

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  11. beautiful reunion
    a milestone to celebrate

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  12. Linda, I loved the photo of you from your childhood album. You have not changed a bit.

    Your reunion sounded great. I love what you had to say. Inside, we are still those same young people we were. I have to say that your group looks much more orderly than ours did at our reunion a few years back. That reunion picture is a treasure for sure.

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  13. It was seeing classmates grow old together. I hope i experience this too as i graduated in a community school where each of the neighborhood knows your name. Time flies for those who are living their lives to the fullest.


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  14. I haven't been to a high school reunion in 30 years. I'm always worried I won't remember people. I love your memory albums, Linda! You did such a beautiful job with them.

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