Friday, December 2, 2011

A Blast From The Past


That term started years ago on the radio to identify the great music from years gone by but was something I experienced firsthand last weekend in a different but certainly an equally enjoyable way.

Last Saturday night I attended my 40th class reunion in Connecticut for the New Britain High School Class of 1971. Without a doubt it was a blast to see all those faces of the past.

Now; there are those who would say that they don’t remember their years in high school fondly & so wouldn’t be part of such an event. But for me….for the most part….high school was a time I remember with nothing but those fond memories. So the reunion gave me a chance to re-connect with some of the people (most of whom I hadn’t seen in more than 20 years) that helped make those memories happy ones. If nothing else, it gives you a chance to put life’s everyday worries aside for a few hours and remember how simple it once was.

I think that was the lure of it all for me. Seeing old friends & faces from a time when life was so much less complicated. When each day was more about who was dating whom or who would get caught smoking in the lavatory than it was about anything else. And everyone there had shared those same, and so many more experiences together. The amazing thing about those faces: although 40 years have gone by, there were very few of them that I didn’t recognize right away. Each of us wore a name tag with our graduation picture on it so anyone that wasn’t instantly recognizable to someone else didn’t have to wait very long for that “Oh My God!” reaction when the connection was made. It was a good feeling to see the faces of once close friends and knowing after all these years they were doing well and enjoying life. I had the extra good fortune of spending the evening with the lady that shared the title of “class couple” with me all those years ago…..but she was very easy to recognize. I have been married to her for almost as long as we’ve been out of high school!

John Lennon wrote: “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”….and that was certainly true for each of us in that room last Saturday night……but….for one evening of our lives we all stepped into the past for a handful of hours ….. and for just a little while we went back in time. We were all kids again. And that was a blast!