{"id":5865,"date":"2023-10-12T16:19:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T21:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=5865"},"modified":"2023-10-12T16:19:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T21:19:25","slug":"attending-uncomfortably-my-50th-class-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/attending-uncomfortably-my-50th-class-reunion\/","title":{"rendered":"Attending (Uncomfortably) My 50th Class Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As soon as I finished my shift at the library last Friday, I dashed home, put on my tractor clothes, and started bushhogging, after first dropping a bale of alfalfa in Pancho the Donkey\u2019s shed. There is no grass in the pasture since the ryegrass died and the rains stopped. Alfalfa is not cheap at $38 a bale. I hope Pancho is grateful.<\/p>\n

I mowed down the goatweed before moving over to the side pasture. A variety of coreopsis, popular know as tickseed, surrounds the pond and the drainage ditch leading to the creek — large, bright yellow flowers that should last until the first freeze. I left the flowers alone and finished in time to take a shower and get dressed. I had a high school reunion to attend.<\/p>\n

LHS Class 73 \u2013 50th<\/sup> Reunion<\/em>. That is what the shirt tag I picked up at the reception table announced, along with my senior portrait and name. I pinned it on reluctantly and looked around. As the shopworn joke goes, who were<\/em> all these old people?<\/p>\n

I attended only the first night of Longview High School\u2019s 50th<\/sup> class reunion, about 100 of us crowding in a too-small space at a local Mexican restaurant. It had the feeling of a COVID-19 super-spreader at a ti\"\"<\/a>me when cases of the virus have seen an uptick. Lots of hugs and handshakes, and I did my share, usually after sneaking a look at the other person\u2019s name tag to figure out who I was hugging. And hoping they were vaccinated.<\/p>\n

At most, I recognized one out of 10 folks there. Our graduating class had about 600 members if memory serves. I reconnected with a few fellow graduates upon returning here nearly 16 years ago to run the newspaper. I kept my copy of the 1973 yearbook in a desk drawer. If someone showed up to visit who claimed to be a classmate, my administrative assistant would call me and say, \u201cJoe Smith (not his real name) is here to see you.\u201d \u00a0I would quickly look him up in the yearbook, hoping the photo might spur my memory.<\/p>\n

Most times it didn\u2019t. First, I have a lousy memory connecting names to faces, something that has not improved in the 16 years since returning here. Second, I tended to hang out with a small circle of fellow misfits, most of whom were a year or two ahead of me. I finished by correspondence course in my last semester so I could work full-time at Made-Rite Bottling and save for college. I can\u2019t say Longview High School is something that had a great impact on my life. College molded me far more than my years as a Lobo.<\/p>\n

Still, it was clear from the Facebook posts prior to the event and the photos posted after, that a great deal of planning and work went into making this reunion special. The organizers certainly deserve recognition and gratitude for taking on those responsibilities.<\/p>\n

As soon as I got my name tag, I headed to a surprisingly quiet bar down the hall to get a margarita on the rocks. There was no way I was going to enter the melee without a bit of liquid reinforcement. I am an introvert by nature and tend to stand in the corner and listen, not saying much on my own.<\/p>\n

It is unsurprising that, in a class this large, the list of classmates no longer among the living totaled about 100, roughly one-in-six of the Class of 1973. I looked over the list, recognizing some names. When your high school graduation was a half-century ago, there is definitely more to see in the rearview mirror than awaiting ahead out the windshield — to paraphrase James McMurtry.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I did<\/em> talk to people, catching up with folks I haven\u2019t seen since high school, and a few I see occasionally around town. Everyone was cordial and friendly, as one would expect. But, as in high school, I felt like an outsider in this crowd. That is not a reflection of the class, more a reflection of me.<\/p>\n

I quietly slipped away after about an hour and headed home. I needed to start discing Pancho\u2019s pasture early the next morning, get it ready to plant some ryegrass.<\/p>\n

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Print this entryAs soon as I finished my shift at the library last Friday, I dashed home, put on my tractor clothes, and started bushhogging, after first dropping a bale […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[76,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-76","category-columns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5868,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865\/revisions\/5868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}