The Class of 1974 looked good. It was a big turnout. Had to be at least 100 classmates or so. Lots of people looked much older than I anticipated. Lori told me I looked the best and was in better shape than just about everyone. Mike Murphy, a short guy I knew pretty well, was in good shape too. The highlight of the night was when one lady came up to me and gave me a huge hug and said, “you should be named Mr. Congeniality as you were so nice to me and everyone in school”. I didn’t really remember who she was, and my first response was “really”, and she said, “oh yes, you were so nice and kind to everyone., no matter who they were” Now in high school, there were a lot of clicks. Three of us, Marty McCoy, who was there, Eddie Swanson and I, pretty much floated among all 550 classmates and could interact with them all. We weren’t in one click or another and knew everyone. In a way, we kind of ran the school as no one really challenged us. I was always the guy that sort of protected everyone. Not in a physical way (surprisingly we didn’t have a lot of fights in our school), but in an acceptance way. There was not really that much bullying but if I knew someone was being picked on, I’d step in and sort of make befriend them which sort of was a sign of acceptance and then whoever was bothering them, left them alone. I didn’t think much about it, but looking back, that was sort of the way it was. Now Marty and I, (not so much Eddie) pulled a lot of pranks. Marty said, “do you remember when we stole Lakewood High Schools homecoming float and brought it back and put it on top of our school”. Of course, I remembered and said, “oh yea, we got in trouble”, and he said yea, Pyle (Vice President Pyle) called us in, which he did. Marty also ate 365 gold fish one day at school. Lori said “why?” and Marty said, “just for fun”. I have a few other R or X rated stories I could tell, but I’ll save them for now. Lots of memories like that. School was kind of like the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Caroline Griffith, who lived at the top of our driveway, and still does, said “can you believe how fast life went?”. She put her hand to her forehead and said, “it went by like that, poof”. There were lots of other people there too. I didn’t recognize too many but after seeing their name tags, knew who they were. Most people recognized me and said how good I looked good and that I hadn’t changed much. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, ha. We left after about 90 minutes to get on the road. We could have stayed longer but had the drive and wanted to stop in Frisco for groceries. As I said, lots of people looked old, as I guess 66 and 67, which most of us are, is old. Still, when talking to them, you could hear the 17-year-old in them talking, just like in high school. It’s like we all time travelled back to 1974. It was a good time.
Before that, we went to Tommy’s to see him and meet Holly. I walked in and gave her a hug and said, “might as well hug you as Lori says you’ll be family in a week or so”. This is when Tom said, “yup, and Holly stuck out her hand and showed us her engagement ring! Now this was a shocker in one way, but not in another. Tom is really head over heels for her and we’re super happy for him. The shock was it’s only been about 2 months or so since they really started dating. Tommy says it’s a 18–24-month engagement or so, which is good as it will give them time to really get to know each other and make sure they’re a good fit for each other. We’re both happy for him. I guess everyone knew but us as Tom wanted to tell us when we showed up. Holly seems super nice and I’m sure was a little nervous as who knows what Tommy told her about me, (can only imagine), but they do seem like a good pair. The funniest part of meeting her was when she said, “we didn’t really know if each of us liked each other, but then one night, Tequila Tom called, and we talked for 3 hours”. I immediately said, “oh, you know Tequila Tom?” and she said, “oh yea….”. Hope things work out for them. They’re both adults. I’m just that protective guy who looks out for those I care about. Congrats to them both.
Pretty clear up here this morning. Sort of smokey in Denver. We were home by 9 or so which wasn’t too bad. It was great seeing everyone, even if I didn’t know who they all were. Sort of surreal. It’s amazing how fast life goes. Most of us don’t feel old, especially Harry and I. Harry is such a talker and Tom gave him a few shots of tequila before we went, so he was particularly chatty. Got to watch out for Tequila Tom, ha! Here’s Shelly O’Connell, our old neighbor who lived in the neighborhood with Harry and I since 6th grade. She’s now a retired ER doctor in Seattle. The boys, growing up, would always go over and see her dad, who lived a couple houses away. He passed away I think 4 years ago. Good to see Shelly, and we exchanged info. She was always nice. We went to her older sisters funeral years ago when we still lived in Lakewood. Her parents were a big part of the neighborhood growing up.
So that’s it, big day with the reunion and meeting Holly. Still hard to believe it’s been 50 years since high school. It’s not fair that life goes so fast. Time is the one thing no one can stop, so get out there and enjoy and live each day to the fullest. God Bless.