In 1769 Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot a Frenchman, took off his beret long enough to build the first steam powered car and everybody thought it was totally tres bon until the early 1900’s when Standard Oil of Ohio told everybody that gasoline was better. So Henry Ford said, “No kidding?” and built thousands of gasoline powered cars which created all over America the need for paved roads-- one of which I followed to the Brook Valley Country Club in Greenville, NC. My Forty-year old high school class reunion had begun.
You go to high school reunions not to see old friends as much as to see what our teenage selves became as reflected back in the eyes of those that knew us when. So you can imagine my shock when I entered the room and noticed our teenage selves looked a lot like the teachers we use to have ( Note: I for one always thought we had very nice looking teachers).
The first act of meeting an old classmate can be touching as you go for a warm handshake and realize your stomachs are almost touching too. Your eyes are constantly glancing at name tags even though everybody tells each other that they’ve hardly changed a bit. To be fair some truly had not changed much at all which I found to be as surprising as it was irritating. I tried to hold in my stomach.
The mood of the room was joyous as many could now afford a better grade of alcohol. The bar was doing a brisk business as “Joy to the World” (the one by Three Dog Night) blared out in a room that was a casserole of different conversations and sounds. There was the occasional shrill laughter as a group of women reacted to something said and you heard the hearty slap of a hand on the back of someone who recognized an old friend and a new conversation began.
In 1971 the barn doors swung open, they slapped our haunches with a diploma and we galloped off into the world with our manes flowing and our heads held high. Hawaii Five-O and the Mary Tyler Moore shows were favorites and the first super bowl to be played on artificial turf occurred with the Baltimore Colts defeating the Dallas Cowboys. John Denver sang to us about country roads and the Temptations decided love was just their imagination running away with them. I noticed a woman whom I carried a big torch for in those days had changed little and could pass for a mid--thirty while a former athlete walked with bad knees carrying about 200 additional pounds. I pulled my stomach in tighter.
We showed each other pictures of our kids and grandkids and the photos had to be held very still--- under good light---at arm’s length. Some laughed about it. I was getting dizzy. I really needed to breathe.
You learn that someone lost a child to a terrible accident, someone had beaten cancer three times, some were happily divorced while others had the same spouse they started with decades ago. The mood became relaxed, the lights were dimmed (slightly so we wouldn’t fall) and the dancing began. My stomach resumed it’s natural shape and for a few hours the music carried us back to football games, proms, first kisses and to each other.
They say the young today have everything---the chance of long health and amazing technology. But to never have danced to the Temptations song “My Girl” with someone you love is to miss a wonderful thing. The young---I almost feel sorry for them.
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