50th Class Reunion

When did I get old?  I can remember when my mother was part of the planning committee for her high school class's 50th reunion, and all I could think was, "Dang!  That's old!"  And now, my turn came.  The Class of '65 of Oak Park-River Forest High School in Oak Park, IL, had it's 50th reunion last month.  A good time was had by all....I guess.  I didn't go.

Why didn't I go?
Let's start with the fact that it's a 4-hour trip to Oak Park.  The reunion was for the entire weekend.  I could have stayed at my daughter's overnight both nights and driven back to OP for the activities, but I had just been up there.  I would have had to go alone, and since alcohol was offered, I knew I wouldn't be able to imbibe and still drive after.  I haven't really been back to OP much since my parents retired back in 1975, and although I think I could probably still navigate the community (with help), I wasn't confident that I could do so easily.

I looked at the "who's coming" list and didn't see a single person I was close to back then.  Why?  I wasn't close to very many people!  There were 830+ kids in my graduating class.  I was in classes with 100% of the reunion attendees over the four years of high school, but I can count on the fingers of one hand the ones I was "social" with...and most of those, unfortunately, were on the "In Memory" list.  A couple of others were on the list of "Missing Classmates".

And then there is the issue of health and appearances.  I knew that my attendance at the reunion was going to be a mobility challenge for me, plus the fact that I look NOTHING like I did back then.  I didn't need the indignity of people not recognizing me...not that they would, anyway!  (The only reason anyone would know I existed is due to the fact that I had the lead role in both plays and the musical during my Senior year.  I was pretty quiet in those days.)  It's just not the same as being part of a class in a smaller or more rural area.  Thus, I stayed home.

Yesterday, I got a notice that reunion pictures were posted online.  I went through them all.  What did I see?  I saw a bunch of old people that I would not have recognized had they not been labeled!  The one that was most surprising to me was a pic of our "star" tenor in A Capella Choir.  He is HUGE!  I saw him back at the 25th reunion which I did attend.  What a change!  Then, too, there was the football hunk that my best friend had a crush on way back when.  He looked like a charicature of Caspar Milquetoast.  Obviously, life hasn't been any better to him in appearance than it has been to me!!

As I mentioned, I did go to the 25th reunion with my then-husband.  He was hot-and-heavy into his affair with his secretary back then and really didn't want to be there with me.  He came from a very small school in Fillmore, IN, and could neither understand my big-school experience nor give me any props for what I accomplished there.  His one comment was that he could see how "someone" could get a big head from a place like that...meaning me.  (Gee thanks!)

Because of my nomadic childhood as a Navy kid, I didn't make friends easily because having friends meant leaving them painfully behind at the next transfer.  Like my mother, I never looked back.  So when it came time for the 25th class reunion at OP-RFHS, I was looking at things as if they were magic.  I think my thoughts were, "This really did happen.  This place truly exists.  I didn't just make it up in my mind."  My parents left OP in '75, and I never went back after that.  To this day, I think about those days as if they were something that no one else would comprehend.  I get weary of trying to help others understand what it all meant to me when I'm not sure I get it myself.  Oak Park was the first place I could call home (besides the family farm) because it was where we landed when Dad got on inactive duty with the Navy.  I loved it.

Am I sad that I didn't attend the 50th reunion?  Nope.  Not even a little.  Looks like they had a good time, whoever they are.  God bless them all!