By Mary Smith
The sound of school bells ringing and children walking home always take me back to another time when my life revolved around reading writing and studying. School dances, football games and old flames all played an integral part of my high school experience. Now that I’m older, those memories come to life for me whenever I reunite with old friends from the past.
Class reunions have a way of doing that. Walk into any class reunion and you will see just what I’m talking about. Oh, and don’t let this event take place at the school that you graduated from. Once you walk on the grounds, you’re suddenly transported back to 19_____. It’s as if you never left. The same dusty smell of the hallways, locker number 105, that same clock that just couldn’t keep the right time, and old Ms. Cummings who was probably there when the school was built, still remain. Ah the memories. Friday night dances, the music of The Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, and so many more played on countless stereos during the 60’s and 70’s.
War was in full swing yet it seemed like if would never touch our youth or our spirits. That only happened when news of a classmate dying in the war brought us back. I love class reunions because it gives you the chance to see how most of the members of your graduating class have faired. Those you liked as well as those you loathed.
While we basked in the glow of days gone by, every year a reunion takes place, we are reminded of just how far we have come. For some mother nature has been kind. For others, she has left her mark to remind us that we have past that phase of our life when the innocence of youth ruled. Time which was on our side has now become an enemy.
We’re all a lot older, fatter and a lot greyer on top. Once we were daring and willing to try anything. Now we tread with caution. Once we hated the establishment. Now we are the establishment. Still as we gather together and admire each other like an old winter coat that we still love, we reminisce of that first dance, or that first kiss. All it takes is for some song for yesteryear to come on, over the speakers and suddenly we are 16 again.
When we see an old class mate who was voted best looking walk in with a receding hair line and a pot belly, we secretly feel a little bit better about ourselves. Why, because we know that we are not the only ones who have to deal with getting older. And that makes it ok.
It seems like only yesterday I was a scared 14 year old girl about to venture into another phase of my life. Like so many of the young people that I have taught in the past, I took for granted how quickly those years would go. Fleeting are the moments that we spend here on earth. But the memories keep on going until it is our time to pull up stakes and take that final journey home.
