Deflection

It feels like it is the beginning of August and not the middle of September with an 85 degree temperature, there is a nice wind to keep things cool.

Last night was my fifth class reunion, and, as we commented on, in some ways it goes fast and other ways it goes slow. I guess that physically I do not feel that old and maybe that distorted my feeling on age. But, it was nice to see classmates and talk about high school, the time since then, and the life of retirement, for those of us that have retired. It was a good reunion and I hope that everyone enjoys my essay below.

Roger

Class Reunion – 50 years

This is defiantly a reflection of time. As I was monitoring the last few months, there has been lots of excitement by my classmate for this reunion on social media. Then when you think about it, it is one evening for about four hours, but with a lot of feelings and emotion regarding the amount of time that had passed.

The father-in-law of one of my classmates that was in my dad’s told me his daughter would not come to the class reunion since she would not know anyone there, although she was three years behind us. In my joiner and senior years of high school, my dad got me out of school early every afternoon on a work release program, and we did live in the country; therefore, even with me, I did not spend much time with my classmates. Although I know most of my classmates well, there are others that I do not know all that well. So, as for me, it takes a while for me to get to know my classmates, and I have found that there are some classmates that I did not know well that we get along great with today, so it does feel like I missed out but not being around high school much, but one has to remember that I graduated six years after the college students were rioting not only through out the country but also here at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

But, as will all class reunions, it is great to get to see classmates, talk about the past, and talk about what everyone is doing now that most us are retired. Since this is our fifth class reunion, we wonder how many more that we will make which leads in to the age of our parents that are still living. One thing for sure, every classmate wants a class reunion five years from now.

After my past class reunions, I would always spend time with my mom discussing the events of the evening. With mom’s knowledge of the people here in the city, we had nice discussions, and it added to make the event even more meaningful. Know comes the sad part. With mom’s dementia, she has no idea that I went to my class reunion, and I cannot have the meaningful discussions that I have had in the past, as I thought about the discussions that I would have with mom all evening.

One of my classmates lost his wife a few years ago and kept working to take his mind off of his loss, and, now, he is retiring. This class reunion meant more to him than most of us, since he needed this chance to visit with his classmates. This is a true reflection that time moves on. Dad told me today that one of his classmates that had been living in the country will be living in a nursing home with his mental deterioration. Life is a struggle, and everyone takes the struggle differently, and this is not to mention the physical and mental illness that will come to all of us in time. I guess that it is time to take the ride into retirement and hold on.