Wednesday, August 22, 2007

60th Class reunion






Four of us from the "OLD" class of 1947. Many years have gone by but even so we were able to recognise each other through the new layers of aging that had happened over the years. Most had enough hair so it required combing and we were standing quite erect for the miles the legs had carried us.
Being a pot luck back yard cookout affair the women showed they had over the years become very clever in their kitchen abilities and the food was very good (correction: it was excellent, tasty and filling!)
After drifting around the garden mingling with our classmates we pulled chairs up in a shaded area and began telling some of our experiences during our 4 years and one story led to another and many memories were brought up and some were stories that we had not heard before. Much, much laughing was had by all. We remembered those who had passed on and talked of some who were unable to attend for one reason or another.
One class member had so many grand children and great grandchildren we dared not test him to see if he knew all their names.
Another member was a priest and left to become professor of Humanities at Harvard in Cambridge area of Boston while another recently retired from 50 years of missionary work and he translated the bible into 28 dialects of the natives in South America and a third taught English and English literature at a teachers college in South East Massachusetts.
This is my first blog in months and in July after the reunion we had a family gathering up on Lake Murray South Carolina and it was a great week fishing and being with one son and daughter and some of the children and right on down to great grand children. Fishing on the lake was excellent and I used the same "system" of "catch-n-release". threw everything back to give someone else some fun or if caught later and big enough they would be a good meal. Many varieties of brim in the lake and some very colorful. Pulled in a couple of bass but not large enough to keep. Did get hold of a gar and it was about 3 foot long and a fighter. It shook itself loose before being boated and thankfuly so as they have a mean mouth full of teeth. It's more like a long snout and the teeth are jagged and razor sharp. The second one caught did make it to the boat and grandson had to grab on with plyers to extract the hook and it was about 4 feet long and on light tackle it was a tussle bringing him in. The one cat fish dragged up from the bottom was quite ughly and went over 3 pounds but it too was released.
Evenings I taught my great grand children how to play gin rummy and a little game called "31". My oldest grand daughter turned 10 while there and we had a nice cake and icecream party for her. She really got into gin rummy and became very sharp at the game.
Great grandson Steve did some fishing but everyone who caught a fish he asked to take them off the hook and he became very efficient at it and then he'd ask if it was a "keeper" and when the answer was a negative he'd throw it back like it was a baseball and the fish had the ride of its life being returned to the lake.
On arrival I was unpacking and put my razor on the table and my son asked: "What is that?" And I asked if he was serious and he said he was because it was "vacation" and the razor goes on vacation too. Didn't shave all week and kept it for one day shy of 4 weks but decided that it was foolish to wear a fur coat on your face in Florida in the summer time...........
That's it for this time and hope I can find my way back so more entries can be made .........enjoy!