Friday, August 6, 2010

Magic Happens With Age

Here we are --  final vestiges of the 50th Reunion Committee meeting to figure out who gets to take charge of the next (55th, of course) reunion, to laugh some more and to eat a little more as well.  We do look a little weird because our mouths are full.  We just stopped chewing for a second for the photo.

Front and center is Kathy Davis Allman, whom I've known forever, to her right is Susan Fields Walles who came from Flushing, New York our senior year.  Linda Wightman Fleming I've known since 1st grade when we moved to Provo and Kathy Ostler Fryer was the head of the Decorations Committee all these months.  Jeff Brooks was wild and crazy through high school and now drives a Jaguar, Doc Hansen was the heir to Hansen Candy Company, Wayne Clarke was and is the the most devilishly handsome and married Ann Sumsion and is still married to her and Naoma Gammon Bird, sitting next to me, was not a close friend in high school, but became a very close friend in college. We still are close friends.  Taking the picture is Bob Valentine who was in charge of the reunion.  He gets credit for almost all of the great success of the Provo High School Class of 1960 50th Reunion.

Now here's something for you.  We really didn't belong together.  I knew all these people in high school, of course, and liked them all well enough, but we didn't exactly belong to the same cliques.  But we really did become great friends during the preparation for the reunion.  

Those of you who aren't going to high school reunions for any reason, consider this -- things change.  Like Bob Valentine said, "In high school we had groups, but now there's just one group -- the old one."

And for good reason, we seem to all like each other and finally have time for each other.  We laugh, we talk, we explain things and finally kind of figure things out.  The old mysteries are really a thing of the past.

And our intention is to keep on meeting.  At least the Decorations Committee plans to.  We've got our next meeting planned for September.  We also have our class of 1960 website paid up for the next three years.  And there's also good ole Facebook.  We won't let go again because we like each other again.  And this time, even better.

The reason is this:  We have made lots of friends since high school.  Many of those friends are better friends than those we had in high school.  But it's important to remember that there's no universal rule that says there's a limit on friends.  No need to discard the old when the new come into play.

And those friends from high school?  They may have been cuter, faster, and looked better in a pair of jeans back then, but I can almost guarantee you you'll like them even better after they've aged a bit like the storied good wine, fine cheese and old friends are supposed to do.  It just happens.  Just like it's supposed to.  

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