A week or so I spoke about my deciding to attend my 45th High School Reunion and how I arrived at the decision to attend. Since graduation from Pasadena High School 45 years ago I have graduated from three Universities and Seminaries. All three of these institutions hold reunions and Alumni gatherings but none has a hook in my heart like the PHS Class of 1965.
It is fascinating to me the impact that those high school years have had on my life. To be sure, I did not know all 470 of my fellow graduates who walked across that platform in the Old Memorial Stadium across from the First Baptist Church and I did not participate in every activity available in my High School days. And yet, I recall with fondness virtually everything about those days. I would not say they were the best years of my life but they certainly rank up there with the best.
However, since deciding to attend the October 30th reunion I have been thinking about the direction our lives (mine and my classmates) have taken since that night when we walked across that platform and received those diplomas.
Of the 470 fellow graduates of the PHS Class of 1965 forty-four of us (almost 10% of our class) have completed their journey and are no longer among us. Some died young. I often wonder their lives would have been had they not left us so young. Others fought and lost battles with disease and a few in tragic accidents. I feel diminished by their passing.
Many of us went on to attend colleges and universities. Most of us found careers in which we have been to some degree successful. Others of us have struggled with life. Some have been blessed materially while some of us have managed to "get by." High school sweethearts married and some of us are still married to each other today. Many of us became dad's and mom's and have now graduated to grandparents. We represent virtually every aspect of American society and culture.
But the irony of my life has been that in spite of all that has happened in our lives since that evening in May of 1965 and sometimes in spite of what has happened since my fondest memories are of those days spent with my 470 classmates at Pasadena High School and you the Class of 1965. If I remember correctly our class song was "Moments to Remember" and remember them we do. I can still hear the Four Lads as they sing the song.
What was it about those days of our youth that so embedded them in my life. Was it because it was a simpler more innocent time. I have often said that my father, (who spent his childhood in the shadow of WWI; As a youth endured the Great Depression and; As man flew war planes over Europe from 1943-1945 during WWII), lived in the "Best and Worst of Times." In contrast I believe my high school years and the years that followed were the "best of times."
I really don't know why those days and these people are so near and dear to me --- I just know that they are. It is one of the mysteries of my life that I feel this fondness toward people many of whom I only casually knew in those days and have not seen since. Maybe after the 45th reunion I will come away with a better understanding . . . but somehow I rather doubt it. What I do know is this: I am thankful to God that I began my journey in life with this group of people. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Perhaps that's it . . . it was during those years and with these people that i realized my journey in life had begun in earnest . . . maybe.
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