title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Monday, October 16, 2017

Touchstones

Saturday I traveled up, through torrential rain, to my home town.  The Elementary Gym was where the Alumni luncheon was held.

When I consider all the graduates from this school, over the 120 history, there weren't many attendees.  The "youngers" just aren't interested in these hokey, old fashioned kinds of things.

I smiled as the program progressed, led by a prayer, group singing of, "In The Garden" and "Proud to be an American", where every single person stood.  I looked around, every single person, of the 100 present, was singing and praying.  Small town America.  Where else could you get away with this?  I love it!

Pammie was there, only 3 from her class showed up.  Her class was recognized for 40 years, ours was recognized for 60.

When I used to attend these Alumni banquets, they were held at night, we dressed to the nines and there was a dance after the meal.

I used to look at the old graduates and marvel that they were still alive 60 years after graduation.  Now, I am one of those old graduates.

My favorite teacher was there--still alive at 96.  He graduated the year I was born and was celebrating his 78th year from graduation.  He is sharp as a tack and looks as young as me.


Out of 36 graduating in my class, we have 19 survivors and 7 of us showed up.


If I had been smarter in High School, I would have accepted a date with the lovely man standing next to me, hung onto him and married him. He was one of those "late bloomers" and in High School he was kind of goofy, with the blush and sort of stumbling ways.  Now, he is wealthy and one of the kindest, gentlest, sweetest man you'd ever meet.  

Oh no.  I had to go for the popular jock and look where that got me!

The ladies in this photo are some of the ones who do lunch every month.  As you can tell, the one on the left front is not smiling.  We took 5 photos and she is not smiling in any of them.  She appears to us to be getting a bit senile and will say things that she should not.  I can remember, when my grandma first started in with her forgetfulness and senility, she quit smiling too.  Every photo we have of Grandma, in her last few years, she looked very sad and would sit with her head down, looking worried.  This may be happening to our girl.  
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Afterwards, I traveled out to The Farm to visit sister for an hour and then started home.  It was now getting foggy and dark (5:00) and I had a heck of a rough ride getting home.  I never would have made it if I hadn't remembered that in the console of the car, I had those special yellow glasses to use to drive after dark.  I put those on, and it made it seem a bit brighter outside, but it still was a long journey.
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It was a real nice time anyway and worth the scary drive home.  I wondered around the new parts of the school that have been added on since Jennifer was in elementary school.  This gym used to be our  High School gym, but with a burst of residency in the mid 60's, they tore down our two-story brick school, and added buildings for elementary school and built a new middle school and high school up town.

Lots of memories in that gym.  I even sneaked up on the stage, behind the heavy curtain and remembered choir concerts, Jr. and Sr. Plays, band concerts, talent shows--all those memories came back crystal clear.

Yesterday, still feeling sentimental and nostalgic and the fact that we ARE NOT having a 60th CLASS reunion, I got to wondering about those kids that live out of state....and really too far away now to come back home.

I have decided to send them all a letter asking them to write a brief synopsis of their life now and enclose a present photo.  Then, I am going to make up a newsletter with the info from each person and mail that out to everyone.  I used to make booklets for our class reunions, kind of like this, and pass them out at our Class reunions.  We probably won't ever have any more Class reunions and I have this real need to connect to everyone.  To have all of us be connected again.  After all...most of us started Kindergarten together and graduated together.  In a small town school like ours, we all were kind of like brothers and sisters.
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I started my next project.  It is the strangest pattern I have ever worked.  There are only squares with color symbols in them and no out-line of the figures.

Look at all the colors!

I think this project is probably going to be the most difficult one I have ever done.
I have started at the upper, right hand corner, and off I go.

11 comments:

  1. Glad you had a great time. I'm surprised that so few showed up for Pammie's class. Are they still of working age, I'm guessing? I think your booklet idea is a good one. I used to do that for Don's class and they all loved it.

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    1. I'm hoping everyone cooperates and I get a reply from all.

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  2. Sounds like a good time. Glad you made it home safe. What's your new project going to be. I've never seen a pattern like that!

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    1. The Last Supper. I figure if I had the Nativity, I needed the Lord's supper too. :-)

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  3. Well, you know what they say about the quiet ones; and look there he's wealthy now. But, you have beautiful children and grand's even though things didn't work out with the first marriage. :)

    That pattern would scare me to death, LOL! But, you will make it beautifully.

    xoxo

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  4. You're a brave woman to tackle that project, Judy! I can't wait to see the outcome. Looks amazing. I'm glad you enjoyed your reunion and I commiserate with you that from now until next March, that early dark is going to clap down on us all and make everything spooky. I just do not drive at night and I don't even much like going out at night. Your booklet idea is a wonderful one and I hope you do it, but I've learned that most people do not appreciate the efforts of those who strive to maintain connections. At least that's been my experience. Maybe I don't go about it in the right way, but when I do, my efforts are largely ignored. I don't know why. xoxo

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    1. I threatened them that they have to reply or I will write something about them. HAH! Probably no one will appreciate the work it takes to contact and get the info and make the news-letter, but you know, I love doing those kinds of things. I think I do it more for myself, then anyone else and you know, I need something to do!!!

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  5. Glad you got home in that haze and fog. ( I've checked here since last Friday, and Judy-post!)
    How cold have you dropped down to at night. It's supposed to drop into the mid-30s tonight, and we may turn on the heat for the first time this fall. Sure sounded like you got a lot done in the yard. I'm just not able to do much at all anymore, and it gets me down. :(

    Take good care of you!
    love, Trudy

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    1. No frost here as yet. 40's at night, 70's during the day. How's David doing?

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  6. If I didn't know better, I would think you had your reunion picture taken in the gym at the school where I taught for all those years. Purple and gold were the colors and the gym bleachers were dark purple.

    I sure like the fuchsia jacket worn by the lady in front. She reminds me of what I will probably look like in my 80s.

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    1. Yes Purple and Gold are our colors with an Eagle as the mascot.
      That would be Sandy--a retired nurse, fine Christian woman. She and I used to sing duets all over the community and county. Now we both sound like a baritone when we sing. LOL

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