A Poem...

THE CLASS REUNION

Every ten years, (maybe even more often than that)
An announcement arrives in the mail,
A reunion is planned; it'll really be grand;
Make plans to attend without fail.

I'll never forget that first time we met;
We tried so hard to impress.
We drove fancy cars, smoked big cigars,
And wore our most elegant dress.

It was quite an affair; the whole class was there.
It was held at a fancy hotel.
We wined, and we dined, and we acted refined,
And everyone thought it was swell.

The men all conversed about who had been first
To achieve great fortune and fame.
Meanwhile, their spouses described their fine houses
And how beautiful their children became.

The homecoming queen, who once had been lean,
Now weighed in at one-ninety-six.
The jocks who were there had all lost their hair,
And the cheerleaders could no longer do kicks.

No one had heard about the class nerd
Who'd guided a spacecraft to the moon;
Or poor little Jane, who was always so plain;
She married a shipping tycoon.

The boy we'd decreed "most apt to succeed"
Was serving ten years in the pen,
While the one voted "least" now was a priest;
Just shows you can be wrong now and then.

They awarded a prize to one of the guys
Who seemed to have aged the least.
Another was given to the grad who had driven
The farthest to attend the feast.

They took a class picture, a curious mixture
Of beehives, crew cuts and wide ties.
Tall, short, or skinny, the style was the mini;
You never saw so many thighs.

At our next get-together, no one cared whether
They impressed their classmates or not.
The mood was informal, a whole lot more normal;
But this time we'd all gone to pot.

It was held out-of-doors, at the lake shores;
We ate hamburgers, coleslaw, and beans.
Then most of us lay around in the shade,
In our comfortable T-shirts and jeans.

By the fortieth year, it was abundantly clear,
We were definitely "over the hill".
Those who weren't dead had to crawl out of bed,
And be home in time for their pill.

And now I can't wait; they've finally set the date;
Our fiftieth is coming, I'm told.
It should be a ball, they've rented the hall
At the Shady Rest Home for the old.

Repairs have been made on my old hearing aid;
My pacemaker's been turned up to "high".
My wheelchair is oiled, and my teeth have been boiled;
And I've bought a new wig and glass eye.

I'm feeling quite hearty, and I'm ready to party
I'm gonna dance 'til dawn's early light.
It'll be lots of fun; But I just hope that there's one
Other person who can make it that night.

Author Unknown

An Informal 50th Reunion - St Joseph's School Class of 1959

On Saturday, August 1 at 1pm, about 30 people, including 17 classmates, gathered for the 50th Reunion of St Joseph's School class of 1959 8th grade graduation. We met in the school parking lot on a windy afternoon to special greetings, smiles, hugs and OMG comments as we got reacquainted. A 3' by 5' enlarged class photo that had been taken on the steps of the church in 1959 was our introduction and reminder of those special days, long ago. Each of us signed the photo. There were about 45 people in our class of 1959 headed by Sister St. John Mary. Before entering the school for our tour, we all lined up with girls in one line and boys in the other. During our tour we heard many tales from our 8 years in that building. Following the tour we reenacted that graduation photo. Dave DeMelle decided he’d better sit as he wasn’t in the original photo – hmmmm, may have been hunting that day. Mike Chisholm, who led the charge in having this reunion, had rented the pavilion at Sunset Park for a picnic. Everyone had an enjoyable time chatting, reviewing photos and keepsakes from school days and generally learning about each others lives. We discovered numerous, common adventures of adolescence while growing up in Sturgeon Bay and Door County.

A special thanks to those who traveled quite far to attend. The states of Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Colorado and Wisconsin were represented.

Click on photo to make it larger

Check out some of the pictures below from the gathering.