The French Bistro with the Class of 76

The group including spouses

Last night was another Class of 76 get together.  I think that everyone that was there had a great time.  Despite the fact that the restaurant we met in was not really prepared for us, it still was a nice evening.  We have to thank Cheryl for organizing these events, because if she didn’t, this would not be happening.  Sadly I had missed the Wine and Cheese party at Mel’s last month because I had suffered a TIA and was quite sick and could not attend.  It was really good to see everyone again and actually some new people.  For me, one of the exciting parts of the evening was when Darlene saw me and made a bee-line over to me and gave me just a huge hug.  You see, Darlene and I really grew up together in Spring City with our houses being very close to each other’s.  It was also exciting to see Barb Smith and to meet her husband.  Linda brought her husband, who was really a nice guy and then there was Denise.  

Both of these were prior to our really taking over the area

Eventually we got ourselves seated by adding an extra table with fabric table clothes.  The other tables were covered with paper, the kind you find in some Italian restaurants.  I was sitting next to Linda and no one on the left and then Darlene, Kathy, and Denise across from me.  Conversation was comfortable and easy, so it seemed.  I was lucky to sit with people I had not been around at the last one, so I got caught up with everyone.  Linda showed me her daughter’s cake business.  WOW is all I can say about her cakes.  These cakes were really amazing and of course they came at a price.  It looked like something you would see on Cake Wars.  Just amazing!!  Kathy showed me some pictures of her cat.  The fact that her cat was in a cupboard above the refrigerator was amazing.  I know cats are amazing, but that one was something else.  

I’d like to mention that there were others there as well including Len, Robin, Lou and his girl-friend, Barb’s husband, Cheryl’s significant other, Paul, Debbie, Mel, Tonya, and Brian.  I know there were probably others and I missed you, sorry I tried really hard to remember everyone.  

So service was really slow, because they were not really prepared for us and then the front of house was slammed as well.  Many of us did not get to eat until 9 PM.  I don’t know about my classmates, but eating that late is a recipe for a night without sleep.  I have to say though that the pulled pork sandwich I had was primo going down, coming back up on the way home was less than thrilling.  I did stop at Turkey Hill to get a coke, which helped tremendously though there was a good deal of belching going on in my car!!!  As we were patiently waiting, only known to a couple people,dear Linda decided to draw her food on the table cloth.  

Linda initially was sitting at a paper covered table, now she was sitting at a linen table cloth.  I believe it was Kathy who told Linda that the table cloth was linen.  I missed the facial expression Linda made when she realized she had defiled a table cloth!  This was hilarious! Poor Linda freaked out and immediately, virtually slammed the bread basket over top of the drawing so that the servers could not see it.  When Linda got her food, she intercepted her plate so the server would not see the drawing.  She stealthily moved the bread basket to slide the food plate over the drawing.  After she finished her meal, she placed napkins down on the drawing and put her food plate on top of that to make sure the server, again, would not catch the her art work on the table cloth!  Once the server took the plate away, Linda immediately placed the bread basket back on top of  her art work.  Fortunately, the pencil art work she did should wash out easily!  

In case you missed here is Linda's dinner.  Chicken leg, potato I think, vegetables and you can't see it put there is also a fork there too!   She was thinking of EVERYTHING!  BTW in case you don't know Linda's daughter's are artists - this gene must have come from their father don't you think??  LOL - sorry Linda!!

This was the real food that finally arrived for Linda to eat.  It was a pulled pork sandwich.  This is what I had and this is what caused the noises in my car on the way home.

This was after the food plate was removed and how Linda left her place at the table when she left!!  Boy will they be surprised when the strip the table to see Linda's drawings!!!

I was talking about some of the shenanigans Brian and I participated in when were in Junior High, just last week with a friend of mine.  My particular memory happened in Mrs. Galera’s Spanish class.  The class was on the top floor in a room that had a big wood door in the back to separate it into two small rooms.  For some reason, Mrs. Galera went out in the hall and we were able to lock her out of her room.  Brian and I snuck out the back between the wooden doors and then through the other class room’s door.  Both Brian and I high tailed it down to the cafeteria as it was our lunch time.  Rumor filtered down that Mrs. Galera was coming down to the cafeteria to let us have it.  I am pretty sure she knew Brian was in on it, but I don’t think she knew I was in on it.  When I saw her coming into the cafeteria, I went across the cafeteria to some friends and then hid under their table until she left.  Brian may have gotten detention, but I think he just apologized to her and all was forgiven.  It also sticks in my mind that Brian was somehow related to her as well.  It was ironic that Brian would show up for the dinner after I was just talking about him last week and had not talked about him in years.   He came over and sat next to me for a while and we had a chance to catch up.    

That is Brian talking to Mel.  Keith and Paul are having a conversation in the fore ground.

People slowly left as it appeared that many were having trouble pulling away from their old and new friends.  I have to say that I have never heard of any class any where doing something like this.  For me, as I am running into old classmates, it brings back the memories of time spent in Jr High and High School.  Many of us, by the time we were in high school, had moved into different groups of friends and started to move into the direction we planned to go once we graduated.  We have lived our lives, had our children and raised them, and now able to seek out former friends.  

This is Karen - our famous bus driver from the Class of 76!

Once again the Spring-Ford class of 76 had a successful evening at the French Bistro in Royersford.  

Reunion thoughts days later ... what does this all really mean?

 Sunday night, after the reunion, I got my yearbook out before I went to bed.  I was still basking in the afterglow of one of the best get togethers I think I have ever experienced with my classmates. The exception for that may have been the night Susan (Flanigan) and I went to the Limerick diner after a reunion.  We sat there until the wee hours of the morning reflecting on our lives then and now.  You see Sue and I were connected from the time I started kindergarten at Spring City Elementary school until our senior year.  I think maybe even a bit after that as well.  She was one of my "on again and off again" girlfriends - sometimes she was my girlfriend and other times she was my girlfriend.  Like so many of our age we balanced back and forth on the high wire of friendships and relationships trying desperately not to fall off and land on our faces.  Over the years Sue and I had some very serious conversations about life - both hers and mine.

This reunion was different.  I think it was different for all of us, but it was especially different for me.  My high school experience was not really all that wonderful.  I guess some of that was my fault - I mean in the mid 70's being a male baton twirler was a kin to wearing a neon sign on your forehead that said "I need to be bullied."  I had some friends - sure - Priscilla and Rob were my lunch buddies everyday.  I was friendly with students in my classes like Pam, Mel, Eileen, Kathy, Ellen Beth, Amy, Lora, and of course others.  I remember being grateful that I survived high school and more grateful to leave it behind for good.  When I went to college (finally), I attend a small Christian Liberal Arts school on the mainline of Philadelphia called Eastern College (University).  By this time I had become a Christian and wanted to provide support to teenagers that I felt I lacked when I was a messed up high school student.  At Eastern I found acceptance that I had never felt at my high school.

Life moved on and I had to learn to move with it.  I moved to Florida, Boyertown, Philadelphia, Virginia, West Chester, Texas, and Lancaster.  This was from the time I graduated high school until now.  From each of those experiences I learned something new about myself that made me more the person I was slowly becoming.

More years passed and age was creeping up.  My mortality was becoming a reality and not a distant thought.  I was not going to live forever, I was not going to be 20, 30, 40 forever.


Suddenly, thanks to the advent of social media - many of us were getting connected again.  Because we all had our own personal epiphanies in life, we became wiser.  Now some of that no doubt has to do with the fact that with each passing year we get closer to leaving this mortal coil we call earth.  We have to make up for the time we may have lost because we did not know who we were in high school and now we have a better idea.  We have become tolerant, caring, understanding people.  Many have been married (some more than once) and have children.  We learn - we grow.  Suddenly it seemed like the right time to rekindle old friendships and maybe risk making some new ones to get to know the people we went to school with that were not in our social circles. Our world views are broader now allowing us to view people with an open mind that we did not have the maturity to do in high school.

So there I was - pouring through my yearbook and reading the quotes or thoughts we left about our plans for after high school.  We came to find out that some of us did not like those plans, found other interests, tried a variety of things and some even achieved the goals we set for our lives when we graduated.  Yes we all had our personal struggles on the road that is life.  I wondered what had happened to many of my classmates;  the ones that I felt had some affect on my life and who influenced me and who I had become.  Many of these people were not at the reunion.  I attempted to find some on Facebook that night, but many of them would require more searching than a quick look.

As the dust continues settle from what has been deemed a truly magical night, and their are plans in the works for another around the holidays; I have to wonder how this will all work.  We want to nurture these new friendships.  I hope that we all do.  I wonder if in a few weeks from now - once the dust has really settled and life begins to go on again, will we be able to nurture those relationships just made?  I hope so because Saturday night, as I said, for me was one of the very best high school reunion experience I have ever had.  The authenticity of my classmates and the topics we discussed really made me go back to my year book and wonder - wonder what it might have been like had we not all been so confused about who we were - and enjoyed and celebrated our differences and struggles.  Even if we are unable to sustain this momentum that we have found, my life is so much richer because I dared myself  a rare experience in life, that is to reconnect to those with whom I shared 6 - 12 of years of my life.  I came with anticipation and an open mind.  I decided that if I was not having fun I would make my excuses and leave.  Instead I was one of the last to leave and was prompted to get out my yearbook to think about how much I really missed some of the people who did not attend.  Our lives are clearly made richer by those that pass through it.

I hope our next "reunion" makes my life richer than it was Saturday night.

The Spring-Ford Class of 1976 Impromptu Reunion

The Class of 1976 Spring- Ford Golden Rams 

(ok so maybe not the best likeness he looks more happy than fierce)

I start working on this post as I have just downed 5 of Mel Schrader's Chocolate Peanut Butter sinful cookies!  Mel knows how to make a cookie :-)

So it is the day after the impromptu Class of 1976 reunion - not official but for how it came together well attended. Tom Adams, Paul Jefferies and I all agree that this was the best case scenario for a reunion. Relaxed and informal - 

Tom Adams (sorry Tom it's dark)                               Robin DiCola and Paul Jefferies 

Cheryl's home and pool area was the perfect spot for such a gathering and I am sure that everyone attending is so grateful that she hosted this event. 

Joyce Beck, Cheryl Carr, Robin DiCola                     The Pool (Jim Kelly bottom right)

We have all grown and changed and are much smarter - but we still have our quirks that made us who we were in high school : 

Liinda's laugh, Mel's sensibility, Eileen and Cheryl's sense of humor, Becky's deep and brooding insight, Tonya's out going personality, Janet's infectious smile, Carol's knowing looks,  Jim smile (smirk) knowing look (not sure how to describe it), talking to Paul and finding out that he should have his own comedy show, Bruce is as nice as he was in high school, Kathy's warmth and caring, Debbie's laid back attitude, Robin's loyalty and sense of humor, and Cheryl's amazing light.  I think I caught everyone I talked to, and sadly because of my own cooking horrors, I arrived later than planned.

I think as we talked yesterday we all realized that, because back then no one really talked about their home life out loud - not like today - that many of us were going through some really difficult times.  Interesting to realize that or maybe think that this why these people may have acted or treated people the way they did.  One classmate who terrorized me through Jr. High School - and I mean to the point of taking the long way around to avoid him or not going to the restroom at certain times because he might be there, decided that taking his own life was a better alternative to the "who knows what kind of hellish life" he may have been living.  We didn't find out until much later in our lives that our classmates had children we did not know about, marriages we did not know about, personal situations we did not know about, substance abuse issues, teachers who actually provided substances to their students because they thought it was cool.  Yes, it was a different time from today.  

Students are so much more forthcoming with their personal hells and are able to get help now.  Where was the help we needed when we needed it?  So maybe we all need a sense of forgiveness towards these people because we did not know the heavy loads they carried with them day in and day out.  Ours was not quite the Donna Reed generation - they are older than us - but we may have been part of the Leave it to Beaver generation - We believed that everything was ok.  Obviously it was not.

Because I am the kind of person that I am it, in retrospect, makes me sad that we were not able to better communicate with each other.  Or maybe feel safe enough or secure enough in ourselves to communicate with each other when some of us really needed to be able to be honest with our friends.  Yes we were young and invincible, but we quickly learned that we were not.  To my knowledge most generations have not been.  Some generations have been stronger than others but never invincible.  

Thankfully we were able to admit around a table yesterday that we were all insecure in who we were, who we wanted to be, much less how to get there.  Many of us may have been the first to attend college or even have had the option to attend college as many of our parents' did not.  My father had an 8th grade education and my mother was a graduate of secretarial school.  Surprising,that in my family, my siblings and I all went to college and all became teachers.  Perhaps, despite my own insecurities, confusion, and lack of real guidance from my parents I managed to make away for myself.  Many of us did not have that chance.  One class member shared that he had a baseball scholarship to Mansfield, but his own lack of direction coupled with his father's lack of valuing an education kept him from attending.  I am not sure you would see that happening as much today.  

Even talking about the loss of classmates to tragedies was difficult.  Remembering these special men and women and what they lost and those around them lost by being taken from us all to soon.  It is always sad when a teenager loses his or her life.  It is not how life is supposed to be.

 But at least there is the present and the future.   Hopefully these friendships, for some that have been reforged, will help provide that support that we lacked growing up. I liked what Mel said about being able to nurture some of these new - old friendships.  

I think of the Simon and Garfunkel Song - "Old Friends" - I know the words were really probably written to describe the later years of Simon and Garfunkel or what they observed walking through Central Park in New York.  The idea of two (men in this case) people meeting in the park for years and watching the years go by.  Who would have ever thought that at 70, they would still be meeting.  For me this suggests that yesterday was about old friends getting together again, for some, after many years.

So to all my classmates from the Class of 1976 Spring-Ford High School Golden Rams - I raise a glass (ok coffee cup) to toast a really wonderful evening with some "Old Friends!"

I leave you with the words to "Old Friends" and some pictures of the reunion 

Old friends,
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends.
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the 'round toes
On the high shoes
Of the old friends.

Old friends.
Winter companions,
The old men
Lost in their overcoats,
Waiting for the sunset.
The sounds of the city,
Sifting through trees,
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends

Can you imagine us
Years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.
Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years,
Silently sharing the same fear...

Sorry it is dark to tell who everyone is 

Mel and Cindie (Cindie if you saw this earlier - sorry)

Chris, Jim Kelly's wife, Jim

Linda and Darlene

Linda, Cheryl's Husband, Cheryl, Mel, Tom Eileen, Bill, Becky

Cheryl and her husband and Jim Kelly's wife (my guess is Cheryl is trying to post pictures on FB)

Robin, Tonya, and Eileen (presenting of course)

Becky and Cheryl

Jim and Joe

Joyce and Robin

Darlene and Chris 

Barb

Chris in better light

Tom, Jim, and Cheryl's Husband

another group shot

Jim's wife

Mel, Linda, Kathy, and Cheryl's famous Rotties

Joyce, Tom, Paul, Robin's back, and Chris???

Chris in a poorer light

Tonya

Debbie 

Tom, Cheryl's husband, Jim

Joyce and Eileen

Robin

Tom in center Jim in bottom right

Becky

Kathy

Linda and Lou

The pool or calm before the storm!

Bill and Mel 

Bill's ear and shoulder, Mel and Linda

                         

The early group 

  

The late group