Thursday, September 1, 2016

A Month of Reunions

Champion High School Class of 1956 60th Reunion
The month of August was a very busy month for me. I was on a panel for indie-published authors at a library in Cleveland. I was interviewed about my books on a TV Station, WCTV. Then there was a retired teachers annual picnic, and an annual sisters day, my sister-in-law has for my two local sisters and me every year. The biggest events were two reunions at my house which took a lot of time preparing for in addition to cleaning and hiding some of the stuff in my library/dining room/ office.
Mingling or getting hors d'oeuvres

The first one was our 60th class reunion from Champion High School that was two days. The first day was on Saturday evening, August 13th at a banquet hall.  I was one of a committee of three who planned it. Out of a class of 57, there were twenty class members who came plus eleven spouses. Of course, some of the class has passed on, and we honored them that night. Some were in no condition to travel, including one who’d had a stroke a few days before, and a few who have never come. There were also those we couldn’t locate who’d changed their last names and moved away.

For those who came, we had a wonderful time catching up on what’s going on. We used to have our reunions every five years, but because of our ages, we now have them every two years. There were a few who hadn’t been to one of our reunions in years, and a few who never missed any before, but this time didn’t respond to letters, emails or phone calls so we don’t know what happened to them. 
He was a great entertainer.




The food was delicious, and the conversations enjoyable, but the highlight of the evening was Elvis Presley. Of course, the committee knew about this, since Jim Tallman, who was sort of in charge, knew the guy who portrayed Elvis from his church. Everyone enjoyed him, as well as his wife who played a keyboard, and his son on drums. In fact, people from a rather noisy wedding in a room next door, slipped in to listen to Elvis. He not only did a wonderful impersonation, but  he filled us in on all sorts of facts about Elvis and changed his outfit several times during his performance to match the period of the music from Elvis’s first days until his later days.”








Just a few of the people there in my living room

The next day, I had the class picnic at my house. It was an off and on rainy day, so it was held inside. My house isn’t very large, but there are always fewer people who come to the next day picnics because if they’re from out of town, they often have other family to visit, or even if they’re local, sometimes they have other commitments. There were about seventeen here, I think, and almost everyone brought something to add to the meal.





The woman on the right & the man in black are mystery lovers.

The thing about having something like this in my home is that others who have never been here and mostly know me only from our high school days or the brief reunions now got to know me better. Almost everyone was fascinated by my large collection of books, and one couple, who had not been to a reunion in years were really fascinated, especially when they found out I wrote mysteries.  A few already knew that and have read them. This couple absolutely loved mysteries, and that’s about all they read. They were so excited about knowing a real mystery author that I had to autograph the first book in my series and give it to them. Later a friend I knew from elementary grades through high school, and her husband stayed a little longer to catch up. She told me she’d read most of my books and really enjoyed them, so I autographed the next book in the series she hadn’t read yet and gave that to her.

My cousin Jack, a deceased cousin Tom, my ex, & Uncle Bill.


The following Sunday, I had the Jones Family reunion here. My Uncle Bill looks forward to it. He’s the only living sibling of my mother and is 94 years old and will be 95 next January. He’s still mowing his yard, but his kids took his car keys away from him a year or so ago, and I can see why. He’s unsteady on his feet and a little forgetful. 






Most of  the women congregated at one table.  
There weren’t a lot of people there.  That side of the family was never as large as the other side of my family.  But everyone enjoyed themselves, and there were some there we haven’t seen since the last reunion so there was a lot of catching up to do. Several weeks before the reunion, I mentioned to my sister-in-law that when Uncle Bill passed on I probably wouldn’t have the Jones reunions again, but she objected strongly saying we needed to keep in touch with all those remaining in the Jones family. So I will, and for the next class reunion in two years, I’ll have the picnic for that reunion, too. God willing.

 
My great-grandchildren looking for goldfish and frogs
Do you go to class reunions? How about family reunions?

What do you like best about those you go to?

13 comments:

  1. I love the pictures, especially the ones with the great-grandchildren! They are at that magical age for playing in the woods. Sounds like you had a very busy August!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I did, Kait. I had the littlest one, four year old Brodie, one day last week while his
    mother was back in college for the first day of classes this semester, and his sister had gone back to school in 2nd grade. We had a lot of fun, but I got almost nothing else accomplished.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You certainly had a busy month! It's wonderful that you take such an active part in these reunions and gatherings.

    Great pictures!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I’ve only gone to two high school class reunions so far, my tenth and forty-fifth. I have the fiftieth on the calendar, God willing and the crick don’t rise. We can hold our family reunion in a studio and have room for the pets. Counting liberally, we Jacksons have nine in our family.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a busy time you've had! Love all the photo of the little ones. Sounds like you need some time to just put your feet up and recharge.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Busy summer! Love your photos, especially the ones taken at your home. Back to writing now?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you, KM. I'm hoping to settle down a little this month.

    Jim, I hope you make the 50th class reunion because it's interesting to see what has happened with fellow graduates, what they've been doing and do they look as good as you do. :-) Nine is not a very large family. I have more than that just with children, grand-children, siblings, nieces and nephews.

    Shari, I'm heading out to California soon to visit my daughter. Unlike most people, I don't mind the airplane trips because I can get a lot of reading done. My daughter has a lot planned, but also some down time, too.

    Thanks, Margaret. Yes, I've been rather lax on the latest book in the series I've started because so many other things have interrupted me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. When I graduated from high school, our class officers were responsible for heading up the first reunion. From then on, the torch was passed to other volunteers. My kids didn't have class officers. Their student organization wasn't typical. I asked them how they would have reunions? Evidently, they don't. My son should have had two already since he's been out of high school for ten years, and my daughter, one. I think they use Facebook to commune rather than seeing each other face-to-face. Looking at Gloria's pictures, they have lost a great opportunity.

    Glad you had a wonderful time, Gloria.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks, E.B. I think our class officers may have been in charge for the first one, too, but after that it's been volunteers - some volunteers did it for some time. I agree they are missing something because as the years pass, all cliques seem to disappear and friends are made with people who one was never close to in high school. What is really interesting is finding out that those super popular students often didn't do as well as the so called nerds.

    ReplyDelete
  10. How great that your family gets together.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes, it is, Warren. Often my siblings who don't live more than 50 miles apart have sibling nights with dinner and maybe a movie. I hope you're having a good time.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've never been to a class reunion. Unfortunately my parents moved at the beginning of my senior year so the high school I graduated from is not the one I'd like to go back to. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  13. LD, I'm sorry you couldn't at least go to he high school reunion where you spent most of your years. I think that's a problem with kids who have a parent or parents in the military, too.

    ReplyDelete