To my classmates:

LIFE HAPPENS TO US WHILE WE ARE NOT LOOKING

It is hard to believe that we now look across 5 decades to our high school graduation. We were so young then. Most of us were seventeen or eighteen years old. And now we are older than we may have ever imagined so long ago.  Hopefully we have gained 5 decades of perspective and wisdom since 1967.

As we left Berea High School so long ago, some of us simply went on to another school, some of us joined the workforce, some of us served our country, some of us got married and created a family, but all of us continued our education in the study of life. The decisions we made for ourselves or those decisions that were made for us would presage what we would do for the decades to come.  When we are not thinking about it, life happens.

After high school graduation in 1967 we assembled again as a class about 10 years later. It was great to see everyone. We hadn’t changed physically very much but we were all heading in the directions that would dictate much about our lives. We ate and drank and danced, but when a list of our classmates who had left this earth was read, we were all confronted with our own mortality. Life happens.

Our twenty-fifth reunion in 1992 was like entering a time warp. We were all in the middle of our lives. Careers and children were the dominant topics as we all caught up with the diaspora from Berea High so long ago. But, while we had now changed physically by adding a few pounds and a few gray hairs, we noticed that the reunion acted as catalyst to take us back to our high school days of passing notes and whispering little secrets. The list of those who had passed on grew longer. Life happens.

At our fortieth reunion, everyone was more relaxed and it was a jovial crowd. The best line of the night was when recognizing the class member with the most grandchildren and the class member who traveled the furthest, someone shouted out: “who takes the most pills”. Positively prescient as talking about health is becoming a major preoccupation of our age group, just as it had for generations before us. Life happens.

So now we arrive at our fiftieth reunion. When we were so young so long ago, few of us could have imagined living this long. We are older, grayer, heavier and the smooth skin and the luxuriously thick hair that we had 50 years ago is significantly diminished. Some of us walk with a limp or use a cane or walker or a wheeled chair. But, we are survivors. And we come together to see the people who, despite only a few years together,  helped us to form the personalities, the philosophies and the behaviors that gave us the lives that we each experience today. Life happens. Where did the time go?

Ray Androne

Class of 67