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Linda Newton (Gilbert)
Dear Classmates!
WELL, as “they” say (whoever “they” are) it’s all over but the shoutin’ (whatever that means:) I know personally I was very sad on that Sunday afternoon after we all said our last goodbyes from a wonderful weekend together at our “50th” class reunion.
Now that we have had a little time to come down from such a wonderful weekend, I want to let all of you know how great it was to see you after all these years. As a member of the committee, that in itself was very special to me as we were all able to connect again, pick up where we had left off so many years ago and actually became close friends all over again. I am going to really miss those monthly meetings, all the phone calls and all the excitement of when it all finally came together. If we said it once, we said it a thousand time ~ “we must make this a special,memorable reunion” and the pressure was on as we were so thrilled that so many responded and decided to come, especially those from out of town.
Talk about butterflies, I really had them right before the Friday night event and it wasn’t because we were not ready for the party, it was because we were finally ALL going to be together again and I was a little scared I wouldn’t recognize someone. A very special moment for me was when Mary Faith walked in the shelter house Friday afternoon with Mike Reynolds and surprised us; lots of giggling and the tears began! The butterflies landed again when I did my best to present the class memorial tribute. I had not really given it any thought that it would make me sad once I was in front of all of you. It meant a great deal to me to honor those classmates who are “gone, but not forgotten!”
There are so many people to thank for so many things but I do want to start by thanking our committee for coming together as a team and putting on a pretty darn good reunion! We also had some outside assistance from spouses and I want to name a few in particular. Thank you Becky Harrop for the adorable scottie dogs that were the center pieces Friday evening; a huge labor of love went into them. Pam Perry and Becky both showed up to help decorate and tear down on the weekend events also. A very special “thank you” to Meredith Elliott Curry for giving up so much time with her significant other, Richard Hays, while he burned the midnight oil working on the website, yearbook and all the other duties that he felt necessary to make our reunion a success. Thank you also to Terry Ready for always offering time and support and helping to set up for the Friday night event. Guess I better thank my Gary for listening to all my ideas and talking all hours of the night getting his opinion when he was trying to watch the news or catch some zzzz’s. A very special thank you to my daughter, Jill, for taking time away from her family (especially my grandsons) and taking so many party pics; we cannot wait to share them with you on a video very soon. I know many of you were taking pictures and we are looking forward to adding those to our video and on the website. Thank you to Larry Davison and Tom Bayless who were also taking pictures and videos throughout every event. I hope I have not forgotten anyone who played a role in making our reunion such a success.
I am so thankful for our website so there is no excuse for us not to stay in touch. We are going to continue the 2nd Friday breakfasts too so would love to see those that can make it.
I apologize for the lengthy email but I am so happy and excited that we are all back in touch again and am looking forward to sharing stories with you.
Regards,
Linda Newton Freeman
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From sunny Topeka
