It was Friday night at the Boulevard Grill, the first step of the two-day, 50th anniversary reunion of the Johnstown High School Class of 1973, and a former classmate felt moved to make this observation: “I thought I’d see more canes.”
That is the crux of the 50th reunion, in which some classmates you haven’t seen in a full 50 years have gone from young and vibrant, to old and considerably less vibrant. I will say that a small contingent have covered the intervening 5 decades with little in the way of physical decline. They look, even act, much like they did way back then.
Others, such as me, have gained another person in weight, and could be recognized by others only after a quick glance at the name tag and high school yearbook photo affixed to my chest.
I had not attended one of these class reunions, held every five years, for a couple of decades. Life and job duties had intruded.
The commitment to attend this year’s example was made two summers back, when one of the small group of dedicated classmates who labor to make these things happen, hit me up at a festival for a promise to bring myself and a friend of mine and fellow classmate to this 50th anniversary shindig.
I told him then I would do my best and I ended up making it, along with my wife. The friend did not, having been rendered immobile by a stroke in the intervening months. I tried to convince his wife to urge him to come anyway, but the answer was a firm no.
On a brighter note, gold is the official gift for 50th wedding anniversaries and I found it somehow a fitting omen that on Friday, in a potential nod to our golden reunion, gold soared $60 or so an ounce.
That this reunion opened on a Friday the 13th didn’t impact the event adversely, either.
I scoured the Internet and found precious little analysis on the subject of high school reunions. But I had discussed the topic with many former classmates during this particular event.
It long has occurred to me that the early reunions are of the most interest. The five-year is a get-together after most who intended on going the college route, would have graduated. This was a chance to check up on their career progress; the same for those who bypassed college.
When the 10-year reunion rolls around, there have been plenty of marriages, children, even some broken marriages. This is a chance to compare notes with middle age looming.
The 15th-year reunions are more of this, with the notable sidelight that we are getting together having been out of the school system longer than we’d been in it (factoring in kindergarten, but not too many failing years).
In smaller school districts, kids are largely together in the same buildings their entire careers. Not so in the Greater Johnstown School District of our experience. There were scads of elementary schools and three junior highs for a time.
Some of our classmates knew each other for only two school years at the high school. But that didn’t dull their enthusiasm for the reunion.
Part of that Internet research produced the sort of conflicting analysis for which the digital repository is notable. Reunions either are, or are not, holding their popularity. They are, or aren’t, more popular with women.
But some seemed to agree that there is a cycle, with the early reunions being popular, as are the latter ones, such as the 50th.
Let us face it, to borrow a line favored by the late Penn State coach Joe Paterno, When you reach a certain age, even buying green bananas is an act of faith, that faith being you still will be around to eat them when they ripen.
With the thought in the back of many heads that there might be few such reunion opportunities as these in the future, the ballroom of the Holiday Inn was packed Saturday for the more formal part of the celebration.
Many stories were told, pictures taken, and promises made not to be out of touch for as long moving forward.
Our class also will be looking to fold into the all-year school reunions becoming popular around these parts, as a way to bridge the five-year gaps.
These same dedicated types from our class still, however, plan to have a 55th reunion, maybe even a 60th.
I’m rooting for them and, by extension, for me.
As I told several people Saturday, I had high expectations for this event, and they were exceeded. I hope I’m around for the 55th.
Sam Ross Jr's site 