113 out of about 450 graduates attended my 40th high school reunion. I was not one of them. I went to San Francisco instead.
I was going to go to the reunion, and even had airline reservations to Pittsburgh, and hotel accomodations all lined up, but my wife was not very enthusiastic about going, and it was a long flight, which I didn't want to do either, in light of the fact we were going to Italy two weeks after that, so we opted for San Francisco instead.
Now I had a great time in San Francisco, and don't regret going, but after reviewing some of the happenings, at and before the reunion, (my class has a website), and hearing from some of the people who did go, I felt as though I missed something.
I hadn't been back to Pittsburgh since my father died in '87, and I would have liked to see how things have changed since then. It would also have been great to see so many of the people I grew up with, when life was a lot less complicated, to reminisce about the good old days!
What caught my attention on the website was a list of those from the class of '66 who were known to have died (there are still 150 classmates that are unaccounted for). I had seen the list before on the website, and never gave it much thought, but now that I didn't attend the reunion, looking at those 36 names, many of which I knew, struck a nerve. And all this, even after never having given much thought (with a few of exceptions) to the where abouts of any of my classmates, deceased or otherwise, since graduation and moving away from Pittsburgh.
I will eventually get over this feeling, and hopefully I'll even be a better person for it, but one thing is for certain, I won't miss the next reunion!
I was going to go to the reunion, and even had airline reservations to Pittsburgh, and hotel accomodations all lined up, but my wife was not very enthusiastic about going, and it was a long flight, which I didn't want to do either, in light of the fact we were going to Italy two weeks after that, so we opted for San Francisco instead.
Now I had a great time in San Francisco, and don't regret going, but after reviewing some of the happenings, at and before the reunion, (my class has a website), and hearing from some of the people who did go, I felt as though I missed something.
I hadn't been back to Pittsburgh since my father died in '87, and I would have liked to see how things have changed since then. It would also have been great to see so many of the people I grew up with, when life was a lot less complicated, to reminisce about the good old days!
What caught my attention on the website was a list of those from the class of '66 who were known to have died (there are still 150 classmates that are unaccounted for). I had seen the list before on the website, and never gave it much thought, but now that I didn't attend the reunion, looking at those 36 names, many of which I knew, struck a nerve. And all this, even after never having given much thought (with a few of exceptions) to the where abouts of any of my classmates, deceased or otherwise, since graduation and moving away from Pittsburgh.
I will eventually get over this feeling, and hopefully I'll even be a better person for it, but one thing is for certain, I won't miss the next reunion!
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