Class of '64

When a person reaches 50 years of having graduated from high school, there is a strange feeling of WHAT THE HECK?  A week before my class reunion, I took a good look at myself in the mirror and pondered over my face now and then. My eyelids were drooping. I checked to see what hairs should be plucked. I convinced myself the gray could pass for blonde so I didn’t schedule a tint. I knew the dark shadows under my eyes could be somewhat covered but my once full lips were like two straight lines across my face.  There were a few brown spots and a strange protrusion on my cheek that my dermatologist said wasn’t cancer.

As far as my body was concerned….well that is somewhat the same story.  I had planned to lose weight before my reunion even though in promising myself to do so, I knew I wouldn’t.  I probably was about 110 pounds in 1964. Take out the nine now and you get the picture.  I bought an outfit to try to camouflage the outstanding flaws.  I had a fresh pedicure and figured I couldn’t improve anything in a week’s time.  I should have scheduled an eyelid lift a year ago and maybe a tummy tuck.  

Class reunions are a reminder of how much I loved high school, but I know not everyone had a great high school experience. My class contained 80 students and I knew everyone.  I had attended kindergarten through twelfth grade with about 25 of them.  We probably knew each other too well.  I wasn’t the most popular girl in the class but I had a good circle of friends and tried to be nice to everyone.

I was in just about any activity the school offered from the drama club to Future Homemakers of America.  I played clarinet in the band and was a cheerleader all except my junior year when the band director said we had to choose between band and cheer leading.  When he moved on my twelfth grade year, I tried out for cheer leading again and was successful.  But even with a new director, at football games I had to run into the school and change into my band uniform in order to march in the half time show and then change again to cheer the second half of the game.  

For the most part we were a good group of kids.  We had a lot of dances in those days. Usually after games I would be with my friends at the Shelby Pavilion where dances were held every Friday night. Shelby kids were on one side and Hart kids on the other and anyone from Pentwater and elsewhere usually stood at the end by the door. Have to say I can’t remember mingling too much with kids from other schools although we knew kids from Hart and often dated their boys and our boys dated Hart girls.  

I think most people approach their class reunions with a bit of trepidation. Maybe I enjoyed this one so much because not much matters anymore about looks or status.  We are who we are and most of my classmates are now retired.  I saw some classmates that hadn’t been to a reunion in years or ever. Those who were quiet in high school and were at the edges of my life have some of the most interesting stories.  

Reunions take us back to share memories of the good, bad and ugly. There was a lot of laughter and Jack and Ann Cheever were wonderful hosts who shared their house and beautiful lawn for our 45th and now our 50th.  

We lost a classmate our senior year, Don Cole, in an auto accident. Since graduation we have lost many more classmates.  A slide show devised by our class president, Jean Wilson Naramore, showed snapshots of what we looked like back in our high school days. Such babies really. The senior pictures of those we have lost were also shown.  

Who will be there when our 55th comes around is anyone’s guess.  I heard someone say, “But we’re not 70 yet.”  It’s so wonderful to think we are still young.  I really believe that reunions keep us that way. Reconnecting with the past reminds me of who I was then and how far I’ve come.  I plan to be around for the next class reunion in order to share  memories of that sweet short period of time in my life when we were all so innocent and full of hope.  

Then....1964

Last September in Norway.

Class of '64 fifty years later.