Reunion.

Well, I took Denise up to Ft. Worth last Saturday and we attended my 30th high school reunion at the Ridglea Country Club. Apparently, one of my old classmates is a member, so we got to have our reunion in some swanky surroundings.



This is a shot taken by one of the guys I went to school with, Roger Scott. He posted it on his Facebook site and I stole it. It's too good to leave alone. If you want to see my shots, click here and go over to FlickR. Anyway, Roger's shot It shows me leading Denise around, maybe over to the dance floor, our ID badges in place. Of course, everyone thought she'd gone to Southwest because of the badge. It was funny.



They had an awesome sound system there, and they played all the great tunes from the mid to late '70s. It was wonderful!



The country club folks put on an amazing feed, with several kinds of salad, veggies and meats, all prepared perfectly.



Most of the time was spent trying to see if I could recognise someone. There was a lot of that going around. At one point, looking around, I told Denise "These mother fuckers are too damn OLD to have been in my class!" She laughed.



I ended up meeting a guy there that I didn't know in school, but who lives in my area and works in education. Small world, eh? His name is Jeff Early. We compared notes for a while. Then I discovered an old friend who I hadn't seen in 30 years. We were leafing through an old annual, the Yee Haw, and I pointed to a picture of him and said something about how I wished he'd come. Someone else said "He did. He's right over there."

I was surprised to see him. Kendall Nix and I never really ran around. We had mutual friends, but we were around one another in class much of the time. He was quite a brain back then. The story was that he had a photographic memory. Not sure if that was true, but he was one of the guys I hung with who got really good grades, and who I was always comparing myself to. He and my friend Keith started school together in the first grade. They were both smart as hell, got really good grades, and both liked to rub it in a little. Turns out he worked for General Dynamics for a while after going to A&M, and now works at a bank.



That's Roger there, and his lovely wife. I really didn't know Roger in school, but we saw one another around enough that we knew who the other was. When we went to the pre-reunion dinner a few months back, he was about the only dude I knew. It had been a little over twenty years since we'd seen each other.



Here's a shot from the collection of another friend, Bill Boyer. That's Denise and I there on the right. I'm checkin' the camera to see if my shot's are comin' out or not. We're probably about to head back out on the dance floor.

Another guy I was surprised to see was a guy that lived across the street from me back then. His name is Coleman White. I used to hang around with his younger brother, being more comfortable back then, usually, with folks who were younger than I was. I went up to him and talked to him, but he didn't remember us at all. He said he'd been a carpenter for a long time, and that he was recently retired.



Here's another from Bills collection. We're probably about to dance, or were in the midst of mingling. I saw him with the camera and tried to get Denise to turn around, but he was too fast on the draw.



At one point, the Electric Slide came up. Denise loves that shit, but I have no clue, so I stood at the edge of the dance floor and took pictures. It was funny, like an old high school dance (not that I ever went to one). Most folks stood at the wall and a hand full of couples danced.

Another old friend, David Cavenah, didn't show up for the event. I contacted him through Classmates and by email. He said something about wanting to go, but couldn't make it. I'll have to try to get together with him at another time. He's important to me. He's the guy who took me to my first Gun Show. That's HUGE! I've got to buy him a drink and thank him for that.

So, it was a fun evening. I didn't recognize too many folks, and most of them didn't know me, but I wasn't expecting them to. The most fun came from looking at our old pictures from the Yee Haw as they were broadcast onto the screen. When a few folks saw my old picture, the light of recognition went off, but not too many times.

Every once and a while a Black face would come up. Denise was puzzled by that, making note that here weren't any Black people at the reunion. I just shrugged my shoulders and told her that most of them were bussed into the school back then, so they've probably got their own reunion goin' somewhere else. It's a shame, but what can ya do?

In the end, as people began to trail off, Denise and I made our way out, saying goodbye to the folks we'd sat next to or talked to. It was fun. I was sad to think of my buddy Keith, who isn't with us any more, but again, what are ya gonna do?

We hung around Ft. Worth Sunday morning, had breakfast at a Denny's and then walked around Hulen mall. Denise is busy buyin' baby clothes for little Payton. We drove back down I-35 and stopped at the outlet mall in Hillsboro. We were back home and waiting for the Cowboys to play football by the evening (Romo is such a dumbass!).

That's that. The library is closing here in San Saba, so I'm outta here. Cheers!