Sunday, July 30, 2006
Bicentennial grads
America celebrated its 200th birthday the year they graduated. Last night the Class of 1976 graduates celebrated at the Elks Lodge with drinks, photo shoots, Woods smokies, hamburgers and chicken. The talk was flowing as fast as the bartenders could serve the drinks, and everyone seemed happy to share.
I've attended many class reunions over the years, and they all seem to have a recurrent theme. People are proud of their kids/grandkids, they like to "remember when," and many are happy to be alive. That was particularly the case last night with Sherry Spears who sent me a smile as she walked from the deck to an inside room. To that point, I had recognized almost every former student and many who never even sat in my classes.
When Sherry smiled, I smiled back, but I'm sure she could sense my hesitancy in calling out her name. It was obvious her short hairdo hadn't been by choice. I asked around who she was, but apparently I asked the wrong classmates, who apparently hadn't known her very well. Finally, I ran into her again, and asked her story. Sherry suffers from a very rare form of thyroid cancer.
"I'm supposed to be dead," she told me within the first couple of sentences. She was diagnosed in January and was not supposed to be around for the reunion. But, a very determined Sherry has opted for alternative naturopathic treatments and had just flown in from one of those treatments in Seattle yesterday. She vows that she'll be a poster child for her rare illness and kick it, and she was very happy to share her story last night.
I knew Sherry with long, flowing blonde hair, and when I think of Sherry, I see her riding a horse. She says she hasn't been on a horse this year because the treatments have kept her pretty busy. I was glad to have had the time to visit with her, as I did so many others during the evening.
There was Nancy Buck Neely, whom I'd seen at DiLuna's earlier in the day. She's excited about what her kids are doing and excited that she's going to be a first-grade teacher in Boise this fall. I knew Nancy through English class, drill team and yearbook. She still exudes that beautiful radiance and intellect that so characterized her as a teenager.
I sat with Pat and Candy Moon for dinner and got caught up on Moon family happenings, which include the knowledge that Pat's older sister and my good friend Chris will be spending part of next year in Sweden. She does research on the speech patterns of newborns and will apparently be taking her research activities there for a few months.
Naomi Marquez and I chatted about her mom Laura and just a bit about her vocation as an ordained pastor in Western Washington. It hardly seemed like ten years had passed since we last visited. Naomi definitely has that special quality of making one feel like you just saw her yesterday.
I heckled Toby Carlson, who apparently was heckling Lennie Hess on the alumni site for overlooking him on the invitation list. Apparently, word about the reunion got out to Toby because he was there having a nice conversation (I think) with Lennie when I saw him the first time.
I saw former drill team girls and former Monticola students and exchanged pleasantries with all. I also checked out a few snapshots of kids and grandkids and even gently harassed Mark Johnson's friends from Issaquah who's never seen the inside of Sandpoint High School or even the outside of Sandpoint until Mark invited them along for his class reunion. They were great sports and seemed like they were having as much fun as the grads.
It was a good night of visiting former students and listening to brief, fascinating snippets of what life has dealt them and what they've done to control their destinies since high school. Jennifer Calkins told me about her plans to spend the next year traveling America in her RV with her 11 and 13-year-old. Tami Chappell shared with me how she got started renovating and selling homes in the Bellevue area---complete with hammer and paint. Pat Opfermann gave me a big hug and told me he'd recently moved back to Sandpoint from LA. He said as long as he still has that three cents in his pocket, life is good.
And, speaking of the good life, I've said often that there's no better elixir than a class reunion for an old teacher. Seeing these people as they reconnect and rehash every ten years revs up one's juices and reinforces the pride of having touched someone's life in a positive way.
The bicentennial grads who reveled into the night at the Elks last night gave me another welcome dose of that pride.
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2 comments:
It was all that you describe and more. Thanks for takign the time to stop and visit.
Hi,
My name is Karen Zimmermann I am trying to locate my god mother named Sherry Spears (formerly Sherry Romeo.) I am not sure if this is the same Sherry, but I would love to find out more. Please email me at karenzim@gmail.com and let me know if you know anything. I live in NYC.
Thank you so much,
Karen
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