"It takes a certain amount of guts to go to your class reunions." --- Dick Cavett, renowned American television talk show host.
In the spring of 1982, beloved educator and friend Anita Schilling gifted me a book of journalist Jim Metcalf's poems, entitled "Please To Begin." I doubt there could be a more perfect treasure for a graduating senior. In another of Metcalf's works, which I promptly purchased for my library - "Jim Metcalf's Journal" - there is a piece he penned entitled, "Class Reunion." Back in college, it seemed so far in the future, that it would never come to fruition.
But when my 40th arrived lickety-split, I reconsidered Metcalf's meticulous words which, advising against going, finally registered. Notwithstanding the risk - of ruining my remembrance of people, as they once were - I accepted, with alacrity, the invite from the Reunion Committee comprised of Angela Johnson, Rebekka Stafford, Caryn Crain, and Robert Bergin.
A legion of graduates - the Bowling Green Class of 1982 - gathered with gusto Friday, July 8 at the Southern Hotel in Covington, where we celebrated the fast passage of forty years. In that number were Darleen Warren, Marilyn McMillan, Kent Passman, Angela Johnson, John Watts, Dr. Yancey Peterson, Ronnie "Bug" Schilling, Marcia Case, Becky Moseley, Brad Crain, Caryn Crain, Ellen Givens, Robert Bergin, Rebekka Stafford, Kenny Kinlaw, Marsha Carter, and yours truly. It felt exactly as author C. S. Lewis described, "Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different?"
We lamentably honored the memory of those who have gone before us, succumbing either during school or thereafter - my friend Vanda Simmons (Miss B.G.H.S. and Most Athletic 1982) had seen to that. In that number were Preston Alford, Charlotte Martin, Stephanie Miller (Most School Spirit 1982), Robert Jerry Johnson, and David Lancaster. Ours is not to reason why.
Unable to join us Friday night were classmates Teresa Ball, Paul Bienvenu, Marianna Burris, Theresa Byrd Jenkins, John Mark Fussell, Brent Hoggatt, Rachel Holmes, Craig McElveen, Kelli Moore, Vanda Simmons, April Stogner, William Joffrion, Jay Warren, and Price Yates.
Notwithstanding a raft of correspondence and calls through the years, it had been a good twenty years since I coincided with many of my classmates. Our last reunion of the Bowling Green "BG" class of 1982 had been our twentieth, back in 2002 at Friends Restaurant in Madisonville. My husband Rodney and I fondly recalled the curiosity of our then ten-year-old daughter Betsy, peppering us with questions about our evening out without her. This was in addition to the interrogation of my mother, who was residing with us at that time and who also wanted to know everything.
My, how things have changed. Empty nesters, my better half and I have no one at home to account to - liberating, however unwelcome. So, free as birds, Rodney and I booked a room at the Southern and stayed out until what, for a couple on the downhill side of fifty, seemed like all hours. Felicity, all around.
We kicked the evening off, with classmate Becky Moseley and husband Dean Thomas in the Cypress Bar before the four of us made our way to the Camellia Ballroom. There, we reconnected with the BG Class of 1982, finding commonality and catching up on news. Darleen Warren and I share a love of history and historic preservation while Marcia Case and I deal in antiques. Rebekka Stafford (Most Talented 1982) updated me on her beautiful daughters while Courtney Simmons Schilling (Best Dressed 1981) and I discussed her handsome sons. And there was football talk with her husband Ronnie "Bug" Schilling (Mr. B.G.H.S. 1982) and Brad Crain which my husband Rodney (Most Handsome 1980) relished. What he perhaps liked best was Brad had dismissed from memory a short-lived high school coach. Rodney really envied him that.
Then, there was some company talk with both John Watts (Best Dressed 1982) and Rodney working for Entergy. He and Kenny Kinlaw (Most Talented 1982), an engineer in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, also talked shop as did classmate Caryn Crain (Best Dressed 1982) and I (Most Likely to Succeed 1982). She is a paralegal, and I am an attorney. Ellen Givens, born January 1965, and I, born December 1964, were the youngest and next youngest (losing my friend Robert Jerry Johnson, I slipped into second place), respectively.
Conversation continued with Bug (Most Athletic 1982) updating me on the time capsule we buried as BG students; I was astonished to learn that the location has shifted. At dinner, Dean Thomas, BG Class of 1976, regaled us with more tales from the past. He was a member of the Bendale Turks, a cool group of guys back in the day at BG. It came as no surprise to me to later learn that Dean was voted the Friendliest 1976. Affable as ever, he does the title proud, over four decades later.
Coming to the reunion from afar were Robert Bergin from Mississippi and Angela Johnson (Most Beautiful 1982) and Marilyn McMillan (Friendliest 1982) from Texas. While Robert and Angela were busy as beavers - handling the details and coordinating the memorable reunion - Marilyn talked with me about my column, which she kindly reads at her home in Austin. As she explained, her late father, beloved local veterinarian Dr. Aubrey McMillan, gifted her a subscription to "The Era-Leader" which she has continued. And Marilyn confided that on occasion she mails copies of my column to Angela in Dallas. I would wager that she'll mail this one.
Speaking of out of state, there was banter about a future get-together in Arizona. For the record, I'm not going to Phoenix, a proclamation already proven. One of my dearest friends in the world, my former neighbor (two doors down) Jean Harris, who lives in the picturesque suburb of Goodyear with her husband Dan (a retired bigwig at Chevron), has tried for years to lure me there. I've been to Arizona once, to the Grand Canyon and to Winslow - you know, "a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona" (Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey for the Eagles) - and I'm not inclined to return if for no other reason than that dry desert climate doesn't do my skin any favors.
Back to the land I love - Louisiana - Marsha Carter and I made the short journey to Covington from Mandeville where for decades we have maintained the friendship that started with our families, going back generations. And Rodney had a blast counting the grass blades at our Washington Parish farm with Kent Passman (Most School Spirit 1982), who as a kid had kindly mowed the capacious place for my grandparents - for 50 cents an hour, 75 cents if he provided the mower! My Ga-ga and Pa-pa loved Kent.
Finally, talk with Dr. Yancey Peterson was scant as he arrived late from Roswell, New Mexico, but more on that to follow next week in Part 2.
•Note: Maiden names, for the most part, were used.
