Tanya Writes About the High School Reunion

Oh, yes. We were cheerleaders, photographers, majorettes, editors, athletes, bandmembers, choristers, friends. We gathered together last weekend at a beautiful harborside hotel after all these gentle decades. (I will not reveal how many decades; suffice it to say folks displayed photos of their grandkids this time, not their offspring LOL.)

Last Friday, I still felt so ill my hero said, Maybe you better stay home. I don't mind going by myself.

I giggled back. What? Do you can hook up with the Homecoming Queen again? Besides, I reminded him. We had a hotel room, and I could take a nap if I needed to.

But I didn't. I stayed on my feet and held my own. Maybe it was happy memories, fun people, great music. Wine. I still sneezed and coughed (the cough was the worst, it came upon me Friday...after I went to the doctor on Thursday of course!) but everybody was hoarse by Sunday brunch.

The best thing about it: Everybody is still recognizable. Although hair colors have changed...as well as the amounts on top LOL.

Another best thing: A bunch of the old herd reads my books! Yowza. In fact, my business cards were the ones making the rounds for everybody else's e-mail addys and phone numbers. So hopefully my rep will spread even more.

The room was beautifully chosen, French doors opening onto the marina and beautiful springtime breeze blowing through all the well-placed windows. No big-box impersonal ballroom for us. The co-chairman Phyllis set me to work on the centerpieces. So fitting. Seashell-trimmed straw chargers with glass hurricanes, candles set in sand, surrounded by more shells and orchids. Perfect.

A hospitality suite beforehand...and dinner rocked. Salmon. I hadn't eaten much for days but this went down so easy.

Two teachers came. Our music teacher directed those of us who'd been in the choirs in the Alma Mater. (The committee had wisely printed out the lyrics again.) I had to tell our popular poetry teacher about the Williams Carlos Williams poem we studied that has never left me. The one about the plums you were saving for breakfast. Wow.

Poignant: A little memorial to those of us who now live with God. Including my twin brother Mike who will be a blog all his own...he left me last Christmas and I can barely breathe sometimes.

We had alums there all the way from Manhattan, Chicago, Minnesota, Oregon. I hit up the Manhattanite right away. Amazingly, I know right where she lives...near the UN. (We'd strolled their one night during our trip last June, struck by the charming residential architecture.)

One buddy, the class shutterbug, couldn't attend, but he sent tons of snapshots he'd taken over the years. I took a few pix from the collage to frame. As my hero told our kids, Mom looks about nine.

The former mayor of L.A. emcee'd. We girls danced in swarms. (What is it about guys who won't dance with their ladies?) And a great time was had by all.

Oh, by the way. The Homecoming Queen wasn't able to make it back here from New Orleans...she'd just been out in June visiting her family.

We missed her.

But three of the four princesses made it!

And the grand conclusion was, we don't dare wait ten more years to get together again. There's already a committee afoot for a five-year.

January 10 has already been carved in stone for a mini-gathering. Golf for the guys, bike ride for the girls. Followed by wine and whatever.

Well, enough reminiscing. I better get something done.

Tanya Writes About The College Directory

My hero and I went to high school and college together but were not sweethearts either place. Not until that Christmas party...when our gazes met across a crowded room. First date: Deliverance

The rest is history. Two kids, one grandson. One black Lab left....We've got a high school reunion coming up, but kinda fun was receiving in the mail on Friday our college directory listing everybody who'd ever gone there for the last 120 years.

Of course the only years we concentrated on were our own.

"Hey, does it say what happened to that long haired guy who played Moby Grape and, I think packed weed?" my hero asked.

I paged around. "Yeah. He's a minister with a big family."

Wow, to quote our grandbaby.

Three guys I dated are singletons. Of course the directory doesn't specifically mention divorve or widowhood. I know for sure they haven't wasted their lives pining over me LOL. But I hope they're not lonely.

Three girls I kinda knew have died. Scary. Of course I see us all in my mind as beautiful young co-eds. But I wasn't ready to read about folks my own age having crossed the bridge...

During the directory's inception, alums had the option to submit personal info. I took the opportunity to submit a little bio touting my family and books, and I included that picture of me at Walden Pond. But most of our classmates --other than me and that minister-- didn't. I would have liked to see more pix of the old herd. See if they're aging as well as I am LOL.

But poring over the directory, I couldn't help but go back and relive those four years whenever I'd see a familiar yet long-forgotten name. I recall Bill my physics lab partner. I was an art major and he a wrestler and neither of us took the class all that seriously...and almost helped each other fail. I remember Steve taking me to a movie and the best Italian restaurant around. In those dates, you dressed up for dates.

Trish invited me to visit in Connecticut and was a wonderful host. It was a rainy springtime, and two ducks, blown off course, took up residence in her swimming
pool. She named them after my parents.

Anne has a PhD. in physics, and yes, she helped me pass that infamous class.

There are too many tales too boring to anybody else but me. Those were profound years for a suburban LA girl, going on my first-plane ride to an ivy-covered brick college in a small country town with cobbled streets. I remember walking everywhere...my father refused to let me take a car to a state where it snowed. Autumn was just like a cliche--falling leaves, plaid skirt and penny loafers and football games on nights so cold you bundled up like Eskimos. Hopefully with a cute guy at your side.

I've seen snow since...but never Springtime. Not like that, with lilacs of every color from white to pink to lavender to deep dark blue scenting the world and infecting me with Spring Fever so real I can still feel it.

Oh those were the days!

I don't miss them, though. I like the way my life has turned out. Other than that journey my hero and I just found ourselves taking. I could have done without that. But there are purposes to everything, and we'll figure it out someday.

For now...I'll just hobble down Memory Lane for a bit, hear those fallen leaves crunch under my loafers and wait for that first snowflake to land on my navy blue coat.

Just like way back when.