In 1974 in The American Condition, Richard Goodwin wrote that the last true community many Americans experienced was their high school class.
Today about 25 members of the Palmerton High School, class of 1960, got together at the Palmerton Hotel for a mini-reunion. Nothing formal, no big deal, just show up and socialize.
We did spend time talking about our health problems and our operations. We are old. On the other hand, it was obvious that we like each other. In 1960, when we graduated, we were divided into business, industrial arts, college prep, and general. There were some cliques. There were some rich and poor.
In 1960 boys and girls weren’t friends. They “went steady.” If you were gay, you faked heterosexuality, or you didn’t even admit it to yourself. Now nobody cares about those things.
We not only get along, we enjoy each other’s company. We like being together. We don’t have too many years left, and we are aware of that, and we like to spend some of the time we have left with people who knew us when we were young and had our lives ahead of us. We were and are a community.
The class of '72 is having their 45th reunion next month. We were also divided up into sections and we also had cliques, but the years have erased most of those. We always have a good time when we have reunions every 5 years. I feel sorry for those classes that don't get together like our does. They're missing out on some real fun and good memories.
ReplyDelete45th? So young.
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