Celebrations at North Kansas City High School, 1961

Am I ready for this?  I have mixed feelings about it all.  I look forward to connecting with old friends–but I have trouble with the idea of my former friends being “old”–not that they are, but let’s face it:  I’m gonna see how much older they are and then I’ll have to admit that I am too!  Rats. You can go into a group of people younger than you and feel like one of them. Or you can go into a group of people older than you and think how young you are, But when you get with a crowd of folks the same age, you’re stuck with it–you have to accept your age.  I’ve never been tempted to lie about my age.  “It’s just a number, after all.”   (How often have you heard that one?)  I’m happy enough to own up to it, but now I reckon I’m gonna have to face up to it!  We’ve been out of high school fifty bloody years.

The first opportunity to connect will be this evening–decorating the float for the Homecoming Parade tomorrow.  I’m happy enough to help decorate the float, but I honestly can’t see myself riding, or walking beside it in the parade.  Friends back home have urged me to practice my “royal wave”–ha ha–and get into it.   I don’t think so.  The jury is still out on that.  A wee part of my brain is whispering to me “You’ve come all this way–get amongst it, for pete’s sake.”

Tomorrow morning (Fri) we are invited to attend the high school Homecoming assembly before the parade.  A fun idea in some respects, but would I be ready for all that teenage energy–and hormones–at 8:30 in the morning?  A good question…

I’m trying to imagine my own reaction fifty years ago to a group of people who had graduated fifty years earlier. Oh dear.

The next question is, Do I really want to attend the football game?  I haven’t been to a high school football game in, well, fifty years.  How can that be?  I’m very curious to know if/how it has changed in that time.  I’ll report back to you about how a Homecoming football game now compares to one then.

Well, folks, as I get myself psyched up for this clambake, I’ll try to think not only as a participant, but with a ‘reporterly’ eye as well.  It’s a big deal, after all, a 50 year reunion.  Stay tuned!        MM