Last weekend I attended my 45th High School Reunion, the Class of 1977 in Logansport, Indiana…the Logan Berries. We played football in the berry patch and basketball in the Berry Bowl. Our mascot…Felix the Cat. Jimmy Carter was President. There were no mobile phones, personal computers, voice mail, email, satellite TV, Amazon.com, eBay, on- line banking, MTV, CNN, Digital music, global warming, school shootings, beach volleyball at the Olympics, ‘woke’ ideology, Fox News, Sirius radio, blogs, Facebook, TikTok, micro breweries, or Kardashians.
We still believed in the American dream; baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet; hometown parades; the work ethic; fairness; that every person who worked hard could achieve his or her dreams; before the embassy takeover in Tehran; before 9/11; before we lost a collective belief in America.
But what I experienced at my 45th reunion was a collective appreciation for who we are in 2022, how far we’ve come since 1977, the fact we have not only survived…but thrived through the years, the changes, the heartache, the losses, the triumphs, the good times, the bad times, family drama, children, grandchildren, different belief systems, varied geography, political differences, life choices….we came together as strong survivors of the 70s filled with contentment, joy, appreciation for where we’ve been how far we’ve come, and how much we still have in common…from the same place and time…filled emerald gratitude that we were able to meet again and remember our commonality.
Photo: me with my 90 year old dad💙