30 Years!

Last week-end Corky and I attended my high school reunion in Rock Hill, SC. I graduated from Northwestern High School in 1977. Many of the people in my graduating class actually were in Kindergarten with me, so for some of us it was a Kindergarten reunion! These friends and acquaintances were in and out of my life for 13 years, and then suddenly, for the most part, they were gone! Or I was. Because I went to college in my home town, a few of these same folk were there (some of those pictured) but we rarely saw each other. It's sobering to think about how quickly what seems very stable can change.

In SC it is the law that you dance the Shag to beach music! Literally! The Shag is the "state dance". I had no idea that my friends were learning this dance at some point in their childhood but by the time we got to high school many of them were experts at it! And they haven't forgotten how! Corky was amazed at how well they could dance and how many of them could! Even though we graduated during the disco and stadium rock era, and that is what everyone listened to, the moment beach music is played, they all hit the dance floor! Being raised in the Holiness church, of course, I didn't learn the dance, by the way. Still don't know it.

Anyway, it was great seeing everyone again. I have a kind of incomplete feeling, however. I had very few full conversations and I'm left with lots of unanswered questions. Maybe I'll find out in five or ten years!