Center Grove High School Class of 1971

I've been too busy to write.

Thanks to Facebook, I'm getting reacquainted with my old Center Grove classmates of 1971. That's right...get out your calculators and do the math.

Last Friday night I made a quick trip to Greenwood to meet up with two 1971 classmates and several 1972 and 1973 CG graduates. I took my yearbook to help me remember. I'd get the name of one of the younger classmates, then look it up. Then I remembered--well, most of the time I remembered. One of the "under" classmates needed no introduction. I'd have known Jan anywhere.

The Riley kids rode Harry Featherston's first busload to the school. Since we arrived at school super-early, we sat in the gym and waited for the rest of the students to arrive. Jan rode Harry's second busload. An hour or so later she arrived with the rest of the bus, and she looked pale as a ghost. I asked her what happened. She said that Harry died. They had pulled into the CG front parking lot, headed towards the old middle school when Harry just "went". He evidently never knew what hit him since he never had a chance to brake. The bus kept heading toward the middle school. A 12-year-old farm kid pushed Harry out of the way and got the bus stopped.

Harry was not only our bus driver, but a neighbor. In the country, a neighbor might live a quarter mile down the gravel road--just like Harry. The day we lost Harry was sure a sad day. Back then bus drivers didn't have to have buses equipped with cameras. We respected Harry and our school bus. We respected our school. I can't always say we respected each other, since my little brother and a goofy kid named "Gopher" nearly got into a fight on Harry's bus once. I stepped between them and stopped the fight before it began. That wasn't going to happen "on my watch".

Back to the three-class reunion...my two classmates looked way younger than me. They still had their figures and the same personalities they had as teenagers. I was so glad to see both of them. I used to be self-conscious about weighing twice what I did in high school. To heck with that--I've finally realized that nobody cares...at least nobody I graduated with.

This weekend I plan on meeting another couple of classmates. We've missed out on many years, and I am not missing out on any more. I haven't seen my best friend in 25 years, and that's a rotten shame. I hope God gives us many more years to enjoy each other's company from here on out. I won't let anything else stand in the way of a friendship again.

I also plan on a road trip to Arkansas to see another old friend and classmate. Life hasn't been too kind to her, but her old classmates are resurfacing to let her know she's always been loved and never forgotten.

We've found out that several of our classmates have passed on, and several others are not well. That makes me feel even more determined to make sure the rest of us get together as often as possible.

Thank you, Facebook.

Snow Day

Looks like I won't be going to work today. I hate that. It's not the same as when we were in school and school closed for the day due to snow. This costs me. I have to either take leave (which I'm trying to save for a trip to Italy), LWOP, or make it up on my RDO (regular day off) this Friday.

I really don't want to do any of those. I prefer to go to work, but if I can't--then I want a free snow day. Just give me the day off and pay me for it too! I certainly work hard enough that I've earned it. Give me the same feeling I had when I was a kid and in school. Call the local radio stations and have them announce that work is closed due to snow. Yay! No work! I promise I won't waste the day!

When daylight hits, I'll put on my snowsuit, hat, and boots. I don't have gloves so Mom will put socks on my hands. If the snow's a wet one, Mom will put breadsacks over our socked hands to try to keep them dry.

I'll go outside and throw snowballs. If the snow's real wet, I'll make a snow wall to hide behind to keep from getting smacked with the snowballs my brothers are throwing at me. When we tire of that, we'll make a snowman. Then we'll grab the sled and take a few rides down the hill. We might even grab a few bites of the white stuff, avoiding any yellow patches of snow.

Hey, the Waltman boys are making an igloo again! You'd swear Nanook from the North lives in their yard because their igloos are just like the real thing. "Mom, can we go to the Waltman's and play in their igloo???? Puh-leeeeaaaase???" We knew the answer would always be "no", but we still had to ask. Mom was scared it would collapse on us (they never collapse). Maybe one of these days she won't be paying attention to what we are asking and she'll say "yes".

When we get cold and our fingers turn numb, we'll track all that snow inside the house and begin throwing off breadsacks, sock mittens, boots, hats, and snowsuits. Mom will make us some hot cocoa and we'll sit by the oven and warm up....

....Reality check. I stayed home and switched a doctor's appointment so I could work this Friday to make up the nine hours I missed today. Nobody's giving me the day off without a cost to me. There are dishes and laundry to do, but that's not what I want to do. I'd like to go outside and take some photos, but that seems like a lot of trouble. And then I'd end up tracking snow all over my new carpeting. The kid inside me would love to go out and play in the snow, but the lazy adult in me says to stay inside and do some housework.

The sleet is starting back up again. They said we'd have two waves of this stuff. The first one's over and sounds like the second one is beginning. The weather guys say we will have nine inches of this stuff before the end of the day. Hope I can make it to work tomorrow. I've got lots to do before next month's software subrelease.

Sometimes being an adult sucks.