What an adventure this has been to
kick off our new week. Well, it did
begin on Friday night when we went to bed at the unheard of hour of
8.30pm. Bill is such a night owl that he
normally does not go to bed till about 11.30pm or later – he does not do mornings
very well as a result. I like to get to
bed by 10pm or even earlier if I can swing it, and I am awake around 4.30 or
5am. So here we were in bed by 8.30pm
and we had to be up by 3.30am so that we could be ready for the week’s end activities. We were on the road by 4.50am and off to the
Boston Temple. We got there just in
time to attend the 8am session and we were the witness couple. There were not too many people for the
session. Sr. Lorraine Parkinson is still
a temple worker there. She was a
missionary in Japan the same time I was there and she is the granddaughter of
S. Dilworth Young. She has had some
major brain surgery for tumors and has lost a lot of her cognitive abilities
but she remembered me and said that some days are better than others for
memory. Two ladies from our ward were
also in the temple just as we were leaving.
That was a real surprise.
We headed for Connecticut and the Mass Turnpike was just
jammed and very slow going. I know for
sure that they were not all going to the Class Reunion but for a Saturday
traffic problem this was a big one.
Usually on a Saturday there is not so much traffic but this was bumper
to bumper all the way so Bill took out the map and we cut out to rte 20 and we
got to Rockville in time to eat (read that – time to inhale a subway sandwich)
and get on over to the High School.
There was a bunch of people
standing around and we went over to them and they all came to Bill and
greeted him. These were wonderful
walking memory machines – and they took up where they left off 50 years
ago. One remarkable thing about this
group is that they parted company 50 years ago as a bunch of pimply faced 18 year olds who faced the future that
was to be pockmarked with the cold war, Vietnam War, Korean conflict and a host
of other military involvements around the world and they made their choices as
best they could. In most of the conversations I listened to, they
had gone on to be pharmacists, educators, scientists , engineers etc. and
fathers and mothers and now they are retired and have become grandparents. I heard that there is a bunch of women from
this class that meet regularly throughout the year for lunch together and in
this day and age it is quite remarkable to see such bonding still hold good for
this many years.
After the meet and greet on the lawn of the high school,
someone let us into the building and the first announcement was “for those of
you who did not clean out your locker at graduation, do so now or it will all
be thrown away.” They took us around the
hallways of the old building. We did not
go upstairs because that was added on after these people graduated and was not
part of their memory system. All the
while the hubbub was with talking, laughing, memories revisited and the people
guiding us through the building had a hard time getting them to move to the
next area – sort of like herding cats…..next to impossible. Reliving memories is rejuvenating and more
than one classmate left with lighter hearts than when they came.
After the tour of the school, Bill wanted to go visit with
George and Dawn Markham. They live way
out in the country past the Ellington airport.
It is very beautiful there and very quiet and peaceful. Dawn’s health has deteriorated to the point
that she does not get around much anymore.
We had a fun visit with them with lots of laughter and memories of
times past.
We went back to Rockville and followed our trusty GPS on the
Iphone (sometimes it is not so trusty because roads have changed names and
other things) but this time it got us to Georgiana’s Italian restaurant and
then the meet and greet and get to know you activities were in full swing
again. It was a wonderful thing for Bill to be able to attend this activity. Dinner was buffet style and included Ziti in sauce,
Eggplant Parmesan, baked Scrod, Chicken, vegetables, salad and the food was
wonderful. I liked the pre dinner fruit,
cheese and veggie compote that they brought out. I think that these people must be getting
hard of hearing because they were talking very loudly and the din was
deafening. It was a happy din to be sure
and it seems to have filled a void with information by which each of them could
measure their own successes etc.
It was easy to pick out those of us who had not gone to
Rockville High. We were the ones who
were noticing all the hugging and OMG’s uttered by those greeting each other
etc. One man sampling the
cheese/crackers and veggie display noted to me that he took his wife to his own
50th reunion last month and she was the one standing by
watching. We then got to talking and
found out that she has a 40X40ft sewing room to accommodate her long arm
quilting machine, and she paid $17,500
for it as well as a $5,000 embroidery machine and another machine – paid out of
her own money. I asked him if he had any toys and he said no so I asked him
what he might like to have and he said an electric saw (for wood work) so I
asked him what was holding up the works in buying such a toy and he said
nothing so I encouraged him to go ahead and buy a few toys of his own. I doubt if he will because he regards his
wife’s sewing things as something he can complain about to anyone who will
listen, and in some way he is justified…………..warped thinking if you ask
me. Besides, playing with sewing
machines and fabric is way cheaper than paying for psychotherapy.
The lady sitting next to me was one of the organizers and
she talked about how much work this had been but how much laughter and fun they
had putting this all together. She also
noted that the “jocks” were all sitting together – like they always did in High
School. Just before we ate they
announced that a classmate, who had just organized her own church and was the
pastor, would offer the blessing on the food.
She had meditated over the assignment given her for the blessing and
announced that the Lord had enlightened her with 6 words that included peace,
hope , joy, success etc. and then she offered the prayer. One Jewish Lady was totally offended by the
mention of Jesus in the prayer and was quite vocal about it during the
prayer. Others were also offended by the
prayer. I thought it was a pretty
generic prayer and people who do not want prayer should put their hands over
their ears. However, I once heard that
there were no atheists in the foxholes and I suspect that if these members of
the class were in a calamitous situation they would also call upon their maker
for help….seems to be the way things go.
It should be noted that they ate the food anyway – even though the
blessings of heaven had been pronounced upon it in spite of their collective
objections.
They then said they were going to sell tickets on a bottle
of wine of some vintage etc. and that the winner usually donated the bottle
back to the group for future raffles and that this was a way of raising more
money for the school. We left as the
raffle was beginning because we had to make it to New Hampshire to sleep
overnight. We were really really tired
and I doubt if we even noticed the bed etc. but were just glad to lie down and
shut tired eyes.
The motel was a real trip.
We got there about 10.30pm and the traffic was still pretty heavy along
the roads we traveled. I wondered if
they were all going to the same motel we were and I envisioned the parking lot
just jammed. Well it was jammed but we
left the heavy traffic to fend for itself on the highway and our trusty GPS led
us right to this downtown motel. It is a
shabby place that appears to be a dowager well past her prime yet dominating
the skyline at 5 stories high. We were
on the 5th floor which is good because the rowdies were on the lower
floors. We were so tired anyway that
even if we had managed to house rowdies on this floor, we did not hear them.
In the morning I looked out the window and saw 3 black men
having a heated discussion in the parking lot.
My first thought was that if this turned into an armed altercation, we
would certainly not be able to leave this crowded parking lot due to the fact
that their group was right next to the one and only exit and if it turned ugly,
we would not be able to leave the scene of the crime. Soon, one of them drove off leaving two men
sitting on the brickwork planter with a young woman draped over the lap of one
of them. She looked to be either sleepy,
drugged or in love – perhaps all three at once.
As I passed them on the way out to the car, one of the men talked to me
and asked if I was going to church. He
then told me he was from Pennsylvania and imagine my surprise when he said he
was from Morrelleville. I told him that
we had lived for 20 years in Richland.
He said he loved his pastor but he was not going to go to church
today. I left quickly because I did not
know if he was going to ask me for money or something.
We had a good trip home.
I drove and after a few wrong turns and exits, we finally found which
way to go and we arrived in Farmingdale at the church about 3 minutes before
the church service started. It was a
blessing that Gardiner Ward let out late and through the confusion of it all,
we showed up and Sr. Owen, who is the organist if we are not here heaved a
great sigh of relief to see us walk through the door.
I fell asleep when we got home from church. Not up for such excitement at this age.
No comments:
Post a Comment