I have been out of high school for FORTY YEARS!!
I have had a good life since I left high school.
My marriage to David and our lives with our
children have been so fulfilling. I would not go back
to my teenage years for love or money.
But every 5 years one of these reunions
gets announced so I spend some time thinking
about those days. And the best feelings come
from 7th and 8th grade. I know that is because
those two years were easy years. We were
all big stuff but young enough to be innocent.
When I entered high school 20 miles away from
my home I was a fish out of water. All the
security of my small school experience and
all the sweetness was gone. There were scary
older boys and so many people that I had never
seen before. The classes were for big kids and
the teachers for impersonal. I missed being able
to go home at lunch and I couldn't find a
comfort zone.
Eventually I found my footing. Good friends
and good experiences. But, if I had my drothers,
I would meet with those kids from Junior High.
Guess what? That is what we did! I called a couple
friends and we found addresses and invited everyone
from our 8th grade class to a reunion the night before
the high school reunion.
I would have loved for more people to have showed
up but the group that came was so fun. The first two
men that came gave each other a hug and it brought
tears to my eyes.
Bobby and Gloria Armijo (brother and sister) and Caroline Pew.
Just nice people. Bobby is an outstanding athlete. When I was in the
6th grade a group of boys came and found me on the playground
and asked me to come up the hill (where a dirt football field was)
and race Bobby. So I went and so I beat him. Of course, as we
grew older that would have changed. I knew I ran fast so
when I beat him I wasn't surprized and I went back down the
hill and went back to playing four square.
Caroline's family and mine did a lot together so we were
best friends. She deserves an entire post at a later date.
Jim Bolton, Trent Adams (married to Caroline)
Jim moved to Show Low the beginning of our 8th
grade year. He just fit in. He is fun and funny and
we were and are good friends. Ya ~ I should probably
blog about him in better detail too.
Trent is old stock from Show Low. He doesn't have
a mean bone in him. He broke his right arm badly when
he was little and had to learn to use his left hand for
everything. So now he is left handed.....he was a great
first baseman because of that.
Kenny Jones, Debbie Nikolaus Miller and her husband, Ed.
Debbie lived on the property I had to walk through to
get to school. If you remember the Gordon Nikolaus post
this is his younger sister. She is a sweetheart. She has just
gone through treatment for cancer and says she is in
remission and finally feeling good again.
Shirley(Kelly's wife) and Kelly Willis and Brad Nikolaus.
Brad and Kelly are first cousins on the Nikolaus side. I
hardly had anything to do with them when we were little but
once we hit 7th grade all that changed. These two made
me laugh. You can tell Kelly has a permanent grin on his face.
Brad reminds me of Eeyore. He always talked like he
never got a fair shake but it was always in good humor. He
is still just like that. And I still laugh.
Chris Robinson and Kelly. Chris was a sweetheart.
There was a time when he and his bud, Billy Jordan,
and me and Patty Abrams just hung out together.
Not boyfriend and girlfriends but friends. They
made me laugh.
That is Phoebe Lee in the front.
I wish these pictures showed how fun these
people were. I thought about them after they
left and was so pleased that they were interested
in coming. There were several others that
wanted to come but had other commitments.
Maybe next time.
It is interesting how we are our experiences
all bundled into one person. I am a small child
and an adult and everything in between. And
my experiences define that small child and adult.
I was richly blessed to have had these kind of
people be the makers of my experiences.
They are genuine.
Happy 8th grade, friends.
