(Local News Digital contributor Barney Quick, age 18.)
COLUMBUS, Ind.–Class reunions during years ending in “5” are, generally speaking, less memorable than the those in years constituting demarcations between decades. That, in turn, is because our culture uses a base-ten numbering system. It has interest drop-off in common with midterm elections. In each case, mainly the base turns out.
I’d like to suggest, though – and this is entirely based on recent personal experience – that there’s a milestone of sorts that can be noted at the 45th. I went to mine – Columbus High School, 1973 – Saturday night at Donner Center. It was well-attended and lively, but scaled down from the 40th. Friends with whom I stay in touch who live several states away didn’t come back this time, for the most part. That’s obviously largely due to the logistics and expense involved.
As has been the case since the tenth rodeo, some are aging better than others. But even among those who could still qualify as fit, there’s a looseness of skin, a thinning of hair, that no one escapes.
Conversations centering on catching up on people’s children, parents and siblings this time had a tone of acceptance of things long-established. Making peace with the fact that that rootless brother is always going to be rootless, that that daughter’s relationship choices are not what yours would be, that parents are mortal.
Conversely, there’s a little less nostalgia. People have come to their present junctures by unique and difficult-to-explain paths, and those paths included experiences of such impact that conversations by lockers and drive-in cruises seem like a mist-shrouded realm of safety and simplicity.
The proceedings were still going strong as my wife and I left. But persisting over the commotion was the steady ticking of a clock.
