Like fine wine!

Last month, I attended my 20 year high school reunion.

I know you are shocked that I am anywhere close to being that old!

It was a 2-day affair. Most of it was planned by some really sweet gals, former classmates, who did a great job and put their hearts and time into the event! I am thankful for their efforts.

I attended my school from 7th grade through 12th grade. It was a small school outside of the bigger city. The campus held grades K-12. I probably would have attended the bigger city school had my Dad not been the jr. high counselor. The funniest thing is that I met some of my very best friends at church and they went to the bigger school. It was a good balance for me.

Friday night, we simply met at a local pub. You could eat, drink, and visit. I loved that you could only smoke on the second level, which meant a relatively free smoking environment!

Jennifer (organizer), Chad, and girlfriend. Jennifer taught at the school for a short time!

Tim and wife

Joy (organizer), Kerri (organizer), LeaAnn. While it is hard to place too many labels on classmates since we were such a small class and all relatively friendly, I would have to say these were some of my special gals!

Susan and Diana. More fun gals!


Saturday Family Picnic

Mothers and Daughters

My own daughter acting like a silly teenager!

A class photo. There are many more classmates (I think we graduated about 78), but these were who showed up for the picnic.

Me and little man

Gym

Lockers in a hallway


Saturday night, we had a room in one of the local casinos. A lot has changed since I moved away from Oklahoma! Many of the Indian nations have developed gaming properties.

It was great to visit more and see some faces that had not been at the previous events. Sadly, about half of our class did not show up. And probably at least half of those were fairly local to the event. I don't get it. They had a year to plan. A few had some unexpected work things come up. The ones without an excuse really missed out! We just spent the evening catching up, watching a slideshow, handing out awards, remembering the 3 classmates we lost (all unexpectedly and tragically), and eating. We stayed until about 11, but the smoke got to be too much after that. I am thinking that the smokers could have given it a rest that night seeing as how we were in a small, closed environment. You could have peeled the layer of smoke off me and my clothes when I got home!

Me, Michelle (organizer), and Kel

LeaAnn kicking Jeff's booty at Guitar Hero!

Five girls. Five beers. Seriously, not even ours!

Class photo

Some of the originals! Our graduating class had 28 members that started kindergarten at that school. Pretty amazing!

Me and Kel. I can't say enough about this girl! She and I have stayed in touch and the closest over the years! She is so fun and funny! That was her cute husband and daughter I featured 2 weeks ago! We simply live too far apart-don't you agree Kel?!!

Me, Rusty, Joy. He just finished 20 years in the service-wow! She teaches first grade. (Just to clarify, they are married to other people!)

Tracy and Christy-giggley girls!

Rusty voted the "Kojak" award. A good sport!

Angie, me, Shelli. More great gals! Angie was the class prankster. Now, she trains dogs and has a sweet little girl. She rocks-she used to manage a big ranch in Texas! Shelli is a speech therapist and works with kids like me! I will always remember her in rodeo competitions while in school.


It was a good event and it was nice to see how well everyone had done in their lives. As one friend put it, our small school served us well and obviously prepared us for the futures we would meet.

And thank goodness we became smart enough to give up the perm curlers and high bangs held in place with ozone-killing hair spray! Aussie Scrunch Spray, anyone?!

Stacey