Sunday, November 30, 2008
Hello, I must be going
Two hours were scheduled. We took nearly four. And yet, "Hello, I must be going" seems appropriate in many ways.
Saturday was a mini-reunion of friends that graduated from Pius XI High School. Many of us brought spouses, a few didn't make it, and it was a positive time. But a Groucho Marx song fits the bill since it has been many moons since many of us had spoken last.
I am part of the class of 1988, so the starting point for some of these folk is twenty years. Mind, there were people that I had seen since then, but in the time we had on this post-Thanksgiving weekend there wasn't a chance to truly catch up on where we had been. Instead it was a little bit of falling into old habits from long ago.
One of the neat habits from that time was that it was okay to be in each others personal space. Some of us exhibited that tendency again. We fell into certain grooves or patterns that were probably odd for spouses to see.
But we were all different. Heidi and Sue were two people that I never talked to much at Pius or post-Pius. But we all have younger kids, so we shared and chatted more than I can recall doing before. And that had more meaning than perhaps the idle prattle of teenagers.
Meg probably has a more interesting life than many, having become a citizen of Germany. But beyond the odd story about William Shatner and a little chat about her sister, Jane (who couldn't make it) I never got to ask those question about what life is like now. Again, Hello I must be going.
Adam and Tanya are a couple of friends that I was happy to see again. And I'm ashamed to admit that I never took the time to talk to Tanya when I worked for the same company as her for three years. Adam and I got the chance to do a little family recap, which is good. Better is that we both agreed to make it a point to meet up again. After all, we're all in the same city so there's no reason not to do so. It's a good thing.
Colleen and I didn't talk too much either, but I was happy to see her and know that she has a family that's doing well. It'd be the right moment to make a crack about her husband being a Bears fan, if I cared about football that much.
David was there to make a liar out of me. But since we see each other far more frequently, it was not a problem at all. Besides you cannot begrudge the person that takes you home, right?
Yet even with seeing David a couple times a month, we still ended up talking well into the evening after the reunion wrapped up. And after six hours of conversation, I felt like we were honestly up to date with each others lives.
Ann did most of the work in putting this event together, and she deserves major props for making this happen. It takes a caring spirit to start a process for getting old friends together, and that quite possibly isn't appreciated enough these days.
Some event stick in the mind as "historic" or "monumental". This one falls into that mental drawer labeled, "What took you so long".
Be seeing you,
Jon
Groucho Marx - Hello, I must be going
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