Then and Now

The high school from which I did not graduate will celebrate its centennial next summer, and alumni and alumnae from places as distant as Trinidad-Tobago and Tuktoyaktuk are expected to dig their scarlet and gold sweaters out of trunks and attics and attend.  It is not known how many of the first graduating class will be present.

The school has developed a website which includes many "Then and Now" photographs of graduates.  Possibly the less said about these the better.

There are also notes from many graduates, summarizing the decades that have passed since they departed what are invariably termed "the hallowed halls of learning."  I, too, have fond memories of those days, particularly of the teacher who raced wildly around the room to demonstrate infinity, the student who brought a billiard ball to class and presented it as a petrified orange, and the entire male class of 4B who arrived one morning munching cloves of garlic.  The memory lingered on for a very long time. 

One would think that a school reunion might make a great story, and it would,  but it has been done too often.  One of the first accounts, and still probably the best, is by Merle Miller in his book "Only You, Dick Daring."  Ask for it at the out-of-print desk at your neighborhood library.

And now, I must get my "Then and Now" photos ready to send.  For "Then" I am using Ron Howard as Opie; for "Now" I am using Brad Pitt.