TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Where'd They Go?

ADVERTISEMENT

Rosie Clifton

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 28, 2009

Where'd they go?

I'm speaking of the 50 years since my high school graduation. In many ways it seems like only yesterday. At the recent reunion of the Speedway High School, Class of '59, I had no trouble identifying everyone, even without the very large nametags - containing our senior photos - that the committee had prepared for us. My companion for the evening was very surprised (shocked?) at the way I looked back then. I think he might take back his assessment of my inability to write a book entitled, "Beauty Tips for the Really Ugly."

My class had 104 graduates. Over the years I've realized how lucky I was not to have attended lots of schools, unlike kids whose families moved a lot. It was also wonderful that my class was small. We knew everyone's mother, father, brothers, sisters...and business. There was a real closeness; that's probably why we've had a reunion of some sort every five years.

My class included a lot of college graduates. Most of us were born of middle-class parents in a middle-class town. Our parents, many of whom were skilled laborers, wanted us to have better lives than they did; therefore, college was encouraged. Our class had a disproportionate number of engineers, due primarily to the proximity of a large General Motors plant. Two doctors (a male urologist and a female cardiologist) were among our graduates. Other interesting classmate careers include world-wide product manager for Kodak, a 30-year flight attendant, an architect, a policeman, a missionary, a franchisee of multiple Dairy Queens, a lawn care company owner, two IBMers (sales and engineering), a wrestling coach/teacher, a theater historian, a police chief, a realtor, a manufacturing company owner, a banker, and several teachers and nurses. Unfortunately, 17 of our graduates have died.

Several activities comprised the reunion - a lovely Friday night cocktail party, a Saturday breakfast, and a more formal dinner Saturday evening. One unusual feature was an opportunity Saturday afternoon to ride around the Speedway 500 track in a bus. I also found out that one can, for $125, ride around the track in a special race car with an experienced driver at speeds up to 180 mph. I passed on that opportunity. The nicest thing about the get-together was seeing old friends who had influenced our lives in many ways for 13 school years, and reminiscing with them. Oh, the happy, fun memories!

Rosie Clifton of Sun City Center is a humor columnist and author.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT