SIXTY AND COUNTING

by Jerry Chandler

My High School class just had its 60th reunion. To save you time, we were the Class of 1965, Baby Boomers.

There were 422 in my class at Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth, Texas. 105 paid to come to the reunion. There are 126 names on the “In Memoriam” page of our Facebook account.

It was good to reconnect with so many of my classmates. Of the guys I ran with, they are all on the “In Memoriam” page. Of the nine guys in my wedding 5 were from my class, all of them are on that page. But there were plenty of class mates to connect with anyway.

One guy and I remembered us following a couple of police cars and a Hurst where we became, uninvited attendees to Lee Harvey Oswald’s funeral.

My High School Band played, “Hail to the Chief” for President Kennedy’s breakfast that morning at the Texas Hotel. I volunteered to help with equipment.

Several of us took Driver’s Education while in middle school. Yep, we were 14 when we got our Texas Drivers License. Imagine that today. I was actually 5 days past my 14th birthday, but close enough. A number of us had been riding motor scooters for a year prior. You could do that if the scooter did not exceed 5 break horsepower, What ever that meant. Sears sold a Vespa called and Allstate Crusiaire and many of us had one of those. Chushman Eagles were popular too. One Honda 50 was there as well as a Lambretta. And we covered Fort Worth like a real motorcycle club.

As an aside: Two months after I got my license my older brother and I drove to Seattle from Fort Worth in his 1962 Volkswagen. Me at 15 and all. What were my parents thinking?

From the number if teachers at the reunion, it would be easy to say most the girls in my class went to college and the students of Texas benefited from it.

We saw lots of History from our little insulated part of the world, as we were drug into the later half to the Century. Assignations, the space project, moon landing, and the revolution in popular music and culture. We can’t leave out the Vietnam War.

While many of us served in the military, only one was killed in that war. We had more die in small plane crashes than that. Go figure.

In the small world department, three of us were in the same Army Reserve unit. Also, three of us, from the same High School, same class, worked for the same advertising agency at the same time. There are probably more coincidences, but these all I am aware of.

It was a simpler time the, we trusted every one, and feared no one. The World, as we knew it was ours. Most of our dads had been in the service during WWII and made the world safe four us, as were many of our teachers.

Now I am trying to figure out how all this togetherness came about. My wife’s class, 1966, is nothing like this. So we might really be different, if not special.

Most of us went to one of two middle schools. And one of 4 elementary schools, so we had a built in support group, at least, for some time. We saw others at Church or Scouts or little league. But I thought little of those contacts.

I thought that was pretty normal at the time, but maybe not.

Could school connections have been the glue that has held us together? Some in depth research might be called for.

A few of us get together for lunch one a month; it’s like a mini reunion for the 12 to 30 of us who meet at the stomping grounds restaurant.

I don’t know if you are as blessed to have close classmates as I have been but you can start today making connections.

I would like to encourage you to go to your next reunion, contact whoever is in charge and raise your hand to let them know you are interested. With social media and Google it is easy to look people up, get started at least.

It will be fun where ever you think you were in the pecking order of your class; there will be someone at your reunion that will be glad to see you. And someone you will be glad to see. Go.