The Spirit of '76, JFK 40th Reunion, Sacramento

WOW - it's been 40 years since I graduated high school?! Bizarre concept, but I actually have travelled far in those 40 years, and I don't mean in actual mileage. My youth was not carefree, hell, the first 50 years of my life were not carefree, but the great thing is that our mind protects us and blocks out a lot of our memory. I had been tempted to go to the last reunion by a FaceBook friend, but I just wasn't ready to revisit that period in my life, this time, I was kind of surprised by my reaction - I was curious! There was a FaceBook page and a website that people could post things about themseves and you could include a website. So I jumped on there and even posted a link to my blog. And I started getting a bunch of emails from people that wanted to reconnect or just say hi - it was kind of fun and got me a little excited about seeing people. Most of the people I was hearing from, and wanted to see were people that I had known since grammar school, especially my swim team friends. One woman was from my Brownie Troop - Brownies, really, OMG, I remember absolutely nothing from back then! Swim team is hard to forget, you spend hours and hours every single day with these people, I remember the people, but I don't really remember much more than that.

After confirming that a few people I knew were attending I bit the bullet and sent in my money and they even came up with a vegan meal for me! I drove in from Nevada City and got a hotel room walking distance from the Embassy Suites in Old Sac, fortified myself and started to walk over. Half-way there I started getting chicken and called Bill for some moral support....what am I doing, OMG, I don't even know these people! He talked me down off the bridge and I made it in. People started coming up to me and even after reminding me who they were, I drew a blank... names sounded familiar but nothing more than that. I remember saying more than once, "I think we were friends, I mean, good friends!" But more than that I didn't have. Fellow medley-relayers, Patty Leiferman and Karen Lutz told me to look at the pictures on everyone's name tag and that did help a little. But then I saw a friend I was really close with, and I got totally excited, maybe a little too much so and exclaimed, "Oh you're the one person I was really hoping to see!" I think it kind of freaked him out, and his wife, as they quickly disappeared! Back to the bar for me, and maybe a trip outside too, haha. Eventually he came and found me and we had a really super conversation, actually several of them throughout the night. He thanked me for saving his ass, more than once, and my friend Patty, who has a memory that does not quit, reminded me that I was late to a French final once because..."I had to pick up Peter!" There was Kenny, the guy I was making out with when my mom came home early and found about 6 couples in various stages of entanglement throughout our house! Several people had been reading my blog and were fascinated with my lifestyle.

The music was fantastic, same band from our high school days! I had a great time and then I was done...ok, you can only make so much chit chat and I happen to really suck at it. Friends gave me a ride back to the hotel, I had a good night sleep and I don't have to do that again, well, maybe in another 40 years!

Kathy Koretsky, Kenny Whitaker, moi, Patty Leiferman and Jane Fricke - all friends I've known for 50+ years.

Front - me, Mona Gonzales, Nancy Lena (the person I most wanted to be like), Kathy Koretsky (one of my besties)
Back - Kenny Whitaker, Nina Dacanay, Patty Leiferman swimteam), Karen Travis, Karen Lutz (swimteam) and Tony Vaughn, major hunk