There’s a lot involved in planning an event like this, and several classmates have been involved in the planning, scheduling, and carrying-out of this fun weekend since we first started meeting back in April. Let me recognize and thank a few in particular. Would each of you stand as I say your name.

Sheila Frayser Creighton... Sheila was the Committee Chairperson, assuring that everything that needed to be done was done. Her energy and enthusiasm helped keep everything on track. And …she is living proof that as we get older, we just continue to get better.

Cindy Goswick and Karen Briden. Cindy and Karen have been tireless in putting together all of our great raffle prizes, and generating all of the artwork and posters among other things, and we can also thank them for the T-shirt design (hold up shirt). They were also responsible for making sure that the women came out on top.

Let’s give them a hand.

As a group, we did a phone blitz this past week one last time to locate wayward classmates, and I think we set a record that any telemarketer would be proud of. We found that it’s quite a challenge to reach all 360 members of our class. Thank God for e-mail. For those of you on Classmates.com who are growing a little weary of receiving all of those emails from us, don’t worry. The Internet anti-spam police sent us a “cease and desist” notice last week.

Speaking of T-shirts…How many of you bought one? Great! You should know that the proceeds help to support our efforts in having these reunions. Getting ready for last night’s bash, I dug out my shirt from the 30th reunion. The tag on the shirt says Large, but I swear it fit me so much better 5 years ago. All I can figure is it must have shrunk…

How many of you remember our 30th reunion? Five years doesn’t seem to last as long as it used to…How many remember the 20th?

Reunions have always been a competitive sport. At the 10th reunion, classmates compete with each other about jobs and incomes; at the 20th it’s spouses and children and vacation homes while regarding, with envy or glee, classmates’ waistlines, hairlines, wrinklelines. Everyone hates the stream¬lined and loves the slobs. Now, on the occasion of our 35th reunion, we enter a new phase of reunion competition — the one described by Woody Allen when he remarked, “90% of life is just showing up”.

It is said there are Three Ages of Classmates: “Youth, Middle Age and “You haven’t changed a bit”. But change is the name of the game

Consider how our definition of success has changed over the years.

At age 4 success is not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is having friends.
At age 16 success is having a driver’s license.
At age 20 success is having sex.
At age 40 success is having money.
At age 50 success is having money.
At age 60 success is having sex.
At age 70 success is having a driver’s license.
At age 80 success is having friends (that are still alive).
At age 90 success is not peeing in your pants.

Yeah, growing older is inevitable, but there are a few perks to being older.

Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.
Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them anyhow.
Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.
There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
Things you buy now won't wear out.
You can live without sex but not without glasses.
You get into heated arguments about pension plans.
You have a party and the neighbors don't even realize it.
You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.
You sing along with elevator music.
Your eyes won't get much worse.
Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

35 YEARS…

I feel, as I know you must feel, just a little in awe of that number.
That's a long time. Where did we leave off?

In 1969, Vietnam was in full bloom. Many of us went there, or have friends and family who did. And while many returned, a lot of us didn't.

There are also a few of us who have passed on, and I wanted to take a moment for us all to honor their memories, along with those who lost their lives in the tragedy of 9/11:

Rick Doyle
Debra Finstad Hart
Art Hamlin
Ron Heredia
Evelyn Hoogervorst
James Manley
Greg Olds
Rafael Tammarillo
Chuck Van Dusen
Patricia Williams

Although we’ve been separated by time and distance, these classmates and our countrymen will always be with us in spirit, and will live on in our memories.

In 1969, Lyndon Baines Johnson was serving his final year as president, and Mr.Drielsma was still teaching civics class. And I know the only reason any of us follow current events today is because we didn't want Mr. Drielsma coming to our house after dinner to make sure our noses were buried in the newspaper…

In 1969, the Beatles were still at the height of their popularity, and the Woodstock generation was born. We were starting to let our hair grow down to our shoulders, and now we’re lucky to have hair at all.

There are many ways to measure the passage of time, and technology is as good a yardstick to use as any to see just how far we've come. When we were in school, we handwrote our essays or used a typewriter or, if you were a hunt-and-peck typist back then like me, you bribed a classmate to do it for you. Back in '69, we had yearbooks and school newsletters. Now we have web sites.

What are we here for today? This event is really a celebration of us, of who we are today. What I was then, I'm not now. At least I hope not.

We're here to re-discover, to re-connect, to rekindle old friendships and start new ones. It's about sharing stories and experiences, and delighting in the fact that we've all made it this far.

I have a few messages from some of our classmates living around the country who really wanted to be with us tonight but couldn’t, for one reason or another. I thought you might enjoy hearing some of the better excuses:

Dawn Cleaveland Cundiff couldn’t be here because she had to travel to Minneapolis this weekend…to watch her son Billy Cundiff kick off for the Dallas Cowboys against the Minnesota Vikings.

Dennis Whelan lives in Santa Barbara and couldn’t attend because he’ll be sailing out to the Channel Islands with a group from the California Yacht Club, also leading a tour of the LOTUSLAND Garden Estate where he’s a docent (what’s a “docent”. Is that like a Monk?)
Dennis writes, “please feel free to come up and visit. I give great tour...or so I'm told. Please pass this on to other Garden and Plant types. If I get down there to Escondido, maybe we could muster up a mini-reunion along with those beautiful women who seem to live mostly in Valley Center now.

Arney Kovin joined the National Park Service awhile back and works in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. He has since hooked up with the Dept. of Interior's Office of International Affairs out of Washington DC and now spends several months a year as a team leader helping to train construction workers to build roads in Tanzania, East Africa. He says,
“ It has truly been a wonderful ride! Would love to be there, but at this point Africa has
my heart. If I had my way, I would go and not return. Please give my best to my fellow classmates.”

Like them, we’re all survivors. And you know what? I think the best is yet to come…

-- John Granger