After many hours of driving halfway across the country, we finally made it to Mom’s 60th high school reunion at the farm of one of her classmates from Hutsonville High School’s Class of 1964.
They had a very good attendance from the remaining members of their class which was originally thirty-two students but twelve of them have already passed away.
Getting twelve of them together was a monumental achievement in and of itself.
Even though there wasn’t an actual contest, Mom ended up winning the unofficial “who came the furthest to attend” title by a mere eight miles over her classmate who’d come all the way from Yantis TX just outside Dallas.
I had already planned on bringing my Nikon D850 and lenses with me on the trip and capture some interesting pictures from the periphery as these dear friends were getting together and remembering times gone by.
There was kind of an irony to this as Mom and her adoptive sister Rebecca (that would be Jamie’s mother from the previous tale!) were photographers at the school and would capture events much the same way I was doing many years later. 🙂
It was a blast seeing Mom happy and enjoying being with her friends and I couldn’t help but really love them and their stories as well. Our host is into car shows in a huge way (that red Chevrolet would be one of the cars he’s won trophies with!) and he also owned the “Dog ‘N Suds” in Robinson IL just down the road which I remember very fondly when Bam-Bam and I would make a run to the Heath bar plant and score a massive garbage bag of broken up Heath bars dirt cheap and we’d stop by the “Dog ‘N Suds” for a root beer and a snack on our way back to her house in Hutsonville.
It was also nice getting their perspective on Dad who rarely talked about his time at the high school (he graduated in 1962, two years before Mom did) unless he was letting me know that he was the salutatorian for his class if I didn’t bring all 100s home on my quarterly report card.
It was hard enough believing he played basketball for the school as most of the pictures I’d seen of him during that era would have me thinking he’d be voted “most likely to have a KICK ME sign my back”! His yearbook had him listed as salutatorian (so that part was confirmed) and “most intellectual” along with the valedictorian but the consistent opinion amongst Mom’s classmates who also knew him seemed to be that Dad was exceptionally straight-laced and polite almost to a fault.
That most certainly checks out because I know Grandma Williams always ran a very tight ship even though she’d been retired from the classroom for many years by the time I came along. I can totally see how Dad and Uncle Frank would not be allowed to get away with any kind of monkeyshines or mischief and I can also see how Dad might well have seen the Army as a form of parole from an even more strict upbringing.
I’ve never attended a class reunion of my own and honestly I don’t think I’ve really missed anything.
Mom’s friends were far more enjoyable and engaging than most of my tormentors in high school ever were and by the time we were ready to head off to the hotel, I can see how Meghann had fallen for Mom’s friends five years prior.
They’re really good people from a place that I learn more about every day and hopefully Mom will have some more reunions in her future. They’re certainly worth moving heaven and earth to go visit… 🙂
This link has the official set of photos I shot at the reunion. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them! 🙂