There was a time in my life when 50 years seemed like a long time...not any more. This past weekend was the 50th Reunion of my high school class....the 1959 graduating class of Lakeland High School...the home of the mighty Dreadnaughts! First of all, I just couldn't image that 50 years had past since we were all sitting in Miss Haley's English class...or I was writing an article for the Bagpipe...or running laps after basketball practice. It can't be 50 years because I remember all of these things so clearly. However, I did the math and 2009 minus 1959 equals 50! To help ease the pain my best friend, David Amsler, and his lovely wife Susan drove down from their home in Flat Rock, NC and spent some time with us and we all drove over to Lakeland together. The first thing that we noticed was that David and I were the only ones there that hadn't changed. All of the rest seemed to have gotten a lot older than I remembered and some even had grey hair. The major exception was Dr. Bobby Schwartz who didn't look a day over 35. (How did he do that....he is a pediatrician...maybe the kids rubbed off on him) Oh well, it was absolutely wonderful to see everyone again after all of that time. We all looked a little different, but the love and camaraderie had not changed. We all laughed at some of the silly things we did, got all caught up on how we had lived our lives with some of my classmates having experienced some very exciting and adventurous days. Talk of grand kids, retirement, travel and love of life dominated most of the conversations. We celebrated our state champion baseball team (David was the starting pitcher) with the baseball coach in attendance along with most of the starting lineup. It was a wonderful evening and I just hope that everyone reading this has had...or will have the opportunity to experience an evening like David and I had. Class of '59 you are still the best! Go Dreadnaughts!
