Oh, what a day!
Mid September back in sixty-eight.
What a very special time for us
As we sadly said goodbye.
Sung to the tune of “Oh What a Night” by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Coffee, breakfast, chat and writing, a perfect start to Day 3. A quick walk, taking photos for possible future use, then a tour of old MUHS. I visited our high school once, about 40 years ago and got lost. Now we are having a guided tour.
The first thing most people noticed was the map of the school showing three floors. There were no stairs in the Junior and Senior High Schools when we went there. Everything was on one floor. The second thing, which many people knew already, was the Junior High School was moved to a new facility on the south end of Middlebury. The next was that all our outside walkways were now enclosed. What a concept, enclosed walkways in Vermont in the winter. The library was updated with new computers, the shop now used computer aided design and laser cutters. The gym looked the same, but with new floors, lunch and music rooms were all state of the art.
Now for the old. We walked down one corridor and I recognized Mr. Kelly’s latin and humanities classroom, along with most of our upper grade teachers. We knew where Home Eq was, and Mr. Wesley’s chemistry class, (the reason and influence that caused me to become a chemist,) although we didn’t go down that hallway. One woman remembered where her locker was. The most fun was walking down the Junior High corridor remembering each teacher, their foibles and virtues, the ones we loved and the ones we tormented. It was an immensely good time. We were so glad the Reunion organizers went to all the trouble to arrange this for us.
Having to kill a couple of hours between the tour and the beginning of the Reunion itself, David and I drove backstreets to Salisbury, stopping at a pretty place on Otter Creek to take a few pictures. We ended up by the Galvin farm in Salisbury and planned to stop at Waterhouse’s and the Paddlers Pub for an adult 
beverage before the Reunion. Sadly, they didn’t open until 3PM today. So we drove up to Middlebury and stopped at Drop-in Brewing, one of the many fine breweries the town now hosts. After a nice Baltic Porter, we realized the party started in 7 minutes, so we left and arrive a fashionable 25 minutes late.
It was amazing to see the changes (and lack of changes) in about 40 (of 112 graduates) over the past fifty years. We all received 50th Golden Diplomas presented by Mr. Lou Majeski, Class of ’68 Faculty Advisor. (Mr. Majeski is one of the influences and reasons I started writing, oh so many years ago.)
There were Quatrains (yearbooks) to review and montages of photos from when we were babies and from high school. In every respect the people who planned and executed this weekend did an outstanding job and we thank them all.
Oh what a day!
Ghosts That Sell Memories 