Class of 1981

This weekend brought to fruition months of planning and preparation as the Scottsboro Senior Class of 1981, celebrated its 30-year anniversary. Time invested to the myriad of emails, schedule juggling, phone calls and planning meetings was paid in full when first sightings of fellow class members rendered shrieks of delight in the school parking lot.

We tossed candy to the little ones lining the street. Fifty-two faces with wide silly grins left the crowd with no choice but to respond with smiles of their own as they watched us - so glad to be together that we didn't mind being drenched in sweat and straddling hay-bales upon a flat bed trailer as the homecoming parade weaved through our town.

It's Sunday now and much later than I intended but the opportunity to spend just a few more hours with my friends seemed more important last night than the sleep I should have gotten for the drive back. I felt I couldn't leave the Scottsboro city limits without finishing this blog; as if the magic and the memory of our Class Reunion might fade with each mile driven east toward home. And so I am writing from top a picnic table in County Park looking across the water at the scenic beauty I took for granted like so many other things while still in school.

A few hours into the Reunion Celebration last night, I felt the need to step aside and just observe. I knew the evening was special and different from any gathering to date but was still surprised as I saw this feeling confirmed on almost every face. I saw a group who were glad to be here, I mean REALLY glad. The kind of glad relief that only happens when you find something you lost but never really knew you had in the first place. The eager high school kids returned with a sense of humility, wisdom and hope developed from 30 years in the "real world." And, an awareness of our own mortality sharpened by the passing of thirteen class members.

This post is written to each of my classmates from Scottsboro Senior High 1977 - 1981, to you I say THANK YOU! You are beautiful exactly as you are and I am proud to be part of you. Thank you for attending, whether it was one or all of the reunion events, thank you. But understand, you were missed at the events you didn't attend; we were less because you were not there.

I look forward to planning and attending our 35th Reunion and encourage you to not wait five more years to say hello. Try in some small way to stay in touch with someone you saw at the reunion. And finally, my friends, do your best and be yourself every chance you get because our class and our world is richer for it every time you do.

P.S. As I promised - Kenny V. YOU ROCK!