Reunion Reflections « joecase.com 

Reunion Reflections

I went to my 35th North Side High School Class Reunion this past weekend down in Jackson, TN. I’ll have to say overall I had a great time. It was really good hooking back up with folks I haven’t seen since the last reunion I attended (20th)…a few I haven’t seen for 35 years!

The worst part of the entire weekend for me was the fact that my wife couldn’t go. She had a huge LifeWay event in Atlanta she had to attend, which had been booked even before the reunion was scheduled.

I will have to be honest and admit a slight bit of depression, though, after returning home and reflecting back on the event.

I totally expected more grey hair…or less hair, more wrinkles, etc. The depressing part…how out of shape I felt! I could have done what some no doubt did and go on a crash diet to look really thin for the event, but I never had the willpower. Now, I wasn’t the only one who has succumbed to the U.S. statistics of being overweight for our age. But that’s still no consolation!

There were a couple of folks there who were in my “circle of friends” that I would certainly put at the top of the list of “least changed” over the 35 years since graduation. One was Vickie Lasley Hill, who lives in Brentwood. She has taken amazing care of herself…way to go, Vickie!

The other was Mike Grooms. He was a guy I ran around with during our high school days. This guy has been through a lot in the 35 years since graduation, and didn’t look much worse for the wear!

Another guy…Kenny Warmath…dude, where did you find the fountain of youth?!? And those dance moves…wow!!

Some guys actually got, what I would call, more distinguished. The first to come to mind was a man who was always a distinguished sort of guy…Matt Thompson. He used to always wear a tie, and this event was no different…even though the invitation strictly said, “casual”… to Matt that’s taking his suit coat off.

The other one I thought turned out distinguished was Ed O’dell. This guy was up there with the wildest back in ‘73. Today, he’s a company vice president and looks every bit the country club part. As a matter of fact he and his lovely wife, Joy, live in Nashville and are members of Richland Country Club. I hope to be hearing from Ed real soon about playing golf at Richland…one course in Nashville I’ve not played.

The one I would say has gotten even more beautiful was Toya Johnson Hopper. Not only physically, but her true beauty shown through with all the hard work she did in helping make the reunion turn out to be such a success. Sure, she had a committee but every one of them would certainly agree Toya led the way in the hard work of putting everything together.\

The “friendliest” person of the event had to be Tasha Allen Turnbow! I don’t think Tasha ever meets a stranger! You could feel the lowest of the low…but hang around Tasha…and you’ll feel like conquering the world!

The most generous…Lucky McCoy. Talking about your wild man back at the reservation (Indians was our nickname)! The whole event wound up being $150 short because of a few no-shows. Toya made an announcement asking if we could all chip in. Lucky ran up front, handed her $150 and said, “now, everybody go have another drink!” What a man!!

The sweetest person of the evening would no doubt be one of the sweetest girls I knew back at NSHS…Susan Swaim Williams. Her smile preceeds her into any room! We had some great times back in the day. As a matter of fact, she was my date to my very first big emcee job at the Jackson Coliseum in December 1972 when I was part of the BJ Thomas concert. Yep, Mr. “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” made a stop during his hayday in Jackson in front of 6,000 adoring fans.

The “reality hits you in the face” time came when the lovely Charlotte Garrett Shivley said she had been teaching for THIRTY years!! What?? It just doesn’t seem right to say that. Speaking of Charlotte, I remember a date we had where I actually took her to see an Elvis movie. Looking back – how embarrassing!! Sorry, Charlotte. Hope the rest of that evening was alright!

I loved hooking up with one of my great friends during our high school days…Ed Norman. He and I used to be inseparable. If he wasn’t at my house, I was at his. We double-dated quite often…even dating girls the other had dated before…crazy!

Diane Kirby Wadley was the girl I dated the longest at NSHS. She is unfortunately single again…so, we thought it would be funny since Pam couldn’t come if the two of us came into the reunion arm and arm! People would really think deja vu! We didn’t…but it was fun to think about.

Besides Susan, Charlotte and Diane, I also got re-acquainted with some other of my high school “sweethearts”. Wow, the stories we could’ve talked about, but didn’t seem to come up…that’s a good thing! And, by the way…no offense to any of my old girlfriends, but I truly believe I’ve done OK for myself with my lovely bride of 21 years!!

(Check out the gallery of pictures below…click each picture to enlarge)

I came away with a strong sense of wanting to stay in touch more with the old gang. I’m going to be starting a website for the North Side High School Class of ‘73 in the coming days. It will serve to do a lot more than “Classmates.com”.

This new website will enable us to keep up with what’s happening in each other’s lives with more extensive information like children, grandchildren, births, deaths, extreme illness (for prayer concern), career highlights, retirement, exotic vacations taken, photos, etc., etc. I’m sure it will start out with highlights and photos of our 35th reunion. We’ll highlight a “classmate of the month”, promote “mini-reunions” like golf outings… and a lot more!

This website will also go a long way in helping us know where everyone is for the next reunion…which I’m assuming will be the 40th. I look forward to that…but, I’m certainly not going to rush it. Time goes fast enough as it is!

So, for now I’m going to work on getting back into much better shape than I was this past weekend, so I’ll look much better when the 40th reunion rolls around. I know I won’t be the 6′3″, 175lb guy from 1973…but, I can be the 6′3″ guy that will firm up the flab I’ve got!