Chiefs "Class of 62"

Our last show was at the Villages near Lady Lake, Florida. I think it is billed as the largest retirement community in Florida. It is impressive. About a month ago my mom said she wanted to go to the the show. My mom does travel with me, very occasionally. She liked the comfort of her own bed more than the joy of long car rides, booth building and etc...

She had an ulterior motive! My mom is very involved with her high school friends. This year is the 50th anniversary class reunion, which fall during the Darke County Fair (Largest in Ohio, I am told). My mom has been talking about it since last summer.

Digressing a bit, I remember going to my mom's 20th class reunion. I was about 12, things were not great at our house, my mom had 2 jobs and my parents were separated. It was kinda a crummy summer, even still my mom piled us all into a car with my grandmother and headed home to Greenville, OHIO. She thrilled in showing us her homes, where her parents' furniture store was, where she shopped, and where she played.  I was certainly an annoying pre teen with anger issues, what I remember was my mom's pride and joy and the goofy swings that had some weird leg pumping attachment. This is her home, more than any other place she has lived, this is were she is from.

Back to the story of this past weekend, I had the honor and privilege of meeting 5 of the ladies my Mom when to high school with, two of whom Mom has not seen in 50 years. I got to listen to a lot of catching up and I got to eat faux Maid-Rites. Mom had a blast, I enjoyed their company and was invited to the reunion:-).

Mom keeps in close contact with three of the ladies we meet up with, so much so, that last year when we were at the NQA show in Columbus, OH she snuck my girls away to visit her friends in Greenville. She showed her granddaughters the Annie Oakly museum, and the joy of Maid-Rites.

Meeting these wonderful ladies was a privilege. It made me feel lonely for the connection of a tight knit community, of friends that can talk about the first day of Kindergarten. It made me sad that neither I, nor my children will have that continuity of friends because as a whole our friends move away. Mostly it reminded me to keep in contact with the folks who can remember me in crazy goth makeup and my inappropriately sloganed tee shirts.