The Best Reunion Ever
11-11-2015
This past Veteran’s Day I participated in the best class reunion ever. Like many Catholic schools of the last century, my grammar school and high school no longer exist. Nonetheless, I have organized many reunions for my high school class and even some for my whole high school which was opened in 1957 and closed in 1972.
At a high school class reunion 5 years ago, I offered to videotape a classmate’s eighth grade reunion. She accepted my offer and I recorded her reunion which took place at a restaurant in La Mesa. I had a little fun pretending to be dismayed when I asked several of the participants at that reunion if they remembered me. Of course, they had no reason to recognize me because I was not in their class.
While I was recording that reunion it occurred to me it would be fifty years since my own grammar school class graduated from eighth grade. There was still time!
I selected Veteran’s Day and, with the help of my long-time school chum Mary Kay, gathered not only some of my St. Agnes School classmates but two of our teachers as well. This initiated a fun tradition which lasted four years.
We gathered at the Venetian Restaurant which is located near Point Loma High School. The food was good, the comradery was good. Each year, I brought in a cake from the European Cake Gallery which is next door to the Venetian.
Things were satisfactory but not extraordinary. The room, the lighting and the acoustics made things less than perfect. This year things were different. Mary Kay came up with an idea which she attributed to my communication about my fiftieth high school class reunion plans. Since my high school had closed, we never considered meeting there but instead had celebrated part of our reunion at the University of San Diego where a full quarter of our class began college.
Mary Kay had the brilliant idea of having our class reunion in our former grammar school building which now serves as a Parish Center for St. Agnes Church. Thanks to the cooperation of Francine, the church secretary, we toured the building. Francine made the necessary arrangements with Jeff, the custodian, to accommodate our class for a catered lunch.
This year, a dozen classmates as well as our former seventh grade teacher assembled at 11:00 am on November 11th. We were able to celebrate an extraordinary class reunion. The best reunion ever!
The weather, in case you do not remember, was exceptionally nice that day. Even though we arranged to eat lunch in the former 4th grade classroom, Jeff, opened up all eight classrooms for exploration and reminiscing. Classmates cheerfully pitched in to carry in food which came from the Venetian restaurant and, of course, a cake from The European Cake Gallery. Everyone helped set up the buffet.
I captured the interaction on videotape as I did on the previous four occasions. Mary Kay had made memory booklets in the past, but this year she did an extraordinary job of capturing people not only in excellent candid shots but successfully made her own audio recordings when classmates had the spotlight.
I am sure you are familiar with the real estate saying that the three most important factors in real estate are location, location, location. Well, I am proposing you consider the same if you are planning a class reunion. Having our 55th reunion in our former school building made it the best reunion ever!