For years I avoided going back to my reunion for many reasons. The weather. The idea of being stranded without transportation. Are there any taxis or shuttles from the airport to the Inn, four miles away. One taxi. I read online that the temperature in Mississippi will be in the August 90's, but feels like 124 degrees with humidity.
Will I be a wall flower like I was in high school. Sitting on a chair watching everyone else socializing and dancing. I remember my prom year. I was so shy and stayed home all the time, singing and dancing alone in the living room, I did not accept any dates; although I know there were some boys who would have asked me out if I had given them a reason to ask. I never did.
My mother, being European, dressed me in a very short, flashy, black and white sequined dress made from large 'hounds tooth check' fabric. I looked very New Yorkish or Hollywood. I am sure all the boys who knew me were afraid to ask me to dance. I never gave them a reason to ask.
The one boy who asked me to dance; that is, the one dance I remembered, was a complete stranger. I was terrified. He was very tall and muscular with a Paul Bunyan shirt.
Country boy meets city girl. Except country boy could dance. I remember it like yesterday being drug around the dance floor. I remember thinking how sorry I felt for him having to dance with an ironing board. A fancy ironing board at that. I am sure he must have thought: Anyone wearing a dress like that has got to be wild. My mother was wild; wild to get me married off.
Oh, the good ole days.
I guess some of that good ole Southern hospitality does go a long way and stretches out 43 years. It was worth the 22 hours of flying time with delays between California and Mississippi for that one day of socializing with classmates in 2010. Yes, it takes a number of layovers to find Tupelo, Mississippi even if Elvis Presley was born there; and if Elvis wasn't shaking his hips, no one would have found him either.
I learned I had friends in high school. When my plane was delayed for 4 hours out of Atlanta, some classmates were waiting for 'the call' when I would land. I was the long lost classmate who apparently traveled the longest way. Although it was a breeze with my IPod, book and gift for gab; like one flight attendant mentioned to me and another passenger: passengers in the exit row always talk the most she finds; although she doesn't know me and I don't need an exit row to talk. I hung out with the woman who had a therapy guide dachshund; the woman who retired from Tupelo High; the contractor en route to Salt Lake City. It may not have been a non-stop flight, but it definitely was a non-stop 'talking' flight.
My facebook buddies were all there: Mike, the president of the class; organized the reunion and has managed to keep the ball rolling after 43 years by forcing himself to join facebook. Danny, choking me in class in front of the teacher, is immortalized in our yearbook which I had forgotten about. My dear friend, Brenda who was our school's drum majorette and from what I remember with my fuzzy memory, stood tall over me, reading big thick novels; appeared unchanged in familiarity. My brother who was in my class also, came with his loving wife. I vaguely remembered Sara until her personality came bubbling out all over the place. Who could forget Sara.
It was a family affair, as if time never passed among us as we slipped back into our youthful fondness for each other; but with a respect for each other that we had obviously acquired in our adult life while taking on the world. We had changed for the better, I thought, because we were now responsible members of society. We had successfully survived the hardships....up to this point.
Walking back into time was as easy as walking through an open door where there's a party going on with young souls in older bodies: Nothing you expect; beyond the innocence of youth and the wisdom of age, lies the "Reunion."
Finally, I got to dance all over the dance floor as if it were 1967.
THE WAY WE WERE
No comments:
Post a Comment