Opinion: Former classmates reminisce about the Golden Years

It seems like only yesterday that I was a high school student. Believe me, my high school days were a lot of yesterdays ago. My reflections on those carefree days are brought about by having just attended a reunion of my high school graduation class.

If I were to reveal the year I graduated from high school, younger readers might be shocked to learn that school existed that long ago. Well, not only did school exist, it was held indoors.

Without naming the exact year, let’s just say it was a kinder and gentler time. It was in the pre-Elvis days when what was to become “rock ‘n’ roll” was called “rhythm and blues.” Ballad singers ruled the top of the music charts. Today’s CDs were called records that were played on machines at 45 revolutions per minute. American car makers ruled the American car market. Hardly any foreign cars were around because domestic cars were good-looking, well-built and reliable. The only drug problem high school students had was spending too much time at drugstore soda fountains. Malts, shakes, sodas and my personal favorite, 400s (chocolate milk over shaved ice), could be pretty addictive. It was a different time, indeed.

Having established my credentials as a bona fide geezer, I can report that attending class reunions is good medicine for whatever down-in-the-dumps ailments one might have. I know I came away feeling great.

Reunions put folks in contact with childhood friends and their spouses. It goes without saying that childhood friendships were the first ones developed. I believe it is the early friendships that influence how we develop later in life.

Trust me: Renewing old friendships is a therapeutic elixir that turns back the calendar, and for a brief moment a revival of youthful exhilaration comes over you. I have noted that when old friends meet up after many years away from each other, they will almost immediately resume the level of relationship they enjoyed in the past.

I don’t mean to sound like a sociologist; however, I have this quasi-theory that the characteristics attracting us to other people don’t change, regardless of age. The ease of immediately getting back in touch with once-close friends suggests that they would become friends if meeting for the first time. My class holds reunions every five years. We apparently like to get back together; our reunions are well attended.

A few of us classmates who live within a driving distance of each other meet for family get-togethers on New Year’s Eve. At this point in our lives, staying awake until the New Year arrives is a common goal. Because we enjoy each other’s company, none has ever failed to make it to midnight. Old acquaintances shall not be forgotten.

Perhaps the best feature of reunions of people of advanced age is the relaxed atmosphere. I suspect it’s fairly common that early class reunions are punctuated by classmates boasting about what is happening in their lives. Young families and career startups can hamper relaxed get-togethers. No need for that any more. No longer are old friends in the midst of the frenzy of getting started in life. There is no desire to feel competitive.

Whatever successes and failures the former classmates may have had are behind them. No more mountains to climb, no worlds to conquer. At this stage in the game of life, my old friends and I are able to sit back, relax and reminisce about long-ago days when we were young and life was out there to be conquered. Ah yes, those were Golden Years.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.