Reuniting with something I never missed

The "Mighty, Mighty, Vikings" didn't seem so mighty at the 10 year reunion I attended last week. In fact, I was downright dissapointed. I don't like reunions, but I had psyched myself into going so I could bring a little joy to my old buddy Jerrod and his boys in Iraq by videotaping my escapade. Upon arrival at the reunion, it became apparant immediately that videotaping the carnage before me was worthless use of time. There were probably twenty people there (men, women and children) thus I gathered that only five or six people there were actual graduates of the class of '95. On top of that I recognized NO ONE. I worried I may have stumbled into the wrong party, but the signs were clear, this was the place. I couldn't belive there wasn't someone handing out name badges or welcoming people as they arrived, and this made me wonder where the class presidency was as most of them are old friends and I was excited to see them. Since I couldn't identify any of them around the park pavilion I decided to pack it up, grab me a soda from one of the three coolers, and go to the NEXT reunion on my calendar that day.

Just as I was turning to find my wife and child - Ben, our class president, appeard. So I got to talk to him for a few minutes. He helped clear up some of my confusion. He said he was the only member of the presidency at the party, that the dinner the night before had been quite successful and he even said a few words to Jerrod and Andy via the video camera.

As I talked to Ben I recognized two other people from the high school, one whom I was not happy to see and avoided (plus he lives in our stake and could see him whenever) the other was Jackie and her husband Johnny whom I've seen several times just in the last few years. Jackie obliged my request to say hi to Jerrod and I talked to Johnny for a while about life in Portland and Washington. During those conversations I had three people approach me, call me by name, and strike up conversations like we were ol' buds. I only recognized one of three but couldn't tell you any of thier names despite the fact they remembered mine without difficulty (wish somone'd made name tags.)

After those startling conversatoins I decided my time at the reunion (all thirty minutes) was more than I could squeeze into the day and hastened off to find my wife and baby who had been brimming with joy over the multitude of ducks at the nearby pond. I left feeling like I had been to bad ward picnic. I felt guilty for not remembering the people who so readily remembered me and came to the ultimate conclusion that reunions are definately a bad thing.