Song Time Again - One for the Ladies

80s Ladies
(You'll have to complete the 90s part yourself)

We were three little girls from school.
One was pretty, one was smart
And one was a borderline fool.
Well she's still good lookin'
That woman hadn't slipped a bit.
The smart one used her head
She made her fortune.
And me, I cross the border every chance I get.

We were the girls of the 50's.
Stoned rock and rollers in the 60's.
And more than our names got changed
As the 70's slipped on by.
Now we're 80's ladies.
There ain't been much these ladies ain't tried.

We've been educated.
We got liberated.
And had complicating matters with men.
Oh, we've said "I do"
And we've signed "I don't"
And we've sworn we'd never do that again.
Oh, we burned our bras,
And we burned our dinners
And we burned our candles at both ends.
And we've had some children
Who look just like the way we did back then.

Oh, but we're all grown up now.
All grown up,
But none of us could tell you quite how.

We were the girls of the 50's.
Stoned rock and rollers in the 60's.
Honey, more than our names got changed,
As the 70's slipped on by.
Now we're 80's ladies.
There ain't been much these ladies ain't tried.

with apologies to K. T. Oslin

Do It Yourself

I read a story once about a newspaper reporter sitting in a bar when this lady of the evening came up to him and said for $300 she would do anything he wanted. So he gave her the money and said, "Now go to my room in the hotel across the street and write a story and a side bar for tomorrow's paper."

Writing these are sometimes that way. You just run out of ideas. I started this to be about us, our class. Over time it has expanded to cover the 'us' we are now, and the differences between our world then and our world now.

One of the problems is I don't really know that much about 'us'. It wasn't like I was at the top of everybody's list of friends, and I'm okay with that, but it does limit the experiences I can share. Oh, I could talk about this fight or that argument or when this guy and girl decided to crawl into the backseat of the car and do the dirty boogy, but that's not what this space was intended for.

Let's face it. We were a small group of people from a small town. We were before drugs and gangs and cellphones and computers, and while that's good, it sure does limit what we can talk about. Especially when I have the memory of an acorn. I sometimes have trouble remembering things from last week. Just ask Sue, she'll tell you. :)

So, here's another plea for help. I will gladly share the user ID and password to this site with anyone from our class who wants to take a shot at adding something. It can be anything you want, but I would humbly request it not be malicious in any way. You would be surprised what gets people to yakking. I still shake my head when I remember the response I got when I wrote about lockers, but it's little things like that, which we all had in common, that folks seem to like to talk about most.

Let me know. :)

Homecoming Games

Who is the homecoming game against this year? Are the stands still packed?

I guess 30-odd years ago we didn't have many other distractions, so the homecoming game was a hot ticket, or at least it seemed that way. Now that there are video games and computers and DVDs and cable TV and so many other things to do, does the homecoming game draw the crowd it used to?

Do you guys still go, those of you that live close? How about you folks further away, have you been to any since you left? If I were there I would most likely fall into the group that go sometimes, or at least better then half of them. Things do get in the way; family, jobs, and other commitments, but homecoming would be one of the few places I could go to with a lot of others so I could see how people have changed.

And yep, they would be looking at me too. Hopefully most would say something kind. :)

Toofers

This week I have officially felt old. Last Friday I had a few teeth removed. Two were from an old root canal gone bad and the other was my last wisdom tooth.

The Air Force tried twice a year to take my wisdom teeth, "Better give them up now, before they start giving you trouble," they always said. That made no sense to me at the time. Why pull something that didn't need pulling? They didn't hurt, they weren't impacted, they weren't crooked, there was nothing wrong with them, but you could see the dentists almost salivate at the prospect of getting to pull something. They got 3 over the years for one reason or another, but I held on to the last one as long as I could.

So, now I'm thinking they were right, or put another way, if I had let them pull them all years ago, my mouth wouldn't be so sore right now. :)

Starry Night

Over the course of this blog we have all commented on things that have changed over the years, and for the most part that change was to be expected. After all, we were young and our lives lay before us. No one had any idea of what they would be or where they would end up, we only knew what our dreams and plans were. So yes, most things were supposed to change, but some things were not.

The other morning I left for work about 5:30. A front had passed during the night and left the sky clear and bright and when I walked out of the garage the sky was filled with stars. They were the same stars I loved to look at when I was a kid, but these days they are not as clear or vivid.

Back then there were so many more of them, filling the sky from one horizon to another. Now they're dim and hard to see because of the pollution and light saturation from bright city lights and shopping centers. You can still see Venus showing off her pretty self most mornings just before sunrise and Mars looking red and angry from time to time, but some of the others I haven't seen clearly in awhile; like Pleiades who seems to have lost a sister or two or the sky is just too hazy to see if all 7 of them are there or not.

They weren't supposed to change. People do, place do, but not the sky. I would love to show my grandchildren the night sky I used to see, maybe someday I will find a place where I can. Is the night sky in Loudon still the same? I sure hope so.

Cliques

This is one of those topics that might make you cringe when you first see it. How in the heck do you bring it up without ticking somebody off? Answer. You don't worry about it. It's one of those "if the shoe fits, wear it" type things

There are two nearly undeniable truths about cliques. First, at one time or another all of us have railed against them, and second, we have all been a member of at least one.

Not all cliques are bad, in fact, most aren't. There are the ones that could be a touch malicious, but if someone has a problem about them being exlusive, well, that's what a clique is, right?

The band folks had a clique, and so did the jocks. Then each of those had subcliques... cliques within cliques... like drummers or horn players or football players or basketball jocks. The kids who went to Loudon Junior High had a clique, and so did the folks from Philadelphia, or Steekee, or any other feeder school.

Some cliques were hot, like the cheerleaders; or not so hot, like the smokers.

Every year we went from one clique to another until we were members of one of the most popular cliques of them all... seniors. :)

I remember being in 3 cliques all the way through high scholl... skinny ugly guys who smoked. :)

Reunions

This past weekend I went to Pennsylvania with my wife for her 35th high school reunion. It is the 3rd one I've gone to with her, and so far, the best. It was more informal and low key than any of the others and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I will admit to a little uneasiness at being around a group of people I really didn't know, but I hung in until about 11 when I went upstairs to our room to catch the Tennessee score.

I did notice a few similarities between this reunion and the ones I've been to for our class.

There was about 25-30 percent of the class that attended.
A couple of the guys showed up without their wives, but 15 to 20 of the ladies showed up without their husbands.
Most of the people who still lived in that town did not show up. Some didn't even bother to respond to the request for information to make up a class contact list.
The ones who did show up seemed to really enjoy themselves and the few I know personally that didn't attend expressed disappointment after the fact.

Also, I've talked to several people at work who had reunions this past summer and I've heard a few tips or ways of making them more fun.

1. First, schedule them either early or late in the year so there will be less chance of a conflict with family vacations.

2. Post the first couple of ads about a year in advance in the local newspaper or other source and let the local folks think about it a little longer.

3. Have it over several days (weekend) and make it so that each day/event is optional. That way someone who may not be able to attend one thing, because of work or whatever, can attend something else, and people from out of town might be more willing to come in for several days as opposed to just one.

4. Make one of those extra things family oriented, so those with kids/grandkids can attend, like a picnic or something like that.

5. Everyone who usually attends 'adopts' someone who usually doesn't attend and encourages them to show up.

6. Celebrate every classmate's birthday since we will all have one sometime during that year.

If anyone else has any ideas, add them to this post. You're going to be 58 before you know it. :)