Fifteen Years Man!!

On Saturday night, I went to my 15-year college reunion at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. Now, admittedly, I don't really keep in touch with many of those who I was in college with. And, since I was a transfer student, I was only there two years anyway. I had a small group I hung out with, but I didn't really have the four years to "bond" with a lot of people, as many of my classmates did. I also wasn't big on going out to the bars, so I missed out a lot on the social scene. However, since I managed my senior year to become the editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper, I did manage to get to know a lot of people I otherwise might not have.

I attended two events: There was a Mass Saturday evening, and I had been invited to join with the alumni choir. It was nice to be back in the chapel where I had been to Mass and sang so many times during those years. But I have to say that the turnout at Mass wasn't huge, and the presider barely acknowledged the occasion. But, still, it was nice, and nostalgic.

After Mass there was a dinner for the class, and I was relieved as I arrived to find that two of the people I used to hang out with were there, and so I grabbed a seat with them. I enjoyed catching up with them, and some conversation with a couple of other classmates and their husbands who I didn't really know so well "back in the day." I kinda wish I had gotten to know more of them better back then, but I remember that there were a few things that got in the way of that: 1) Editing the newspaper took up a lot of time, 2) I was also working about 20 hours a week, and 3) I wasn't much of a drinker, so more or less avoided the party scene.

I was surprised that one of my friends, having seen one of my reflections in Living Faith, had "googled" me, and thus was aware of this blog. I also ran into the guy who was my sports editor on the newspaper (he left a comment on the post below). When I said hello, he said "I read your blog sometimes." So out of about 50 people who attended from my class, at least two had visited the blog. Which just goes to show, you never know who's lurking!

Turns out, one of my friends now lives about two minutes away from my sister (with whom I was staying). So, she and I and our other friend who was staying with her finished off the night with a couple glasses of wine at her place. We had a look through the old yearbook and shared what we knew of the doings of some of our other classmates. We, of course, got a kick out of the big hair (we were barely out of the eighties then) and reminisced about to some of the events we had attended together. Among the more interesting was our "senior week" outing to a night game at Fenway Park. In the middle of the game, the lights went out and, as we sat in the dark, the organist led us in "Take me out to the ballgame."

And, speaking of ballgames, one of the highlights of the weekend was watching my niece and nephews, who had been to Cooperstown the week before, doing their own renditions of Abbott & Costello's "Who's on First?" And, speaking of 15 years, that's also the age of my oldest nephew, who was born at the beginning of that college senior year! Now, he's about an inch shorter than me and taking his end of sophomore year final exams this week. But do I feel old? Naaah . . .

If you don't get the reference in the header, check out one of the best reunion movies ever, Grosse Pointe Blank.