Class of 1992 20 Year Reunion
Reflections, Nostalgia, and an optimistic look forward...
So the 20 Year Reunion has come and gone, a weekend of reflection, contemplation, old friends, stories that have grown and spread with time, and perhaps the lingering smell of uncertainty with the throbbing beat of a band way too loud for the venue. Like the above ID, these are simply the reflections of one mind looking back, 20 years, 2 days, and looking forward with no real expectations. I hope you enjoy my insights, more than that, I hope to inspire a few of your own. I suppose in some way, much of what I wanted to say was said this weekend, but in a sea of aged faces, the clear message of mortality that was made ever clear by the small memorial of our fallen friends perhaps beckons the remembrances of one mind, one heart, and one perspective that is as anonymous now as it was when the moniker "the guy on page 3, 4 or 5" was first conceived. Some of you are no doubt confused at this point, and that's OK, just hang with me and enjoy the read...if you can stand to read that much, I tend to ramble some...
I've always been a nostalgic soul...I save scrap book items, pictures; I have 6 cigar boxes of letters people wrote me in college. Mostly my memories come with a flea market full of tangible bits to affirm my memories aren't an internal myth. I heard a lot about Senior Toga Day at the 20 year reunion. I heard a lot about prom, Senior Skip Day, and a dozen other things that people related their high school experience to. One of my best memories is perhaps something many of you heard about, but likely never realized I was involved in. In the closing days of our Junior year, I embarked on a prank with a couple of my cohorts...I'll leave their names out lest they be implicated, but they are certainly free to relate their thoughts on the experience.
Those of you familiar with the band/select choir room in 1992 will recall it sat on the second floor down a narrow hall way that housed lockers and the Power and Lifer practice room. My cohorts and I snuck out of lunch to execute a plan that would overshadow whatever pathetic prank the Seniors had in mind, and to our credit, I defy any of you to tell me what the Senior Prank was our Junior Year. That long hallway only had two ways in or out...one was at the mouth of the hallway that opened to the school, the other was a staircase at the end of the hall that went downstairs near where the Performing Arts Center is now.
One of my cohorts went downstairs crossed the building and went up that set of stairs. Only to pull it shut, and chain it with a bicycle chain. On my end was a sliding black gate they would lock on the weekends to secure the musical instruments in the band room. In this case, I pulled the gate shut and ran a shiny new Master padlock through the brackets.
Did I mention that during my lunch period Select choir was in class?
My sincere hope is some of you heard of this practical joke, though were perhaps clueless as to who had perpetrated such a juvenile plan. For those of you who might want proof (or simply some funny pictures), I give to you the following:
That key you see went to a certain bicycle chain. The sticker next to the Musicale ticket came off the back of the padlock I used to secure the gate. The fake 10 dollar bill...well...that was from when I rant for Student Council Treasurer...I'm guessing most of you don't' recall that. I have my speech when I ran for further proof...but I digress. In the days BEFORE cell phone cams, we simply had the audacity to take pictures:
That's me in the striped shirt, and unnamed cohort in the red shirt, and the girl in the green shorts...I won't put her name out there but would love if someone would to guess. She had the unfortunate timing of cleaning out her locker while we were executing our prank. We waited for her to finish before finally explaining her plan, inviting her to pick which side to be on when we locked the gate, then moved forward with our plan. In the aftermath, she would sign me yearbook as such:
Randy, that was a cool prank, too bad you didn't see their faces. It was funny. Your'e a nice guy. I'm glad I met you.
The irony of course being I was a "nice guy" that just prevented 40 or so people from eating lunch. Fortunately for me she didn't' snitch us out. I had a Geometry final to get to, hence I was not there when the lunch bell rang. That and staying on sight at the scene of the crime did not seem a particularly smart endeavor (though doing so certainly wouldn't have been the stupidest thing I did in high school). One more picture with the gate shut and locked tight:
Word has it, those gates are now gone...I missed the tour, and a significant trip down memory lane.
If you were locked in that room that day, heard about this, or had any thoughts about it (particularly looking back), I implore you to share them. As you can imagine, my friends and I had a grand laugh about this but didn't exactly advertise in the year book that we were the culprits. Share your thoughts here, on Facebook, whatever, but please share them!
I want to finish up by saying thanks to the people that made this possible. First and foremost Theresa Martens, Erna Flaschel, the planning community, and everyone else that contributed in some small way. It's a hard bunch of work, always trying to coordinate, please everyone, and do the best thing possible with the hope moving forward that the work will not only be appreciated, but remembered. Thank you all so much, once again...
I'd love to share more memories...your interest and feedback will make that possible, otherwise your'e stuck waiting another 10 years to ask me whatever burning questions you might have...
Thank you for humoring me thus far in this endeavor...
