We survived my 30th reunion. It was held in my hometown in a fairly low-rent place- a social club known as the Italian Benefit Society (or, as it's now called, The Italian Club). Since I grew up in an Italian immigrant mill town, it used to be the center of social life for the town - it had a bar, picnic tables, a horseshoe pit, and two rolled-clay bocce courts. Now, since the old guard (my father's generation) have all passed away, it's mainly a bar.
Since the 30th isn't such a big deal, there were only about 30 of my classmates there (out of about 145 graduates). Most of the people there were either those who never left my small town or the group who held all the class offices, played on the teams, and so on.
The first group was kind of sad, and mostly got very, very drunk. The second, however, had lived pretty interesting lives (they'd left town, gone to college, and then moved back to nearby towns). One had cycled from New England to Anchorage, Alaska, another had lived on an Indian Reservation and was now a priest, and another had crewed a sailboat to South America and now taught Social Studies in a rural part of the state. The classmate we shared a table with was a pretty quiet guy in high school that mostly partied and barely made it through. After spinning his wheels for a bit, he ended first going to a community college and ended up with an engineering degree. He and his family (he married his high school sweetheart) visit a new major league baseball stadium each summer.
So all in all, it was a pretty good weekend.
We got back this afternoon (we stayed at my mom's place last night). So, since I've pretty much finished my preparation for the week (I still have to put the finishing touches on a quiz for tomorrow, but that shouldn't take long), it's time to veg out a bit.
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