My All-School Reunion is this weekend (starting tomorrow) and I'm excited as the devil. The Class of 63 is putting it on this year (my class did it last year) and we're all getting ready to be 18 again for the weekend.

This is a big deal for all the alumni of our High School and I wouldn't miss it for the world. Our class is having a Sat afternoon "pull out" reunion at the lake - which is always fun and the 63 class is having one next door so I've got a feeling we'll be co-mingling (there's a gate between the houses).

And this year I've been honored to be asked to sit at the Outstanding Alumni table with this lady who I really admire. She came to this country when she was five not speaking a word of English and started school that way (we didn't have special ed teachers back then). She graduated at 16 3rd in her class, has 2 Phds, and has gone on to teach at Texas U. and Rice U. and has a list of accomplishments that take three pages and is still the humble little girl I remember from grade school.

Anyhow I'm looking forward to the weekend and Mr. Demon just better stay away .. I plan to have fun and he ain't stopping me..

Ya'll have a good weekend too. But bet I'm gonna have more fun.  ;) :-*

Oh I won't get into a "who's having more fun" battle with you lady, that's a fools errand! Let your hair down and rock it Barb. ;D

Joe

Sounds like it'll be a ton of fun. Have a great time!

Be home for 9.

Getting packed now.. And Steve - what's a curfew?  :) Off to Pardee!! Ya'll have a great weekend..  :-* :-*

Had a REALLY great weekend from the time I got to Gladewater till I left on Sunday. It was non-stop visiting and just plain fun.

But the hit of the whole reunion was the acceptance speech from our Outstanding Alumni. I don't think anyone in the place wasn't either crying or could talk after she got thru.

She told about escaping from Russia to Germany (her father was on the black list in Russia) and then obtaining two sponsors in the US and getting to America (a hurricaine on the way almost sunk the ship) and when they arrived in America one of their sponsors had backed out (the one in New York). So they were put on another ship and sent to New Orleans where they were put on a train and early in the morning they got off in Gladewater where a cab was waiting for them and the cab driver motioned for them to get in. She was 5 years old and scared. Her mother put her arm around her and told her not to worry, "We're free."

And the first day of school, she arrived scared to death, not speaking a word of English and how her classmates gathered around her and welcomed her. She said that's when she knew she was "home".

The whole speech was what America meant to her and what a wonderful country we have and lucky she had been to have been raised in Gladewater and Texas and the USA.

She never mentioned that she has TWO PHd's, taught at University of Texas and Rice University, taught our troops for two years foreign language before they deployed, had been named an honorary Admiral in the Texas Navy and a host of other things. Just what being an American meant.

When she finished Everyone was on their feet but no one could say a word. We were all so choked up - she really brought home to all of us the freedom we take for granted.

And I felt so honored that she'd asked me to sit at her table for the night. All the posts on FB about the reunion have been about her speech.

And thank goodness I did not have anything other than a shadow the whole time. It was such a wonderful weekend. And my "true love" from the fifth grade was there and I got lots of hugs from him. He's still a sweetheart (and has a beautiful wife).

But for some reason SOME of those people had gotten OLDER looking. Of course I still looked 18, but some of them looked much older.  :)

Anyhow, now I have to go back to the real world and back to work.  :( so much for the fun time. Ya'll have a good week.. :-*

Sounds like it was a magical event, Barb. Very happy for you that you were able to go, and with nothing but a shadow no less.

What a wonderful story, Barb. I'd have been crying too even though I didn't know her.


Quote:

And the first day of school, she arrived scared to death, not speaking a word of English and how her classmates gathered around her and welcomed her.

  I wonder if that would happen today?  No doubt she'd have been ostracized or bullied, sad to say.  :'(

 

Hi Barbara,
what a great read which i can relate to. My wife arrived
here in Australia with her parents from Italy when she was
only 5 years old and not able to speak a word of english
when first going to school. It's her birthday today, and she is
going out for morning coffee with friends from her primary
school days.

Hoppy.

Alla is the one without the glasses on her head.. I'm the other one.

---

Great picture, Barb, you both look beautiful!