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.

Joe

Be home for 9.

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..

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

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

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