Greetings,
I just
got an e-mail from a friend:
"Hi,
I can't tell you what a joy it was to see you after all these years. Thank you very much for lunch and taking the time out to see Diane
and me.
We returned safely home and learned a great deal during the weekend. I'll be telling some of our classmates of our visit.
Maybe on our next trip to LA, we can get together with you and your husband.
Talk to you soon. Again, it was really great to see you, you looked great.
Aloha,
Wes and Diane"
It was a joy
to see Wes again. He looked
terrific! Same eyes, same eyes. Tall, as I remembered, but
broader-shouldered.
I
liked Diane right away. She has twinkly eyes, and her warmth matches Wes'. I learned that they had met each other through work, when
Wes, then in office supply sales, visited her office.
She's a '68 Waipahu High School graduate, one of 800 in her
class.
Wes
and I are friends from high school boarding school, and over four
years together, along with our classmates, we had built a huge storehouse of
shared lifetime memories.
Our entire class was only 100 students, most of
us from the outer islands, a number from O`ahu, the main island of
Hawai`i,
and a few from the mainland (continental US), Japan, and the South
Sea islands. We
were all boarders, and because of that, we were more than just
classmates.
In many ways, we were one big family, doing most
everything together, including two to three sit-down meals a day,
weekend activities, intramural sports, and chapel, two to three
times a week. Camaraderie, lots of it, was part and parcel of the
boarding experience.
Over
lunch at Hof's, Wes and I remembered classmates we had seen in
recent years, then reminisced
over dorm shenanigans, school rules, the breaking of them, and
(horrors!) the penalty incurred -- manual labor -- when caught,
and later as reluctant enforcers of those rules as dorm
disciplinarians.
Our
fondest and richest memories were those of our fun times during
our island-hopping years in the school choir and school
plays. He was surprised that I remembered him in
his lead role in the play, Damn
Yankees. Who could forget his Joe Hardy!
The
years that separated us melted away as we reminisced.
Our friendship was being renewed. Some things never change. Wes is a man
now, with a grown-up daughter, as outgoing as I remembered.
The years have not diminished his boyish enthusiasm,
gregariousness, and zest for life.
Diane was
wonderful. Listening patiently to our reminiscing, she
expressed how it surprises her how close
we are as classmates, how we shared so many common experiences, now fond
memories, and how we can pick up so easily.
So
true. The ties continue to bind, after all these years.
Whenever I
indulge in trips down memory lane, I am warmed by my high school
recollections, although dimmed with time. When shared with Wes, a
classmate, these memories were dusted off, touched up with missing
details, and now shine again even
brighter.
In
hindsight, thanks to our short visit, I am feeling even more
blessed than ever to have lived that boarding school life.
Teen years with its ups and downs are challenging ones, and we
experienced many of them together. Going away to boarding school was a
terrific opportunity to broaden my horizons, obtain a solid
college preparatory education, and most of all, get to know good
people like Wes, a lifetime friend, as are all of our classmates.
Wes will be 50 this month. We are aging gracefully. Life
has been kind.
"Life is a Gift."
Tripping down memory
lane,
Author Unknown
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