EXCITING TIMES

As the song says "The Party's Over - It's time to call it a day". That is what I am saying about the East High Class of 1951's 60th Anniversary Reunion. The event was held at the Sheraton Music City Hotel and there is not one thing I would have changed about the party. We gathered at 4:00 for registration. The photographer, Lea Rutherford, came at 5:00 to make the class picture. Bless her heart, her battery on her camera had gone down and we had to "hold that pose" for 2 minutes while she charged it. She made her pictures, we helped all of the people sitting on the floor to get up and then we made our way to beautifully prepared tables with the white linen cloths, napkins, silver, china, crystal and Elizabeth Hill's centerpieces of red roses. Our meal was to die for - salad, sirloin steak and chicken marsala on a bed of buttermilk mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus spears lying across the entire plate. After those plates were removed the waiters/waitresses brought out warm bread budding with a bourbon sauce and chocolate drizzle. Yum, yum, yum. What a delightful dining experience. The video was then shown on a big screen that could be seen by everyone and it was a presentation of pictures of our class, with a few friends from other classes, from early days at East High until present days. It was accompanied by music that had been carefully chosen from 1950-51 days. Much squealing and laughing and commenting went on while the video was being played. It brought back so many memories and made us all feel like we were going back in time. The only sad part of it was that so many of the people that were pictured in the video are now gone. In planning this reunion these are the facts that I discovered: we had 43 members of the January Class; 156 members of the June Class. The people who left to go to the service or claim to be Class of 1951 bring our number to 211 members. We have 81 deceased members. We have 23 wrong or no address. We have accurate information on 107 members of the class . We had 42 classmates registered for the reunion, and with spouses and friends we had 74 registered. How sorry we were that Peggy Bomar got sick and had to miss. Jane Bradbury Russell could not make it this year, but how excited we were when Betty Patterson Pidcock walked into the hotel after traveling from Colorado. Shirley Charlton came from Chattanooga. We were so happy to see the Seigenthalers - James and Carl and oh, so many of the people that we have not seen in so long. Believe me the lobby of the Sheraton has never heard so much screaming and squealing and seen so much hugging and kissing as went on Saturday afternoon. I wonder how many schools in this day and time can boast of such long-term friendships as East High classes. As we parted company on this lovely evening many spoke of another such event in five years. I just smiled and said nothing because I don't know if my stress factor will be back to zero in five years. We will just have to wait and see.

School has started here in Tennessee. It is hard to believe that the summer has ended and that is just what has happened when school starts. Joesea, Kim's granddaughter, started to kindergarten, Christopher, (Chris's oldest child) started first grade and so did Connor, (Leslie's oldest child). Courtney moved back to U. T. and Carter went back to Goodpasture to start his sophomore year. Football starts Friday night and I intend to attend every one that I can this year because Carter will be playing and I want to savor every minute of his high school career because he is my last tie with that school. In my family two of my daughters and six of my grandchildren have graduated from that school. I have been involved with it since the second year it opened and when Carter graduates my association will be over. That is sad to me because it has been such a big part of my life. Oh well, that is life. Some things come and some things go. It is all part of the big plan that God has for our lives. I feel so safe knowing that He is in control and I don't have to worry about it. My life has always been good - some parts better than others - but still very good because no matter what life has given me I could always know that God is good - all the time.