Once Upon a Time, Long Long Ago

This past Saturday we were able to celebrate the 55^th class reunion of the Connellsville Area High School graduation seniors. It was held at the Pleasant Valley Golf Club’s dining area. Our class was the first class where the Dunbar Mules and the Connellsville Cokers were combined to be the Connellsville Falcons. The red and black high school colors of the Dunbar Mules and the orange and black of the Connellsville Cokers was forever lost to the blue and white colors of the Connellsville Falcons. I believe it was a traumatic time for both schools. The turmoil of our senior year was further heightened by throwing 250 students from each school system together in their senior year. Classmates were mixed. Students from the Mules and Cokers were expected to make new friends from 250 strangers.

The friends we’d known, sometimes from grade school were now being separated. The result was that we were going to school with strangers and it was difficult to learn the names of the new people and to make new friends. At our 55^th reunion it was at times awkward to see a face and have no idea of the name to whom I was speaking. What made the situation even worse was the fact that I was suffering with diplopia, for several weeks (double vision.) That caused a blurring of faces.

I was asked to EMCEE the affair giving the welcome and thanking those people involved. I managed to stumble through the opening remarks. I was thankful what I’d written was short. Sometimes I had to backtrack because the words I’d written had run together.

All in all it was a wonderful evening seeing the members of our graduating class, renewing some friendships and getting to know other people who were newly introduced strangers in 1967. I was thankful that I was able to attend and grateful to those people who worked diligently to make it all happen. I will say, “Semper Fi” to the man who thought it was a great idea to have the reunion, then kept pressing to make it happen. This is a thank you to all involved. Thank you for everything that you did.

Lastly, I want to say to those who couldn’t attend because of distance, health, or because they no longer walk among us, we missed you.