By Barbara Falconer Newhall
It turns out that, yes, you can go home again. If you’re me, that is. All I had to do was show up for my high school class reunion and there I was, back in Birmingham, Michigan, circa 1959.
Last weekend (after two weeks in Greece with Jon and the kids – more about that later) I flew to Birmingham and was transported through time – fifty years – to a place and an era and bunch of people that I thought had vanished.
Except they hadn’t. The community that has existed in my mind these past fifty years turned out to be a fact, not just a memory. Last weekend, 125 out of a class of 500 or so got together for two days. It had been five decades, but we still knew who we were and that we had shared some vital – if sometimes painful – years together.
Jan Heideman was still pretty. Jewel Ofenstein still smiled the same sweet, wry smile. Jim Griffin still had freckles. Bob Lovell was as affectionate and confident as ever. Linda Burkman still cared about everybody. Penny Ball still played the piano. Karel McCurry was still my friend.
On Saturday morning, our old school opened its doors to us for a tour. This gave dozens of the class of ’59 a chance to walk the halls — the same ones we used to walk a half century ago, saying “hi” to each other as we passed from algebra to chemistry to the cafeteria, hoping against hope that our classmates would say “hi” back.
Mary Lester, Bill Montgomery, Margo Mensing – names as familiar to me as those of my next door neighbors today. No. More familiar. (To tell the truth, I have to pause a moment to remember the names of the people who inhabit my life these days. But the class of ’59? Their names are imprinted deep in my gray matter.)
I can still remember the the faces, the voices, the personalities of most of my old Birmingham High School (since renamed Seaholm High School) classmates. Sue Little, who sang with me in the First Presbyterian Church girls choir. Pat Hovey, who beat me out for “Best Smile” in our senior year elections. Jan Cadwell, who talked me into skipping school with her one spring day – and made sure we got away with it. Ann Graham and Gordy Fox, who reconnected with each other at our tenth reunion, got married, and all these years later, went to a lot of trouble to organize our fiftieth reunion.
Thanks Ann and Gordy and everyone else who put this weekend together. With any luck at all, we’ll see each other again in 2019.
More pictures of what’s now called Seaholm High School at “Birmingham High School and Then Some.”
Hi Barbara: I was two years ahead of you at Birmingham High. This evening while listening to a concert of the Vienna Orchestra I thought of your classmate Penny and a Web search on Penny took me to your site.
I became of friend of your brother through [a friend] with whom I played ice hockey. I met my wife Vicki while a student at Cornell University. She was from the Bay Area and I moved to the Bay Area after graduating to be with her. I reconnected with your brother while searching for a smart physicist to do some research for my employer. I recall seeing you and your husband at his parties.
Hi Terry! So nice to hear from you! I remember you clearly! Yes, I do have a smart physicist brother, who keeps my skeptical side alive and well.