Forever Young

Some are like water, some are like the heat

Some are a melody and some are the beat

Sooner or later they all will be gone

Why don't they stay young?

It's so hard to get old without a cause

I don't want to perish like a fading horse

Youth's like diamonds in the sun,

And diamonds are forever

Oh, how the years have been kind to us.  Last weekend was my 30th class reunion.  I graduated from South Charleston High School in WV in 1986.  It seems like forever ago I was 17.  But holy cow!!  Being at the reunion made it seem like yesterday.  

At the end of Stand By Me, there is a quote "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve.  Jesus, does anyone?"  My friends when I was twelve were Pat, Tracy, Mary, Julie and Julie.  In a time of zero self-esteem, of zero confidence, of zero self-worth, they made me feel like I fit in.  They didn't care that I wore the "wrong" jeans.  They knew that when I said "I don't know" when asked where I got my sweater, it meant I got it at K-Mart and they didn't care.  They didn't care that I was "brown".  They just didn't care about any of that and THAT made all the difference in the world!  They will never know how much I owe them for seeing past my "faults".  

And so here is Me, Pat and Tracy in 1986...Julie and Mary had moved away.

And here we are 30 years later...well, Mary came back and I bet Pat wishes she had made the trek!!

It was like time had never passed!!  We were young, carefree, and just full of ourselves!!  I laughed SO hard my throat and abs hurt for two days afterwards!!  It was just a great time.  The only difference was that when the music started to play and the booze was flowing a little more freely, the dance floor was packed.  But I tell ya, we were forever young that night, and the night before, and the day after.  

There were plenty of people there that I "knew" in high school but didn't really talk to.  There were people there that I never spoke to in high school and now we are really good friends.  Heck, there were people there who I didn't even know knew my name in high school that STILL remember me!!  And then there was that one blonde lady who wasn't wearing a name tag that kept coming up to me telling me how I was her hero and that she loved me.  I had no idea who she was.  No one did.  It wasn't until the end of the night and she told us we didn't know her.  She just crashed the reunion.  Oh my Lord, did we laugh HARD!!

Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend:

I love my friends!  I love my class!  It was a great weekend reminiscing, laughing and loving!!  Can't wait until the next one!!  Until then SCHS of 1986...stay Forever Young!!!