Military families are subject to routine transfers. Therefore, their
school age children must switch schools just as often. Sometimes, the
changes in educational facilities can be challenging if the transfers
are to foreign lands in Europe or Asia. Nonetheless, children of
military families scholastically rate among the highest for several
reasons: 1) they have learned to adapt to change, 2) they are exposed
to the benefits of foreign languages, 3) travel is considered the best
education that anyone can get.
On the other side of the coin, there are benefits of keeping children
in the same school system from grade one through twelve, such as
basically staying among school friends whose families are never
required to make transfers. What most don't realize is after high
school graduation, everybody fans out in pursuit of their own lives.
They go separate ways to college, technical schools, the military, get
married or to take jobs elsewhere. Many are never seen, again. About
the only time many will ever see one another, again, is
when or if they have high school reunions every 5 or 10 years
afterward and they attend.
After those are over with, again, they disappear until the next
reunion. Here's a cute but true little poem that pretty much tells how
those reunions go:
THE CLASS REUNION
Every few years, as summertime nears,
An announcement arrives in the mail;
A reunion is planned; it'll be really grand;
“Make plans to attend without fail.”
I'll never forget the first time we met,
We tried so hard to impress;
We drove fancy cars, and smoked big cigars,
And wore our most elegant dress.
It was quite an affair; the whole class was there,
It was held at a fancy hotel;
We wined, and we dined, and we acted refined,
And everyone thought it was swell.
The men all conversed about who had been first
To achieve great fortune and fame;
Meanwhile their spouses described their fine houses
And how beautiful their children became.
The homecoming queen, who once had been lean,
Now weighed in at one-ninety-six;
The jocks who were there had all lost their hair,
And the cheerleaders could no longer do kicks.
No one had heard about the class nerd
Who had guided a spacecraft to the moon,
Or poor little Jane, who'd always been plain,
She married a ****pping tycoon.
The boy we'd decreed "most apt to succeed"
Was serving ten years in the pen,
While the one voted "least" now was a priest;
Just shows you can be wrong now and then.
No one said a prayer for the boy not there,
Who was killed as a Marine, brave and true,
Or the disabled vet who paid his debt
And was decorated with high honors due.
They awarded a prize to one of the guys,
Who seemed to have aged the least;
Another was given to the grad that had driven
The farthest to attend the feast.
They took a class picture, a curious mixture
Of beehives, crew cuts and wide ties;
Tall, short or skinny, the style was the mini;
You never saw the likes of such thighs.
At our next get-together, no one cared whether
They impressed their classmates or not;
The mood was informal, a whole lot more normal;
By that time, we'd all gone to pot.
It was held out-of-doors at the lake shores,
We ate hamburgers, coleslaw, and beans;
Then most of us laid around in the shade,
In our comfortable T-****rts and jeans.
By the fortieth year, it was abundantly clear,
We were definitely over the hill.
Those who weren't dead had to crawl out of bed,
And be home in time for their pill.
Everyone came late when they set the date
For our next meeting, or so I was told;
I could not recall our fiftieth ball
At the Shady Rest Home for the old.
The ones who were there just stood with a stare,
And wondered if they could remember a name;
There'd been such a change; everyone looked so strange
That they wondered why anybody came.
Repairs have been made on my hearing aid,
My pacemaker's been turned up on high;
My wheelchair is oiled, and my teeth have been boiled,
And I've bought a new wig and glass eye.
Now, there's some humor about a rumor
Being passed among those who can survive,
Gathering once more, fifty-five years the lore,
And all bets are off as to who’ll arrive.
And a few are talking about not balking,
When the sixtieth reunion rolls around;
Most are worn out, so there’s genuine doubt
Whether anyone’s mind will be sound!
Some say they feel hearty and are ready to party,
And they'd like to dance 'til dawn's early light;
It'd be lots of fun, but most doubt there'll be one
Or two able to make it till midnight.
Instead they'll stay home where their minds will roam
Through the vanity, the good times and tears;
They'll smile through wrinkles and dim-eyed twinkles,
Recounting where they lost all of their years.
-Ima Bee Wright
Finally, here's a parody that pretty much describes how basically
people don't change... Enjoy the peak...
MY HIGH SCHOOL REUNION
Sally had not changed; she was still a silly blond under all that dye
and caked-on makeup.
Buddy was bald-headed and weighed 365 lbs.; he was voted Most Handsome
boy in our graduating class
Arlene was voted Most Beautiful girl in our graduating class; her
picture was in the dictionary beside the word, "forbidden."
Helose was voted Miss Congenial in our graduating class; her picture
was in the local police files under "Most Wanted."
Samson was voted the Most Popular boy in our graduating class; he will
be paroled in 2050.
Delila was voted the Most Popular girl in our graduating class; she
made the centerfold of Playboy Magazine.
Nancy thought marrying a doctor had been the next best thing to being
incarnated as Queen of England.
Sarah was still wearing round gl***** and looking like she might have
strained her eyes in a microscope.
Monica was still a legend in her own mind; she was a stand up comic
and singer in a Las Vegas nightclub.
Sharron had 13 kids; she and her husband acted very bored.
Alice had been married 11 times; she never could get anything right.
Wanda was a college professor; she researched the *** lives of aphids
and garden slugs.
Joseph rented a Rolls Royce to make the trip.
Andy told the same dull jokes that he memorized in the 10th grade.
Roscoe brought has Harley-Davidson motorcycle in his customized GMC
pickup;
Richie thought himself to be a cor****ate executive; his wife let him
know who the real CEO was though.
Fred was a retired Army colonel; he had a chest full of decorations;
he never left Texas, during his entire career.
Jeb was just a good old slow-talking redneck country boy; he worked
for the post office.
Steve raised pigs and chickens for a living and hell with his wife.
Chuck was a computer whiz; he could always byte off more than he could
chew.
Jake became a Jesuit priest and celibate; he felt it was a mistake for
some people to reproduce.
Ken actually went to Hollywood and played his tissue paper comb on the
TV series, The Beverly Hillbillies.
Jose moved to Utah and took himself 7 wives.
Jerri went to Texas U.; during spring break, he went to the French
Quarter in New Orleans and never went back to college.
Yes, this was my high school reunion. It proved that people don't
change. They just come into this world cold, ****d, hungry and crying,
and then things get steadily worse.
You will probably have to live through it yourself to fully appreciate
how true these things really are.
-Range Rider
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