Lost But Never Forgotten Classmates

Everyone has one high school friend that they really would like to see.

For me it's people like Larry Visos. We used to lie on our backs in his back yard watching clouds go by on 100 degree days in 100 percent humidity drinking orange soda. I haven't seen him in over 40 years. I tried to track him this reunion, but I only got as far as Washington DC. He is, or was a US postal inspector, but that's as far as I got.

Tom Jarvis, Mr. Madras, is another guy I would really like to see again too. He was always there with a quick smile and had pretty good sense of humor. After our 20th reunion there were rumors of Tom was in San Francisco, running the famous trolley. Tom are you still around and kicking?

But the most mysterious guy for me is Scott Geiger. President of the January class, co-captain of our football team and my freshman college roommate at Mizzou. Scott has been MI from our reunions for 40 years, no Christmas cards, no phone calls, no photos....up until now.

I do know that after graduation Scott went into the Marine Corps and maybe that was a turning point. Over the years I have met people and made new friends who prefer to live their lives in the present and want to leave the past alone. No looking back.


I get that. And I respect his decision to not participate with things like reunions. But all the same, I would like to see and talk with him. If I pissed him off (I could have in college) it's understandable I guess, but that still leaves 140 other classmates that I know didn't piss him off..............

So, you can imagine how happy when I got the following email from Debbie and Scott! For all of you who wanted to know what Scott and Debbiepulsationsne) are doing read on.

Hello, Dennis,

I think that I am pretty lucky. I still have all my body parts and hair -- not a bad deal as old as we are getting. The back and legs do not have the get up and go but all in all -- still going.

I work for a gas appliance distributor -- heating and A/C, gas logs, commercial heaters... Debbie is a kindergarten teacher -- Teacher of Year four or five times including this year. She has been for 30 years except for 11 years when she stayed home with the children. She was what she was put on earth to do.

We have two children. A daughter who is 30 years old and living in St. Petersburg, Florida. She got married on a cruise last year. A good time was had by all the family and friends. She is expecting our first grandchild any time now. Our son is 25 years old and living in Charleston, South Carolina. He works for a golf course/resort developer and loves life - good job, lots of friends and the beach.

At this point in time, I do not even know how to spell retirement! We hope to start a company involved with a new personal water craft -- new products are a slow painful process.

Actually, life could not be better. We live on a lake with 1 1/2 acres. We have made it into what we call our park -- spend most of our timpiddlingng around the yard and glad we still can. Every evening we take the dog for a boat ride in our little johnboat with a 10 H.P. motor. We do not pass too many boats, but who wants to. We have been very fortunate and are very grateful.

We still love to dance. Beach music/shagging is everywhere. But here beach music means Motown and 60's and 70's. Shagging is our dancing from the 60's. All the small towns around Charlotte bring in bands for Alive After Five and various street festivals. We eat too much and dance the night away.

We still help out at the high school booster club during football games. We are Mr. & Mrs. French Fries King and Queen!!! The kids go through about 400 lbs. of french fries per game. Concerts in the Park, exercise, friends who have become family after 30+ years fill our lives with laughter and memories of the kids growing up.

I hope everyone is doing well and that you all have a GREAT time at the get-together. We will be thinking about all of you. Attached is a picture taken during one of our visits to Charleston this year.

Tell everyone hi for us,

Scott and Debbie

For the record, I am really glad to hear from Scott and Debbie. I may never hear from them again after publishing this, but I have to tell you that it's sort of comforting to know that if you get pushy enough you can get a response from even the most reclusive of our classmates. I won't publish their email address since that would be an invasion of their privacy.

To that end, we do have email addresses of our classmates that responded to the reunion mailing. It 's not up to me, but I think those addresses can be available through the Southwest Reunion Committee. If in the meantime you see a name on the blog that you want to get in touch with, drop us an email and we will share it with you.

I know what you're saying "What if an x-wife or x-husband, a pregnant 16 year old, a process server, or worse yet a bill collector asks for your email address?

OK, Maybe it's not a good idea to share email addresses, so, if you do get an email that you don't want to respond to you can always say that it got caught in your spam guard, or your kids deleted it or your cat hit the delete button just as you were going to respond amd you will never hear from them again.

Keep those comments and emails coming. It makes writing this blog worthwhile.

Dennis Hayashi