Love, As Always, Pete

The Weekly Letters, by A. Pedersen Wood

August 20, 2009

Dear Everyone:

The Lake Oswego High School 40th Reunion was all you would have expected it to be.  Out of 444 students in my graduating class, I probably knew about 40.  The names you remembered were the ones you heard every day in class as the teacher called the roll.  But that teacher had six to eight other classes during the day filled with kids whose names you never heard.

So the Reunion Committee had name tags made with your name in BIG letters along with your yearbook photo.  If you met someone during the “dinner”, you each held up your name tags and tried to read the other's.  Looked at the photo and thought about whether you had ever met this person 40 years ago.

I did see some people I recognized and at least one man who I thought I remembered.  I remembered his nickname in High School was “Touché Turtle” because he vaguely resembled a cartoon character from those days.

The “dinner”, starting at 6:00 PM was finger food and appetizers in various places around the room and a no-host bar.  About a hundred people standing around in bunches, talking to other people in a room that was too small for the crowd.  Then they turned on the “60’s music” so everyone was shouting and no one could hear anything.

Some of us were smart enough to exit the room and find places to sit outside on the patio.  But it turns out that the city of Tualatin has free concerts every Friday night in the summer.  So when that band started up, it was impossible to hear anyone even outdoors.

A little before 9:00 I decided that I’d had enough fun, went back to my room and watched a little TV before turning in.  I heard that the hotel staff finally kicked everyone out around 1:00 AM.  Some people just know how to party.

The next day my friend and I drove up to Mount Hood for lunch.  Got our picture taken with Smokey Bear (some kind of promotion going on.)

I flew home on Sunday.  The flight was exactly on time and arrived 10 minutes early.  Everything was going smoothly until I got into a slight altercation with an over-full, too-heavy suitcase (too much just-in-case packing).  No casualties, just a bruised foot.  As for the Reunion, maybe I’ll go back again in another 40 years.

Love, as always,

 

Pete

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