Ten-Finger Exercises

A Reunion Observer

We spent last night and tonight at functions that were part of Bill's Class of '66 high school reunion. Tonight's was at the fairgrounds in an building with no air conditioning, and it was very hot. Last night's was at a brew pub owned by one of his classmates.

My strategy last night was great. After circulating for a few minutes I went to sit at a table. A few people stopped to talk, and sit, for a minute. The rest of the time I took notes on what was going on around me. I enjoyed myself. No one asked me about what I was doing. Things liike that always surprise me. I'd be curious if someone else was sitting, watching and writing.

If I'd thought about that scheme fifty years ago, I need never have felt like a wallflower. I remember pretending that I preferred to watch everyone else dancing over dancing myself. That may be when I adopted my "observer" posture in the world, a safety measure to avoid feeling left out. Soon it became true.

I never was very coordinated anyway, and never was a good dancer. Translating what I saw in dancing class to my own feet, it had to go through both sides of my brain. I had to think using the language side: move left foot forward, etc. There are better ways to learn movement, so I hear.

But back to the reunion, I sat there thinking about what people at my own reunion would look like. I've only seen one of my classmates since 1960, when I moved away in my junior year. My gosh, they'll look really old! It's different, having your contemporaries around you often, as Bill has. I feel like I never really know how I fit in the curve. Not that comparisons are necessarily healthy or helpful, but that I don't have any, at least from the same 1960 mid-western culture.

My reunion will be in Elyria, Ohio, this summer. Even though I graduated in 1960 in Georgia, I was in the class of '61, the year that class rings looked the same upside down or right side up. I don't know if I can get to it or not, or even if I want to enough to pay the plane ticket price and make the trip.

Some night when I don't know what else to write about, I'll transcribe my notes from last night.