"Turn Around"

It seems like everytime I turn around, an awareness of the passage of time slams into me.  Its the consensus of most of us, I believe, that as we get older, time goes faster.  We've all had moments when we realized that it has been XX years since some event or other happened....for instance, June 2009 was the 45th anniversary of my high school graduation -- 45 YEARS!  Yikes!  How is that possible??  That is very nearly unimaginable!  Certainly, at 17, I couldn't have even concieved of something 45 years down the road!  Now, not only is that anniversary real, it is already in the past!  June was 4 months ago.  Arrgghhh, slow down, you're going too fast!

Well, if the realization wasn't bad enough, there is photographic proof of the reality of those 45 years.  There was a reunion of the Class of '64 held this past May (5 mos. ago!) I wasn't able to go but several of the attendees sent out photos of the events.  There is a very active alumni group from the school, particularly for the classes around the Class of '64 (mine).  There was one group photo of all the attendees standing on the stairs going into the dinner. 

Holy Crap!  Where the heck did all those OLD PEOPLE come from??  Did everyone bring their mothers or grandmothers??   But no, upon closer inspection, I began to recognize a smile, or a dimple or a nose.  They weren't a bunch of old strangers, they were my classmates, my contemporaries, my old friends.   OMG!  There was the guy I had a crush on for 3 years!  Over on the other side was the captain of the cheerleaders, there in the back row was the class clown making funny faces, just like always, and down front was the Homecoming Queen.

Looking at them now, you wouldn't believe it.  Nearly all the guys had little (or not so little) pot bellies and no hair; and the women all looked just like me....Overweight, grey haired, little grannies wearing glasses.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen!  We are now older than any of our teachers had been when we were in H.S., and we thought they were ancient then!

I am truly glad that so many of them were able to be there.  Death is beginning to steal one or two away more frequently lately, but this group looked pretty healthy and spry!  That makes me very happy.  But still....what happened to the last 45 years??

The year that we were born was 1946.  Everyone born that year was part of the first official crop of "Baby Boomers."  Most of the dads had served during the War, and practically the first thing they did once they got home from overseas was to...uh...make us!  (They were a randy group, our dads!) 

As time moved on, we seemed to remain on the leading edge of a number of significant changes to the world.  For instance:

*  The first space flights occurred when we were around 13 or 14.
*  President Kennedy was assassinated when we were 17.
*  The Beatles burst upon the scene when we were 18.
*  The VietNam War was killing or forever changing our young men.
*   We were the ones who were in on the War protests. 
*  We were the ones in Chicago with Abie Hoffmann and company.
*   We Baby Boomers, "Turned On, Tuned In, Dropped Out." 
*  We didn't "Trust anybody over 30." 
*  We wanted to "Make Love, Not War"
*  Then more assassinations....Martin Luther King....Bobby Kennedy....

The mind reels! 

All of these things happened before many of us reached 21 years old!  We weren't even old enough to vote!!  It was a tumultuous time!  Everything was becoming different; our music, our technology, our politics, our experiences, our morality, our way of life....all different from what our parents went through or believed. Now like you'd expect, it affected us each individually....some not at all and others beyond recognition.  Change was all around us and it shaped us and continued to follow us during the last 45 years. 

So here we are, all the grey-haired, creaky, old, front-line Baby Boomers, nearly ready to collect Social Security from the Government we didn't believe in for a while.  

We may not be the trend setters, or rebels we used to be, but we've raised our families, paid our taxes, worked our jobs, changed some things of our own, mourned our losses, and generally lived our lives the best we could.  And for some of lucky ones, who came through it whole, well, it appears we're still dancing to "our songs" and getting together with the friends we've had for nearly 50 years to laugh, cry, and remember those sweet days when we were young.   

....Turn Around,

Turn Around,

Turn Around,

And you're a young girl

Going out of the door....