“Ready for number seventy?”
my reunion letter asked.
Two lists of classmate names were enclosed.
“Still Here” and “Gone”.
I found myself in the “Still Here” list
along with 88 other classmates.
The “Gone” list had reached
a new pinnacle of 114.
They compile these lists every five years.
This was the first time
that the “Gones” have
out-numbered the “Still Heres”.
I checked out the “Gone” list first.
More startling, more immutable.
I couldn’t figure out why people
were on one list versus the other.
Both lists had star athletes,
bright kids, dumb kids,
health nuts, fast food addicts,
religious types, nerds, trouble-makers.
Impossible to predict who’d wind up where.
Eight of my friends were “Gone”.
Grant, Gus, Nancy, Rick,
Turry, Huntz, Jerry S., Hal.
Eight others were “Still Here”.
Carol, Toddy, Earl, Jerry B.,
Butch, Sally F, Sally H, Duke.
At least I’ll have some chums to talk to.
What all this boils down to
is that
the Menominee High School class of 1955
is slowly but surely shutting down.
There is a steady flow
from “Still Here” to “Gone”.
Nobody ever goes the other way.
We might have one more reunion,
possibly two,
but after that
there will be only one list left.
The most that I can say
is that
we’ll no longer be split into separate groups.
Just one big class together again.
