My newest cat, one that I fostered and bottle fed from the age of two weeks, decides what time I should get up in the morning. She seems to always beat the alarm clock set at 2:30 am. There is no way I can hide from her cold nose on my face or constant purring so I usually give up and jump out of bed.
This morning I remembered that there was no place I needed to be at some special time and it would have been easy to sleep in until at least 3:00. But then I remembered that today I needed to write my weekly saga in order to have it done for tomorrow. There have been too many weeks in the past three years when I kept putting it off because I do have to be in the right frame of mind to stay on subject and get the words on a page. It is difficult sometimes to write when my mind is in thirty different places as it has been for the last few weeks or so.
Maybe it would be easier to write fiction instead of real life. I could forget what was going on around me and just make up stuff. Is that what real writers do? Or do they carefully weave real life events into their stories? Since I have no clue as to what other writers do I just have to go with the easy writing days when the stories from long ago just flow onto the page, skip writing until those days return or get off subject and write about something that currently occupies my little brain.
Back in March I wrote a story about Class Reunions. That one came about because I got the brilliant idea to help with our next one. Why I decided to do this is a good question. It involves a 170 mile drive to go to a meeting, a whole weekend away from home and I took on a project that has consumed the last couple of months. Thank heavens Marshell likes a lot of my classmates and looks at it as a "getaway" weekend. Both of us have really had a lot of fun visiting with my old friends as well as making some new ones. But that still does not answer the question as to why.
I can remember when we all graduated many said the only thing they wanted to do was to get out of Muskogee, Oklahoma. There were bigger and brighter lights in other places. After twenty-seven moves through five states and many little suburbs or sections of a large city I discovered that every place is only what you make of it. There is not any difference in the politics or the number of pot holes. There is a Facebook page for Muskogee where residents voice their complaints about not enough good restaurants or things to do which gives me a good laugh since they are the same complaints you would hear in any large city or small town. Every place is either too hot, too cold, too much snow or as windy as Chicago. If you live in a very large city it would take you just as long to get to the good restaurant or the things you want to do as the short drive to Tulsa.
A few reunions ago when we were all having breakfast at the hotel a classmate said my blogs made her want to cry because I had such a happy time growing up. Ann, that still blows my mind. I, like pretty well everyone else, did not have a happy, easy time growing up. In between the lines and the jokes about Mother wanting me to look like Shirley Temple, broken dates and fun times there was all the insecurity of feeling like no one liked me. To make matters worse I wanted to be pretty and popular like the Ann I viewed from the outside.
One thing I did notice through all the reunions I have attended were those who never came. What happened to so many of those Girl Scouts in the pictures in grade school or the junior high cheerleaders at the sweltering hot camp or all those people in the plays as there are many who never show up. One at the very top of the "lost list" was a boy I played spin-the-bottle with at maybe age thirteen or fourteen. Where was the grade school neighbor girl with whom I shared all my secrets?
Did they all only remember the terrible feeling of not fitting in? Do they never want to see or to be reminded of what a hard time it was growing up?
Sorry but I would love to see Joe, Saundra, Bonnie, Roger, Larry and so many others that never come. So I volunteered to see if I could locate those on the "lost list" which grew into a much longer list as we did not have a lot of information on about half of the class of five hundred. In the last six weeks or so I have sent out over 300 emails checking the email addresses. Now I am in the process of writing notes to those for whom I have addresses and not emails for in hopes that all the notes find their destination. It would be nice if the phone numbers were up to date but many numbers are very pre-cell phone times and phone books are not of much use.
Going through the Commencement List and the Yearbook several times everyday has brought so many memories that are happy and in some ways a little sad. The sad comes from wishing I had not been so shy and did not try harder to be a real friend to more people. Also that I waited until now to start looking for all the classmates but now is better than never. The happy comes from looking at all the faces in the yearbook and remembering all the silly events and all the really fun times that we really did have. As I look at every face in the yearbook it seems like I can remember something special or fun about almost every person.
When I sent out the emails to see if the address was still valid I really did not expect to get answers back. To my surprise I have gotten quite a few from classmates I have not seen in many years and that was really fun. If you are lucky enough to have graduated with the Muskogee Central High School Class of 1964 and get reunion information via email, snail mail or phone please think about joining in. We especially want you to come if you are one of the "I am never going to a class reunion" proclaimers. Please do not make all this work, agony and anticipation that I have put myself through for naught. I promise not to tease you about coming after hiding all these years. Besides I am sure there is someone you would like to see and you can be sure that I would love to see you.
Back to the world of Riverton and the Riverton Free Library next week.
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