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Memphis, TN. - March Madness is upon us again and all of my teams are already through with their season. I hope some of you still have someone to root for.Please include your class year with your e-mails.Nothing new this week. The next committee meeting is this Monday (March 29th) so we should have final confirmation on the date & place (August 21st - Marriott) and more to report next issue. If you think you'll be able to attend this year, please let us know that too. It will help the committee make financial decisions. We are fortunate to have the ability to combine the three class years as we do so that expenses can be shared. If you've never been involved in planning an event of this size you would probably be surprised at the costs involved. Any contracts signed and committments made have to be honored so the committee has to make sure those expenses are covered. So the more participation we have the more we can do to ensure that the reunion will be a success. While you may be a faithful Traveller "weekly reader", there are many of our fellow classmates that still do not know about this site. And while Tommy has also set up a Facebook page for the reunion, we think it is best not to use that site to share personal information. So, please contact your class representative ASAP. And pass the word to any other classmates you may see or have contact with.Please include: Class year, first name; last name at time of graduation; married name (if applicable); spouse’s name (if applicable); street address; city; state; zip code; home ( H ) or cell ( C ) phone number (which ever you prefer); e-mail address; and occupation.Even if you do not plan to attend or are not sure if you’ll be able to attend the upcoming reunion, please send in your information. And please encourage other classmates that you may be in contact with to do the same. And check the Traveller each week for planning updates.
Greg Dixon's request for memories of our Senior Prom night led me to looking into my book about what I had written back in 1964 about my prom activities. The first real entry was the one below. The story you are about to read is true, only the names were changed to protect the innocent - just like in "Dragnet."The first step, the beginning, is always the hardest step in any trip. The beginning of the most important dance I thought I would ever attend happened on this date. It was not the Indian dance performed by the Order of the Arrow dance team for the gold and blue clad Cub Scouts, who cheered to the sight of the half-dressed Indian dancers that night. No, this was the first stage of the senior prom; our senior prom. It would be the only high school senior prom I would ever attend. This one dance stands out in everyone's memory as "The Dance."It's one of those events, good or bad, that makes a permanent crease in the part of our brains that contain our high school memories and remains a part our past forever. A night of disappointment awaited some. It would be the night to remember for others. Be it good or bad, great or small, successful or a failure, it didn't really matter. It was still an event of our growing up to be remembered, and it did not happen without some serious thought and planning. There were many levels of success possible. Not going at all would be the ultimate failure of the trip that had taken twelve years to complete. Staying home with the flu or for the lack of an invitation could leave a gap in one's memories forever. Going with the wrong date would be a close second in bad memories. That's why planning was so important. It's almost impossible to find a high school graduate who doesn't remember the night of the senior prom. Many hours are spent sitting, waiting for the right person to ask or trying to get up the nerve to ask the right person. It doesn't matter if you're male or female, popular or a fruit, the problems are still the same.I was one of the ones who needed to get up the nerve to ask someone. It was no longer an obvious choice for me. If I had still been going steady with Connie, or if Marilyn had not started going steady with someone else, or if Brenda had ever paid me any more attention then the choice would have been less of a problem. Perhaps, even if Mary had not run off to Florida with Bill, then maybe she might have been given a chance to be escorted to the senior prom by the editor of the newspaper. But, those possibilities were not available. Of all the girls who I could or should have asked to accompany me, Connie was the most obvious choice. We had planned that date for many years. It was one of her dreams. She wanted to attend my senior prom with my high school ring dangling from a chain around her neck or filled with wax to make it stay on her finger. The dreams vanished when we finally decided to part ways. Connie's name was erased from my list of possibilities. Even though the senior prom had always been a part of our plans, breaking up was not. Even though she was still the most obvious choice and probably the one person I could be most comfortable with, she was not asked.The choice for the ever-important dance became a little more difficult because of those circumstances. For that particular dance, the date needed to be someone with whom I could enjoy myself enough that in my old age I could look back and remember it with fond memories. This ideal person posed more of a problem than she should have. Little did I know, but others had decided to help me out with that difficult decision. Their help had started a long time before, when Helen decided that her friend Jean really needed to go to the senior prom. If she could go, the two of them could help each other pick out dresses and do all the girl stuff that girls do in preparation for a dance. After all, it was Lee's first senior prom and was destined to be an event to be remembered. Helen was going steady with Troy, and therefore, he had to do his share to help her with her plan. Helen worked through Troy to find someone to ask Jean, and Troy was friends with me, so the decision was almost out of my hands. It was a part of a grandiose plot.With a little prompting from Troy after Helen assured me that Jean would say yes, I finally got up the nerve to ask her. I cornered her at her locker between periods. In the short five minutes between classes, I asked her the question. Although I seemed surprised to find that she accepted, it was really like a communist election where everyone knew how it would come out long before the votes were ever cast. She knew I would ask and I knew she would accept. The only thing missing was the formalities.There was one over-riding problem with my choice of a date for the senior prom. I had never before dated Jean. I had never even been alone with her. My association with her was always in the company of Troy and Helen. In retrospect, a senior prom is probably not the type of event that one should take a girl to on a first date. It is not if it is going to be the biggest dance in your life. You really should see if you are compatible with the girl before you commit yourself.In life's book, it would be better to be recorded that I took a girl to the senior prom on a first date, than to be recorded that I didn't get a date for the senior prom and had to go alone. I didn't even have a sister I could have gone with, which has always been the ultimate shame. It was better to ask a somewhat stranger, you knew would accept, than to be turned down by someone else you might more enjoy being with. When the smoke cleared, my date was Jean.Jean was a junior. She was a cute brunette, perhaps a little shy, but then so was I. She was about my height, a bit heavier, but we made an acceptable couple and did not stand out in the crowd as freaks. She wore her hair in a "Patty Duke" look, had braces on her teeth, and seemed a little uncomfortable with them. Her smile always seemed to try to cover up the fact that she had the metal bands in her mouth. I had never before dated a girl who wore braces, but felt that I could live through such a handicap. She was cute, had a nice figure, could dance, was accepted by the crowd, and had said yes. What more could anyone want for a date?
Jerry'sPeter Graves
