by John Shearer
posted October 11, 2008
I attended the 30th reunion for my Baylor School Class of 1978 recently and had a great time.
I am quite aware that people’s attitudes toward high school reunions generally run the gamut of emotions. Some people want to come back and visit old friends and perhaps step back into their high school personas briefly. Others rarely, if ever, care to revisit their childhood in any form.
For most people, however, their feelings about attending a reunion probably fall somewhere in between those extremes and depend on schedules and proximity to the gathering.
Although I was generally a quiet Baylor student who had just as many close friends in my neighborhood and church youth group, I still have tried to make most of our reunions.
And, despite the fact I do not have many funny stories of crazy antics I did outside of school to share, I quickly feel comfortable revisiting old classmates.
This seemed to be true particularly this year.
We had slightly more than 30 of the roughly 110 who graduated in our all-male class attend at least one of the gatherings over the weekend. According to people familiar with reunions, that was a good number.
The different cliques or groups some of us may have been in way back in the 1970s had been replaced by our shared connection to a singular class and the fact we had all chosen to gather.
The reunion group itself became one large clique as we all visited with each other.
Any apprehension I may have initially felt about reconnecting with a part of my past quickly disappeared as we gathered for our first event – a tailgate party at Finley Stadium on the night of the Baylor-McCallie game.
Mark Ingle had initiated the ballpark gathering and brought some of the food, and Doug Dyer had kindly brought his barbecue smoker and spent plenty of time helping prepare food as well.
A sign was in front of a motor home recognizing the Class of 1978, and that touched me.
Within a few minutes – and in between bites of food – I had greeted or been greeted by a dozen or more classmates.
I definitely felt as though I had come home. Some were classmates I see regularly, while others I had not seen in a number of years. Bill Dedman fell into the latter category, and I enjoyed catching up with him about his journalism career.
As I visited, I realized we were diverse in certain respects. Some of my classmates’ fathers had attended Baylor, while others had come from public school backgrounds. Some had been day students, while others had been boarders. A few of us were also a little thinner on the top and thicker in the middle than we had been at Baylor.
However, none of that mattered as we all gathered in singular brotherhood.
Despite the 24-3 drubbing of Baylor by McCallie in the game, my emotions remained enthused as I continued to visit with old friends and meet spouses at an informal gathering of Baylor, McCallie and GPS graduates from 1978 at Murphy’s Ale House in the former Brass Register.
The next morning I attended a small gathering of alumni at Baylor, learning from teacher Jim Stover all the new technology Baylor is using, making me realize the days of chalk blackboards and hardbound reference books in the library were moving increasingly into the past.
I then attended an awards luncheon before taking a break.
On Saturday night was our official reunion at the Mountain City Club. Some Baylor cheerleaders and a Tiger mascot were outside to greet us as we arrived, and that seemed like a nice gesture.
Once inside, I grabbed a name tag and was touched emotionally again by the fact that Baylor had prepared a name tag for every member of the class and his spouse, obviously knowing that only a third of the tags would likely be used.
As I glanced at some of those names, I realized I had not seen a number of them since we graduated.
At least one classmate, Rob McRae, had died since our last reunion, but his wife and son were there.
Besides quickly visiting with some old friends, including a few who had not been at the gatherings the night before, I noticed quite a few of our old teachers there. Event organizer Mark Hudson had done a great job inviting numerous teachers and in planning the reception.
I enjoyed catching up with all of the former instructors as well. Some I have seen regularly, while others I have not.
A particularly touching moment for me was when I introduced myself to Dr. John Miller, a longtime English teacher at Baylor. I had interviewed him once or twice in my newspaper career, and seeing the smile on his face as I talked with him was touching.
I had been a very average 10th grade English and 12th grade visual literacy student in his classes and obviously do not possess his intellectual capacity, but learning during our conversation that we both shared a love for taking pictures of old barns was special.
Dr. Herb Barks also offered a few nostalgic, funny and articulate comments about the Baylor of the 1970s to the entire gathering, and my heart also warmed.
The Rev. Buck Paden, my 11th grade literature teacher, also gave a touching prayer about fellowship and our time at Baylor.
Other former or current teachers there included my old football coaches Fred Hubbs and Bill McMahan, my geometry teacher Bill Abel, my junior school soccer and football coach David Harris, my track coach Hugh Walker, Spanish teacher Roberto Rojas, my poetry teacher Bill Cushman, former math teacher and coach Mose Payne, and physics teacher Dr. George Taylor
Among the other classmates who attended at least one of the functions were Brian Banks, Roger Blaine, Trey Bryant, Jim Cooley, Russell Craig, Ryan Crimmins, Bruce Crumbliss, Doug Dyer, Keith Eischeid, Larry “Buddy” Fogo, Bill Freels, Mark Grigsby, Johnny Hartman, Joe Jumper, Scott Kelley, Eddie Monroe, Jeff Morgan, Bobby Morrison, Joel Mulkin, Ryan Murphy, Frank Powell, Ben Probasco, Madison Randolph, John Rochester, Steve Smalling, Jim Stanton, Craig Troxler, Mike Vandergriff, Billy Watson, Frank Wiley, and Thornton Withers,
As the night progressed, I continued to visit with classmates, spouses and teachers, and felt an obviously strong and sentimental bond. Maybe the reason was that we are all deeply entrenched in middle age, and I am becoming increasingly aware of how short life is and how important maintaining relationships is.
My emotional feeling may have also been because all our teachers and coaches who attended are either nearing or have reached retirement age, another reminder of our ticking biological clocks.
Whatever the reason, I felt a special magic at that reunion.
After nearly three hours quickly passed that Saturday night, I realized I needed to head down the road, even though I had not been able to visit with everyone thoroughly. As I was leaving, I patted a few classmates and teachers on the backs, said goodbye with expression and wished them well.
I would have never imagined seeing myself doing that in my days as a shy Baylor student.
This emotional feeling seemed to be true for the others as well, as a few sent out touching e-mails early in the week saying how much they had also enjoyed the gatherings.
Thanks for the great time, Baylor Class of 1978, and I hope to see you again soon.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net
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