Thankful Thursday - A Golden Reunion

This past weekend, Jem and I attended my 50th high school reunion and had a fabulous time.  It's hard to believe fifty years have passed since I graduated and believe me, Gail-Friends, the time has flown by like a speeding train.  I was having so much fun that I didn't take many pictures but here are a few from our Saturday night dinner and dance:

We had a great band and so much dancing. . . it was hard to get on the dance floor sometimes!

My friend, Dee, is always the life of the party!

Dee was also in charge of putting on the reunion. She and her team did an amazing job and I think this was our best reunion so far.

Look at all of that beautiful silver hair!!!

Pam, Nancy, Elizabeth, Dee and me taking a break from dancing.

I told you I had a good time . . . I had my dancing shoes on for sure.

 We had a blast, as we used to say in the sixties.

 There were some great displays of memorabilia from our high school years.

Charm bracelets were all the rage back then.

Ours was the last class to graduate in long, white gowns and carrying red roses.  The guys wore white sports coats.

Below are our letter sweaters and a letter.  You could earn these back then.  I don't know if they do that in high school anymore.  Probably not, because it might offend someone.  I say this because I recently heard about a high school that did away with things like the valedictorian, etc.  The school also didn't allow the first in the class students to march on stage ahead of their classmates.  Back in my day, there were no "participation" trophies. We strove for excellence in all areas, and we weren't offended if we didn't get a prize. We just tried harder the next time in order to win the awards.

The photo below shows some girls in the "dreaded and hated" gym suits.  I still think they were the ugliest things ever created.  Ugh!!!

It was so much fun catching up with old friends.

Me, Dee, Janice and Elizabeth

Elizabeth and I have been friends since the first grade, attending grammar, junior high, and high school together for twelve years.  We have lots of shared memories, and we get together with a big group of girls from Lee several times a year.  We meet for dinner and have the best time.  We call our group the Lafies because we laugh and cut up like a bunch of teenagers, and we even do a cheer at the end of our evening together. We really are still young in our hearts and these girls know how to have FUN!

One of our classmates, Jack, did a presentation that just thrilled my heart and made my passion for Making America Great Again flame even higher.  He portrayed Teddy Roosevelt and gave a rousing talk about his hero, General Robert E. Lee.  His performance caused a standing ovation, and I'm thrilled to know that so many of my classmates are like-minded about the values we all knew in our youth.   I thanked Jack for his strong stand about our Southern Heritage and our revered role model, Robert E. Lee.  Jem especially enjoyed Jack's history lesson and kept shaking his head in agreement, while I was saying, "yes" and "amen" and "that's right!"  (He's a refined Southern gentleman, while I'm an outspoken Southern belle who can't stop talking about such things. All of my friends know this.)

There was a raffle for some beautiful gift baskets, and I won a fabulous one.  The blue basket had two pretty goblets, two bottles of wine, some candles, and a gorgeous wine rack that I fell in love with.  When I opened it I got a big surprise -- a $100 gift card for more wine!  Such a blessing!

I'm sad when I hear people say they don't want to attend their reunions because I've made some good memories by getting together with my old classmates.  I've even made new friends because I've grown close to people I didn't even know while we were going to school.  Dee and Janice are good examples.  We've gotten to know each other through the reunions, Lafies, and on Facebook.  We're all passionate about our families and our country and if we'd not gone to these meet-ups, we'd have missed out on being good friends.  I love this saying on our class website because it's so true:

It's not about waistlines, hairlines or credit lines...It's about lifelines,

And about reconnecting with friends from some of the best years of our lives.

I was thrilled to run into Karl, a guy who lived on my block growing up.  I hadn't seen him in decades and it was so good to learn about how his family was doing.  I also had a great time catching up with Linda, an old camping buddy, and friend after high school.  There was so much going on that I didn't get to see some people I'd really hoped to see.   One friend, Brenda, contacted me yesterday to find out what happened to me.  We were both there, but never crossed paths.  You have to understand . . . our graduating class was over 500, and probably about 200 were at the reunion. It was a big room, Gail-Friends!

There was an author table and I had some autographed copies of my book, Golden Moments, for sale.  I sold some books that night and pray each reader will be blessed through reading it.

So, this week, I'm thankful for old and new friends, good memories, and that I've made it to my Golden Years!!!  Life is Good!

What are you thankful for this week, Gail-Friends?

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