I recently attended a "60th Birthday Party" with my high school graduating class. It was a cleaver idea to have an off year class reunion as most of us are now turning 60. It was great seeing everyone and most of the conversations revolved around stories of life, kids and grandkids.
One of the common themes discussed was we experienced the end of an era - in some ways the end of innocence. Over the years, my wife Susan (who graduated three years after me) has heard over and over about my high school life. Unfortunately, she did not share the same experience. Not to sound trite, to me high school was a form of Camelot. Most everyone got along and looked forward to coming to school. My graduation class was over 800 - very large even for today's standards. Yet out of that large number, very few smoked, alcohol consumption was rare, and drugs were not yet in the picture.
As good as things were, they were not perfect. There was the Viet Nam War, the draft, and how they related affected most of us. In addition, the country started experiencing the first seeds of social unrest. However for the most part, life was very good. Fridays in the fall were full of high caliber football, sock hops, pizza at Beek's, eating out at Lincoln Dell, and of course, cruising the "Robin's Nest" (A+W Root Beer Stand).
A radio show describes a mythical town in which the boys are strong, the girls are good looking, and all are above average. To me, that was our graduating class. We dressed up for school, respected teachers, led relatively clean lives, went to church, and hung around as friends. There were no metal detectors, no drug sniffing dogs, no gangs, and very, very few pregnancies. It was a time if you could safely walk to and from school without worrying your parents.
I feel badly that social unrest and drugs crept into society and tainted my wife's high school experience. I feel even worse that my daughters high school experience was not memorable to them. They will never have what I had, and I grieve for that. All that remains for those of us in the Robbinsdale Class of "67" are the memories of a time, of a place which is now gone and never again to be duplicated. Our experiences have formed us, nurtured us, and made us who we are. It was special. It was Camelot. It truly was the end of innocence.
