“Life, so they say, is but a game and they’d let it slip away…
Like Columbus in the olden days, we must gather all our courage.
Sail our ships out on the open seas, cast away our fears
and all the years will come and go…
We may never pass this way again”
– Seals and Crofts (1973)
Seals and Crofts’ hit song “We May Never Pass This Way Again” was the theme of our Senior Prom in the summer of 1974. Little did we realize then how true the lyrics “all the years will come and go” really were. Fifty years have now passed since that prom. I haven’t been a big fan of reunions in the past, but it was a special honor to go to the milestone 50th Reunion of the 133rd class of Northeast High last week.
I was a shy kid in High School, with virtually no real friends in my grade. Instead, my closest friends growing up were kids from the neighborhood, scouts, or church, and were frequently a year or two ahead or behind me in school. Sure, there were students I was friendly with in school, and enjoyed talking to in class and at lunch. But there were no classmates that I ever met in class and then hung out with outside of school. I had no extra-curricular school activities to connect me to other kids- I basically went to school and came home. In a graduating class of 1,200 students, there are just a handful that I still remember well 50 years later.
With the birth of social media, however, I was able to connect with some of my old classmates and when the 40th reunion rolled around, I decided to check it out. In high school, I always felt a bit out of place- I wasn’t a jock, or a band geek, or a stoner. I generally hung out with the nerdy kids (although I wasn’t one of the brightest in the group). But at the 40th reunion, I found the cliques of high school were pretty much invisible now that everyone was older- we were all just Northeast High alumni. I still didn’t know a lot of people in the room, but it was fun to get together with old classmates.
I was going to skip future reunions (“been there, done that”), but they were really advertising the 50th reunion a lot, and I figured half a century is a pretty significant milestone. I liked the fact that it was scheduled as a brunch, which seemed to make it less formal. And in looking at the “In Memoriam” list, I realized life is short- it was getting to the point where I remembered more deceased classmates than living classmates. I felt the need to get together with the class one more time, since “we may never pass this way again”. I was glad I did.
Our 50th reunion was wonderfully organized by Avi Adelman and Karen Dubin. It was held at Maggio’s in Southampton PA. We got drink tickets, a t-shirt, and had a nice buffet along with a DJ. A total of 177 classmates attended (not counting guests). The place was jam-packed. (Luckily I dodged the CoVid that was getting passed around.) A photographer took pictures of us in groups organized by the elementary school we attended. (“Fox Chase, dear Fox Chase, to you we will ever belong!”) Entertainment was provided by classmate, comedienne and former Shadow Traffic reporter and Frank Rizzo radio talk show co-host, Ruth Weisberg. It was a wonderful affair.
I chatted with a combination of Facebook connections, a few friends I see on rare occasions, and classmates I haven’t seen in 50 years. My name tag confused a few people, since I went by my formal name, “John”, instead of “Jack”, in high school. But it was interesting to roam the room looking for familiar names and faces. It was nice to see Gary Kantor, my Latin class classmate (and fellow Temple grad), for the first time since our college days. We recalled some fun times in Latin class with “Mr. C.” Then there was Ivy Cohen, who lived 2 blocks from me in Fox Chase, and we attended Fox Chase Elementary School together, talking about the old neighborhood. I got to talk to Don Bobbit and ask about his younger sister Diane – we went to the prom together but didn’t stay in touch after that. It was great to see Art Lekoff, who sat next to me alphabetically throughout high school, and has been having some health issues of late. It’s been a while since we’ve chatted. Cheryl Leider stopped me to say hi- she was on the other side of me alphabetically throughout high school (Leider-Leitmeyer-Lekoff). I got to chat with my late mother-in-law’s podiatrist, former classmate Rick Simon. I met Amy Shull, whom I didn’t really remember in high school, but we have a mutual friend who knew I would be at the reunion and asked me to say hi to her, so I obliged. A few people called me “Light My Fire”, which was a nickname I got in Junior High School- I hadn’t heard that since my school days. There were lots of conversations with old and new friends!
Then of course there are people that I remembered who didn’t remember me, and people that remembered me and I didn’t remember them, which is always a bit awkward at a reunion. I am curious as to why I remembered certain people right away-they remained etched in my brain like I was still in school and not a day had passed. Maybe we had many classes together, ate at the same lunch table, sat near each other, or they were particularly outgoing in class. Or maybe they were a cheerleader or class president or football star that everyone just knew. Others I could scarcely remember, even though I know some were in the same home room as me. Regardless, it was fun to get together with a group of now senior citizens that all share the special bond of being part of the 133rd graduating class of Northeast High School. “Hail Northeast! Hail Northeast! Loyal all are we. From the greatest to the least, singing praise to thee.”
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