I haven't been able to participate as actively as I'd hoped in planning the 2012 Empehi Reunion, for personal reasons, but have watched with great respect from the sidelines as committee members put together a weekend of great plans for August 3-4. Indeed, I confess that I only yesterday sent in my own registration, which is ridiculously easy to do via a secure online connection at the reunion website, http://www.morganparkhigh.
I've been to all of my own 1966 reunions except the 10th, and to all of my husband's 1967 reunions. Every one has brought joys and surprises. I've reacquainted myself with old buddies and developed significant friendships with people I never knew at all at Empehi, some of whom have offered me extraordinary kindnesses. I cherish great fleeting memories of folks I've seen only once since 1966, at one of those reunions.
We're in our seventh decade now, and the events of our high school years often seem as remote as the black rotary dial phones we had back then. But we were all shaped in some ways by that shared experience, and the very fact that we subscribe to a list called Empehi Reunion suggests that we know it.
We aren't the same people we were back then, which is probably a very good thing. But we have grown and evolved in intriguing ways. Some followed the paths they had always envisioned, and others headed out on trails we could not have imagined as teenagers. We've emerged better people for the joys and sorrows, the achievements and disappointments, the roads to nowhere and pathways to the stars.
Life is fragile, as I was reminded this spring when I lost my two closest and dearest male relatives in a single dreadful two-week period. We've lost more and more classmates as well. Dave Noren and Jim Ohse, two guys who could not have been more different, were instrumental in many reunions for the classes of '66 and '67. Both of them are gone since we were last together in 2007.
I'll miss them this August, but I'll also relish the chance to spend time with those who remain. Which is a very roundabout way of saying that I hope as many of you as possible will make it a point to come to one or both of the reunion functions in August.
And hey, folks who are in the Chicago area, I am particularly talking to you!
Taffy Cannon, June '66
Carlsbad, California
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