While working on this reunion I have come to realize that this coming together is quite different from any of the past get togethers.  In many ways our lives have come full circle and we've reached the time in life that we all heard about when we were young, but never quite understood.  The time when wisdom and insight replace the constant quest for something.  The time when we realize that the past was our future and the future is simply a compilation of the past.

I have had the amazing opportunity to reconnect with many of you over the past few months, and I must say we had an awesome class and we still do.  I have connected with people I knew well, and others that I either knew of or didn't know at all.  I have had a ball.  All who choose to attend this reunion and reconnect with our classmates, will find the common elements that shaped us all have remained in the essence of our beings no matter where the years have taken us.  We had a shared experience that was unique in so many ways.  A way of life that anyone who didn't experience the South Florida that existed in the 50's & 60's, could never begin to understand.  The sights, the sound, the smells.  Speaking of smells, who among us can forget the smells that eminated from the Holsum Bakery plant or the fantastic Christmas displays they put out each year on Dixie Highway.

When I decided to undertake organizing this reunion I hadn't yet realized what was driving me.  But now I get it.  On Facebook, Scott Stuart wrote that we all better attend this reunion cause next time we might be attending root side up!  Yeah, that is a humbling thought.  My heart ached as I have learned about the passing recently of Pauline McMillan and Janis Rollins.  That's just wrong! I then reflected on the unexpected passing of my sister, Faryl, 2 years ago and how I had talked her into going to her 40th reunion back in '02.  It was the first and only reunion she had attended.  Faryl had a blast and reconnected with several people who she was close to back in the day.  I remembered how happy she was about having made the decision to attend and our conversations about the great time she had.  Six short years later I had the opportunity to talk to one of those people when he drove from North Carolina to Atlanta for her funeral.  That being said, this is our chance to share some precious time with those who were part of the years that shaped our lives.