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FOREVER AND A DAY AGO

I'm attending my 55th high school reunion this year,or I think I am. Can 1955 really be 55 years ago? In a word, yes.

1955 our country boasted only about half the people we have today, yet back then we knew more of them, and liked them better. The average annual salary was under $3,000, but then our home in Hanford, California just 32 miles south of Fresno, cost only $6,000. Life was good. Most moms didn't work in 1955. Daycare was going to my grandparent's home next door. No one was homeless. Everyone who wanted a job, had one. Employees were valued back then.

In 1955, we still believed that our government told the truth and kept its nose out of our business. How things changed! In 1955, we trusted strangers. We believed in ourselves and our country. We weren't so greedy, so materialistic, so very arrogant. You didn't hear people say the ugly American, I live in Mexico now and I see why people call us that. We cared more about others a lot more.

We were strong then, and full of promise. And 55 years ago this month, I thought I would live forever. We all would.

Well, forever sure ain't what it used to be. Time, as they say, has flown. Mere whispers of mortality have now turned to shouts. The you that you think you are and the you that others see have become unrecognizable one to the other. Trust me on this. And now more than ever, we realize that we're not much different from everyone else. I felt that I was so unique, so damned special when I graduated from Hanford high school (Hanford Ca). Then came marriage, jobs, divorce, the navy, marriage, jobs.

My Brain Now Has A Mind Of Its Own I'm not the person I used to be. I'm clumsier. I have less energy. My body often minds me as I did my father and mother when I was a teenager: begrudgingly, if at all. And my brain now seems to have a mind all its own, often telling my body to walk into a room only to let me wonder why I am there and what in there for.

Is that fair? Perhaps fairer than the alternative. Probably best to accept the differences and be grateful for survival. My importance to the world withers as my age increases. Even advertisers are no longer interested in me, only my ailments. These days, for reasons all too apparent to those of us over 65, I'm often cranky worse, I see no reason not to be.

Signs of deterioration appear daily That's a lot of baggage to carry to a high school reunion. Fortunately, all my fellow graduates of the Class of '55 will be struggling with the same thing.

I spent 13 of my first 17 years with many of these folks, some of whom I haven't seen since graduation day 55 years ago.

Talk about forever! That's more forever than I ever dreamed possible in 1955. And, thanks to our advancing age, I trust that I'll find my classmates happier, friendlier, more courageous, less judgmental, and far more at ease with themselves than we could have imagined 55 years ago.

You see, getting old isn't all bad. And I need this reunion to take my mind off the sorry state of this world we inhabit in 2010. I just pray that I can see well enough to read the name cards. I just wish things were the way they used to be back in "55", forever and a day ago.
~Don Humphrey~
"Class of "55"


MORE FIFTIES LINKS

THE CARS WE DROVE

REMEMBER WHEN

DOO WOP

BACK TO THE 60s

CLASSIC CARS OF THE 1900's 1956 to 1960 JUKE BOX

THE FIFTIES

BACK TO THE "50s"

WHEN LIFE WAS BLACK AND WHITE

DO YOU REMEMBER THESE

LIFE

BARNEY FIFE

DO YOU REMEMBER 1957?

FIFTIES RADIO PAGE

FIFTIES BOULEVARD

ROCK and ROLL PAGE

BURMA SHAVE SIGNS

ROCKIN FIFTIES

FIFTIES TUNES

FIFTIES WEB INDEX

57 CHEVY

CONDENSED CLASSICS

HEARTBEATS 1 & 2

YOU THRILL ME

HEAVENS GATE

~Don Humphrey~
Index

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