I have asked myself that question numerous times over the years. I am still friends with and meet regularly for lunch with folks I began school with in first grade and graduated with twelve years later. I think maybe that is a very special thing!
I know many people, including my husband, who have zero contact with anyone they knew growing up. That is a very foreign concept to me. I spend time with my friends' parents at the polls during elections, have lunch with them after church on Sundays, attend their birthdays and help them with their funerals. Doesn't everyone? I don't think so. I think our lifelong relationships are unusual and very, very special.
Growing up, Tavares was a sleepy town of about 4000. I'm not sure of the population today but Tavares is now known all over the country and the world through the "Central Florida Dragon Boat Festival" and more recently as America's sea plane city.
The waterfront on Lake Dora in downtown Tavares has been transformed into a wonderful place to visit and be proud of. There is a great new water park for the children, new docks and a new landing strip in the lake for the sea planes, a new train station and great restaurants. The former "Boulware's Drug Store" where we all gathered after school (back in the day) is now the "Copper Heron" restaurant and art gallery. It is owned by former classmate, Sue Smith Squires ('68) and her husband, Bill. Remember the old "pavilion" on Lake Dora? It's being rebuilt! The pavilion is in the planning stages now.
Here is your chance to reconnect with old friends and classmates! It's time for another Tavares High School All Class Reunion! We have people enrolled from graduating classes as early as 1943 all the way to the graduating class of 2012! Some of the members of the website www.thsalum.com are the children and grandchildren of our earliest graduates. My own grandchildren are fourth generation graduates of THS. How great is that?
I hope everyone who missed it last year will make an attempt to join us this year. AND all those who attended last year please come on back. We are not doing another reunion for a few years. Let's make this gathering as special as Tavares!!
The big event is planned for October 1st and 2nd, 2010. Please visit our Facebook page or the website www.thsalum.com to register your attendance. It will be great to see you again!
14 hours ago
Rhonda, I have lived in many other communities across the country over the past 40+ years since we graduated from Tavares High School together...and I must say that I've never found another town quite like Tavares was back in the 60's when we were there together. Even though I currently do not live in Tavares, I am blessed in that my 92 year old father still resides in the home in which I grew up, and YOU and many of my other "best friends" from 1st-12th grades are still in the area too. What a comfort to me after many years of moving to know that there is still a place I can call "home", and where people would still welcome me with open arms and say, "I knew you when..." and we can laugh and cry together as we recall so many wonderful and crazy memories. I know that was a very long run-on sentence...and Mrs. Ragan or Mrs. Hudson would not approve...but they'd certainly understand the content!
ReplyDeleteTo you, Rhonda, my first BFF,
Love always,
Your old buddy,
Pam
Okay...you made me cry! Love you too buddy!
ReplyDelete