Here I am holding my date last night for the 1976 Bristol TN High School Class Reunion - my sweet 5-year-old granddaughter, Lenna Kate Talley.
A classmate told me last night about how her own grandfather took her as a five-year-old to his class reunion - some 63 years ago - and how it has always been one of the most memorable nights of her life. (I hope Lenna Kate remembers last night in much the same way, if she makes it another 63.)
Here is my classmate, Becky Clark Blevins, with Lenna Kate. Becky has possibly helped make better the lives of as many people in Bristol as anyone I could ever name - I’m talkin’ about a total in the tens of thousands. Becky was the Director of Volunteer Services at Bristol Wellmont Hospital for so many years I cannot count. (However, none of that surprises me. Becky always had a big heart for others.)
My classmate Mike Johnston is pictured next with my date. (Gosh, my date sure knew how to attract the guys.) Mikey is battling advanced Parkinson’s disease and can scarcely speak, let alone walk … but none of that prevents him from bringing joy everywhere he goes. As he always did.
Next is my classmate, Steve Belcher, and his lovely wife.
Steve has been blessed to have had two lovely wives in his lifetime. His first, also a beloved classmate of ours, passed several years back.
Steve and I grew up playing all kinds of sports together. Whenever we’re together now, we still laugh in the same big way we always did.
There is no friend quite like an old friend. As the old saying goes, “New friends are silver. Old ones are gold.”
Now here is Roy Sensabaugh. My friend sold cars in Ohio as a career. I cannot imagine how pleasant an experience it must have been to purchase a car from Roy. Imagine the “opposite” of high pressure sales and you have Roy.
Laid back, kind, honest, smart, and good-souled … all. (It will come as no suprise to all who know him that Roy has always been that way.)
As the night wore on, I began to experience an epiphany of sorts. (An epiphany being defined as: a sudden, striking realization, understanding, or manifestation of the essential nature or meaning of something.)
It came to me that “we remain who we are” - and that’s a good thing, no matter who we are.
Our basic personalities don’t really change from 18 to 68. Not really. Not that much at all.
The classmate who 50 years ago talked mostly about himself and all he has done is still that guy now. (But you see through all that and know the tragic reason from childhood as to why he does it … so you just love him all the more.)
The same little cliques tend to form, same as they did 50 years ago. (Though you now realize we all have our little cliques, if only in our minds, so you are not so judgmental as you possibly once were.)
Our looks may change a bit. I actually like my current 2026 hairstyle (with head shaved). I’d look about half past funny with my 1976 hair on my 2026 head.
In another 63 years if my beautiful date from last night takes a future grandchild of hers to her 50th high school reunion … I’m bettin’ that Lenna Kate (though then more physically wrinkled and naturally gray) will still maintain pretty much the same basic personality she had at five years old - sweet, brave, shy, zany-fun, adventurous, empathetic, and socially smart as a tack.
That “we remain who we are” I count as a good thing. A very good thing, indeed.
