Class Reunion Video

This morning I performed a labor of love.  As you know, I love to take photos and videos to record memorable moments in my life. And at this time of my life, as I enter my ninth inning with two outs, I am worried that all my photo and video history will be lost.  But take heart folks, I have found a way to remedy this dire situation!

I can upload my photos and videos to You Tube and create a permanent record for those who are still alive and those who follow me.  What a relief!  

So now all I have to do is upload my photos and videos to YouTube and produce the wonderful video like I'm posting to this blog post today.

This is a video, slide show actually with musical accompaniment, of my high school's 40th class reunion.  I haven't attended all the reunions but I have attended enough to make several more videos.  By the way, click on the "X" to make that annoying YouTube ad to go away.  I guess I shouldn't complain because YouTube lets me make these videos for free but who wants to see an ad overlaid on such a wonderful video?

Now I understand that to most of you the individuals in this video/slide show you won't know or recognize (hopefully you will recognize a young me) but I think most of you will enjoy the video anyway.  I know I had a grand time putting it together.

The only downside is that so many of my former classmates in this video have now passed on.  I only wish I could have shared all the smiles with them.

In memory of those classmates who are no longer with us:

Judy Baldwin (Nixdorf)
Bill Jones
Gary Kinzey
Denny Myers
Bruce Nixdorf
Bonnie Walton
Patty Zittle
Bob Zynn


P.S.
The banner photo is our Class of 1959 taken when we were sophomores in 1957.  Yours truly is behind the "D" in "Delaware" with the big pompadour. Cool!

And one more By The Way, I can identify every one of my classmates in that 1957 class photo including the ones I had a crush on (little did they know) (smile).

Yes, that is Yours Truly, standing at the front door of our high school. This was the photo used as the centerfold of our high school yearbook. The first and only time Yours Truly was in a centerfold.

Centerfold - 1959 DHS Yearbook

Larry's Sweet 16 Birthday Party - 1957

Larry is one of my oldest friends.  Actually Larry IS my oldest friend.  

I've known Larry since third grade elementary school when he outed me to Miss Ezrah, our third grade school teacher.

Miss Ezrah's 3rd grade class ( I am at end of third row on right in back, face partially blocked - larry is standing in front of Miss Ezrah) - 1950

The one and only theatrical production I was ever in - our sixth grade class operetta (we're scarecrows) - I'm in the back on the far left and Larry is in the back on the far right - 1953

From left to right - me, Miss Ezrah and Larry 2004 - at the Simpson Meadows Retirement Home - we couldn't believe Miss Ezrah was still alive! We thought she was old when she was out teacher back in 1953 - Miss Ezrahdied April 3, 2012 at 105 years old

How was I "outed"?  Miss Ezrah had given us an assignment to do a story and then stand in front of the class to tell our story.  I did my assignment and stood in front of the class and told my story.  After I sat down, Larry raised his hand and told Miss Ezrah "I know that story. It's from the Scrooge McDuck comic book I have."  

Wildman Lar in high school - 1959

I had forgotten this incident but Larry reminded me of it a few years ago.  He was afraid that I was going to beat him up when I approached him at the recess that followed that incident.  Instead he was much surprised when I asked him "You have Scrooge McDuck comic books?"  I probably in a previous blog posting too, pardon any redundancy but I feel like posting this story again this morning after coming across Larry's 16th birthday party invitation.  I'm gathering old high school mementos to share with my classmates at my upcoming 55th class reunion next Saturday.

Larry and me with his date Pam - 1959 (my date took the picture). This was me at my heaviest - I weighed 202 lbs, having undergone three operations for a hernia I gained a lot of weight over the summer - see the makings of a double chin - I'm still cute though - the girls all clamored after me (sure)

From that encounter in the East Ward Elementary school playground on that fall day in 1950, thus began a long relationship with my friend Larry.  

Larry and I were best friends up until 9th grade in high school at which time his family moved out of the school district.  We continued to be friends until and after I graduated from high school.

Larry with a date I arranged for him with Carmella Biggar - 1958 - it didn't turn out well - her father banned Larry from their house after Larry's friend Richard said something very rude to him

We had a falling out after I came out burst out of the gay closet in 1963.  Then resulted in a long period of not seeing each other except for one chance encounter on a Spruce Street in Philadelphia, sometime in the 70's.

Then 9/11 happened.  Coincidentally Larry had lost his long time job at Wilmington Trust.  Over the years I had always stayed in contact with his mother, exchanging Christmas cards.  She knew I had also worked for a bank (coincidentally both Larry and I had jobs at banks even though we didn't plan it that way) and had lost my job.  She said Larry was going through a rough time and, perhaps if I contacted him, I could help lift him from his depths of despair.  I know Larry is reading this and will say something about the phrase "depths of despair" and that he wasn't there but the was, believe me folks.

Now the question some of you are probably wondering about - no, Larry isn't gay.  He is 100% straight.  He is as straight as I am gay and you all know I'm 100% gay.  Nor have I ever been attracted to Larry and he certainly not to me. But we do operate on the same wave length.  With few exceptions (he's a poet and I'm not a poetry guy, I don't get it), and he's a dad and granddad and I'm gloriously single - well actually married now (but I still think of my myself as one of Nature's Bachelors), we think alike and have basically the same outlook on life.  Larry is more religious than I am, more in the what I can "man made religion" (organized religion).  I'm a spiritualist.  Something is There, I just don't know what it is and I'm not willing to accept someone else's interpretation.  That old Free Will that God supposedly gave us to test us but I digress. No point in getting into one of those endless and annoying religious discussions on this fine, autumn, Sunday morning.  

The above images from a few years ago when I took Larry out to lunch for his June birthday.  You just can't take the guy anywhere, he has the eye for the ladies that's for sure.  (Thank goodness his wife doesn't read my blog.)

This is a picture of a happy man who just eyed some major eye candy on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk.

Each year for Larry's birthday lunch I also treat him to an old time photo.  So what do you think of the two old time cowpokes?  Pretty good after all these years huh?

Larry and I have a long history.  We're both a lot older now (tell me about it) and experiencing the many facets of watching our bodies fall apart incrementally.  

Larry is one of the two persons I talk to frequently on FaceTime (you know who the Other one is).  

Larry the Sage, contemplating the state of the Universe

Just to show you that my blog postings are unrehearsed and I just sometimes let them flow, I started out this posting with the story of how my date to Larry's 16th birthday party left with another guy (who had a car, I didn't).  

Larry on his wedding day with his wife Lois - 1961.

Larry, Lois and I on the Spirit of Philadelphia cruise 2002

That girl, who is in charge of my 55th class reunion this upcoming Saturday claims she doesn't remember that happening but, of course, I was forever traumatized by her rejection of me as a date by going home with Charlie Crouse, the GUY WITH THE CAR.  

Charlie Crouse, the louse who stole my date back at Larry's 16th birthday party in June 1957.

Patty (woman in gold) at our 50th class reunion 2009 - she says she remembers nothing about ditching me - uh . . okay

Well now folks, wouldn't it have been something if I had ditched her and had Charlie take me home?  I bet she would have remembered THAT.