A Blast From The Past

I hate class reunions. Maybe its because I had some of my most embarassing moments in high school or maybe its because I do not resemble in any way shape or form the person I was in high school. But this year the class of 1970 invited several former classes to their reunion and against my better judgement - at the last moment- I decided to go. I didn't have time to lose 50 lbs. I didn't have time to get a new outfit that made me look skinny and I didn't have time to worry about who was going to be there. Ed and I were one of the first ones there and imagine my suprise when I picked up one of the old annuals on display from 1967 and it was mine! I can't imagine how come I didn't miss my own annual all these years. It was autographed by all my old classmates. It was like reading them for the first time. Another suprise of the evening was when my old boyfriend and his wife walked in. They saw me before it was too late to hide or runaway. As it turned out we had a wonderful visit catching up on our families. Other friends came that I didn't know was coming and some I hadn't seen for 41 years. Some I didn't recognize and some hadn't changed much. We talked and laughed and reminised and I could hardly wait until the next night when we met again - both times in the school cafeteria of all places. The next night we all showed up with pictures of our families - which both nights seemed to be the most important topic of most of my friends. I guess it didn't matter that I had gained tons of weight, that I had wrinkles and bags and sags, it didn't matter that I still lived in Warden after 41 years - it didn't matter that I wasn't the most popular girl in high school all those years ago and it didn't even matter that my old boyfriend was there with his skinny wife. What mattered is that I wouldn't change a thing about my life now. I would like to be skinny but other than that I have a wonderful husband and a wonderful family a good job. My life is good.

Our trip to Kansas

A few days after we returned home from Wisconsin we got the word that Ed's brother had passed away in Kansas and so we started making arraingments to fly to Kansas. Luckily we have a great boss who gave us more days off. I don't fly often and so this was quite an experience for me. Especially since we had Ed's mother with us. The airports have grown so big that now you check your baggage and then get on a trolley and ride underground to another location to go thru security and then onto the plane. I paid $25 each way to check my suitcase that had my extra special $10 can of hairspray. I knew Grandma Olson thought I was nuts and that used to really bother me but I'm almost 60 years old and if I want to do that I will. When we got to Denver we had to practically run a mile thru the airport to catch the plane to Wichita. I kept looking behind me and Grandma kept up all the way. It was almost midnight by this time and we were all draggin! Our dinner was from the motel vending machine. "Crackers and diet pepsi". Their time is 2 hours ahead of ours so morning came early. We arrived in Hutchinson and visited with Ed's sister in law before heading to the funeral home. They had asked Ed to speak and so he took all of the Baptist ministers time as well. But I do think he did a really good job telling stories about his brother and even had a chance to bear his testimony. His nieces loved being with Ed and said he reminded them so much of their dad. Personally I do not see the resemblance but if it made them feel better that was good. Now, things are more laid back in Kansas than I am used to. The funeral dinner was held at one of Ed's nieces home. Everyone changed into shorts and T shirts (except us) and the beer flowed freely. They had 3 huge black labs that ran around and grabbed at our plates and licked our hands. Not the usual funeral dinner I am used to. But Fritz's kids are great and we enjoyed visiting with them. I'm not used to chickens on porches, but that just me. I've always been terrified of chickens since I was little but thats another story. On Monday we headed back to Wichita to catch our plane and our rental car quit on us. 2 hours and many phone calls later one of Ed's nieces came and picked us up and took us to the airport just in time to catch our flight to Denver. Denver's flight to Seattle was delayed which put us into Seattle after midnight. Another man had the same seat # as me and it caused a big chaos on the plane but finally we were on our way to Seattle. After much searching we found my suitcase with my $10 special can of hairspray and headed out to see if we could remember which station we were to go to get a shuttle to our car. About 1:30 a.m. we were on our way out of Seattle. Ed's mom was already asleep and I was trying to keep Ed awake. At Ellensburg we switched and I drove/slept the rest of the way home. It was the hardest time I have ever had trying to stay awake. The hardest was between pheasant run and Warden. At one point I did fall asleep and heard Ed hollar, I woke up just in time to keep from going in the ditch and looked over and Ed was sound sleep. I guess we were being watched over. I was amazed at Ed's mom and her ability to keep up with us as we ran from place to place, climbed stairs, waited in line and all this was usually late at night. This trip was not an easy one. Many things will be left unsaid - I am glad we got to spend time with some of Ed's family, and I am very thankful for Ed my family and all that we have.