HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRIMAN CLASS OF '64!

Yep, the entire Class of '64 turns 65 this year...time to start drawing from the Social Security and Medicare benefits that we've been paying into for all these years!  Some of us have been drawing since 62, but this year we all begin Medicare coverage.  That's the reason for us having a SS & M Party this past weekend.

The week, in general, has been a good week, with a couple of visits downtown to see my Princess, and to update my running blog of the restoration project.  That can be found on the Princess Blog!

Note the "funeral" tents in the background (Click to enlarge)

I'll have to say the highlight of the weekend was Friday night at Harriman High School's 2011 Homecoming game.  My son is the Guidance Counselor there and usually coordinates special events at the Friday night games, like who gets on the field and when, Homecoming Queens, and people like us returning alumni.  So, he had some funeral tents set up, almost too appropriate, for us to gather and socialize under during the game.  He even roped-off reserved seating in the stands, but most people elected to stay under the tents and reminisce.

Those that attended lined up along the 45 yard line, opposite the Class of '81, while they announced our class year.  Surprisingly, both classes got a rousing hand and we began to feel special!  Then we (both classes) moved down to the north end of the field and joined the Homecoming Queen and her court in forming a line through which the Blue Devils ran as the game got under way.

The Queen and court, the band, and us old folks, left the field to allow the coin toss.  It was just then that Phil Dawson, the fellow with the whitest hair, which used to be the reddest in the class, had the gumption to walk over and ask if he could toss the coin!  The refs asked if he could catch it, the nerve, and he just said, "We'll see!"  I missed that moment with my camera, but no one, not even Phil, until the last moment, knew he had the cojones to ask!  He was our hero!

So, we talked, watched a little football, that is until Harriman got behind, then some of us got distracted by hunger and thirst.  We reconvened in a corner at Los Premos and began munching chips and salsa; washing it down with Margaritas!

I got to spend some time with my ol' buddy David Arp too, Friday night, and again on Saturday morning during a special tour of the Princess, and then later at the Saturday evening SS & M Party!  It was good to talk to him again, and laugh about our former "Fight Club" and how it bonded our friendship.

My other good, high school best, friend Barry Henderson could not make the event due to loads of work he is doing in a tornado ravaged area of upper East Tennessee.  Maybe in three years he can make our normal, every 5 years, reunion party date.

Like I said, I had sent out an impromptu email inviting classmates to join us at the Princess, but only David, his wife Kathy, his mom, and his brother-in-law Jim Henry, who has been very important to our restoration project, his son John, and Dr. Ahler came to the unplanned tour.  Gary Baker, the important man behind the scenes of the Princess project, and, our very own "Michelangelo" Tim Plemons met us there to show us the recent progress.

David loved the tour, and being able to share with his wife stories of slipping into the balcony back long ago!  I guess I never had the guts to do that, although I did jump out of a tree into the Midtown Drive-in one night, but then again I married assistant manager's daughter and had a free pass!

Morgan's group shot will be better, but this will do for now.

Later, on the Clinch River, near K-25, our party gathered and the music began flowing down the valley, riding on the slow rising fog spreading there.  It's strange how we look at each other today and still see each other seated at school desks, and pay little attention to the passing of time, although we are keenly aware of "the age in my (their) eyes", and the slower way we turn and walk these days.

Party venue at Kay Culton's

But all the senseless ego and pride is gone.  All the pettiness and jealousy, has vanished with time and we just enjoy being in each others company again.  We have already lost nineteen classmates and it's so sad that we can no longer share this special "golden" age with them as well.

Our host - Kay Whitson Culton

We still like our music rather loud, as some kept asking for the music to be turned up, possibly in order to hear it above the many conversations and loud laughter!

We don't need alcohol anymore to give us the courage we once thought we needed to socialize, although we haven't given up on it completely, we just have learned to be more responsible with its use.  Thankfully, it has become a lesser motive to party.  It's seems to be all about the people, their lives, their kids and grand-kids now, and that's so special.  It only comes with age. 

My heart was warmed Saturday evening too, when some that never even had a date in high school, at least as far as anyone knows, were dancing with former "most popular" students.  Who would have ever thought we'd live long enough to see that happen; and how great it was!

Time heals all and gives us the life experience we need to have that kind of confidence...finally, self-assured enough to step out on the dance floor and "cut a rug" like we could only once fantasize!

I'm proud of my age...I'm proud all that small stuff has passed.  I'm also happy to be 65...happy to be alive and feeling well, for a change, and happy to be a 1964 graduate of Harriman High School. 

Best damn class ever!

WE'RE THROUGH PLANNING NOW!

Sadly, we are through planning our class' 65th Birthday, SS&M (Social Security/Medicare), Party, because we've had so much fun at our "planning meetings".  However, we shall resume when you all you Harriman Class of '64 members get here on September the 24th!  It would be awesome if everyone could be here for the planning sessions, but sadly we have split apart and gone our separate ways.  But, that's the reason for our parties and reunions...to get us all back together and renew our friendships and relive our high school days.

One good thing though, we won't have to hear Bob reminiscence about each and every one of you as we read the list of class names!  I think he could blackmail just about everyone in the class! Seriously, it was all good fun!  I think it was just his way of stretching out the party time!

I will shut up now and just let you enjoy some of the photos (double click to enlarge) I took Thursday evening at Kay (Whitson) and Bob Culton's home; where the party will take place.  Come dressed as you see us dressed...casually, 'cause someone just might end up in the pool!  So, relax and have fun!

Oh yes, there are between 15 and 20 of us planning on going to the Harriman vs. Wartburg football game on Friday evening the 23rd.  If you plan on attending, let me know so I can get seating reserved!

Who knew Kay was a two fisted drinker!

Ronnie watching his Prez!

Sorry Bob...this one's for me!

Bob and I suck it in!

Donna, Judy, and Regina hug up Bob Culton to thank him to letting us use his home for planning and for the party!

THE PARTIES TO PLAN THE PARTY!

My high school class graduated in 1964, from Harriman High School, Harriman, TN. We have been a close class, having reunions every 5 years, but we also take advantage of other milestones to get together and PARTY!
 

We had a reunion/party on our 50th birthday year, and this year brings around another special event; we are all turning 65! So, it's only fitting that we PARTY again like we (did last summer) used to. We are calling it our SS & M Party - Social Security and Medicare Party!

Donna, Bob, Ronnie, Sandra, and Jerry Lou

The best part of the reunion or milestone years, to me, are the planning parties!  You've already read about one planning party, back in July.  Those of us that still live in the Harriman area love any excuse to get together and party, and we often do, even in non-milestone years.
 

This year we plan to have the party at the same place we had the "warm up" party before the last reunion, at Kay and Bob's house - poolside! There will be lots of finger foods, oldie music from our era, and loud talking and laughing!

Ronnie, Sandra, Gene, Jerry Lou, Judy, Donna, and Bob

Jokes will be told, mostly about each other, “Remember the time you and I...!" Something always gets revealed, and someone blushes, but we're way too old to care what happened years ago. Now, it's just plain funny!
 

This month's planning party was this past week at Sandra and Tommy's home up in "God's Country" - Morgan County.

Mushy, Donna, and Bob

Sandra and Tommy built their home themselves, and it's beautiful! Some of the prettiest and most varied types of wood I've ever seen in a house. I'm talking pine, oak, hickory, cedar, walnut, wild cherry, and some I don't remember. It was hand harvested and cut, sawed up on the land where it fell, sanded and finished, nailed, and put in place by a husband/wife team that don't give up! They are hard working, salt of the earth, folks who love company and really put on a food spread for them!

This is country living at its best...the house is surrounded by heavy timber, fields, pastures, barns and outbuildings. A porch runs around three sides of the house with a view that no city folks have ever seen. 

There were large oaks in the yard with a clothes line, complete with clothes pins, running underneath, which reminded me of my grandmother's place down in Alabama.

 
A late evening rain in the mountains moved through ahead of a cold front, cooling the day's high temperatures down into the upper 70's, and the dark green leaves dripped wet as a cool fog began forming down in the field and drifting toward the darkening woods. What a place...it had been awhile since I had stood and watched such and evening develop.

Ronnie, our class president, called the planning meeting to order, but everyone ignored him and fixed another Wild Turkey before being seated!

 
Bob read the class list Jerry and I had prepared, reminiscing over each name with some funny event he recalled. However, Jeannie, his wife, soon put him back on track and we soon moved on!

We are having another planning meeting next month...just days before the actual party, and I can hardly wait to get together again!

It's so much fun hanging out with all those old folks!

THE CLASS OF '64 - updated

As you know, at least my “faithful followers” do, that my family moved back to Harriman, Tennessee in the summer of 1962. I had finished my sophomore year in Florence, Alabama. Soon after, my dad came home to inform us that he had found a job at the Bull Run Steam Plant near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Dad was an electrician and mostly followed the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) power plant construction work throughout the Southeast.

Since we had lived in Harriman some 7 years earlier, he wanted us to again live there, giving him about a 25-mile one-way commute.

That summer, before school started, I spent time in Bennie Lowery’s basement, bashing model cars together. He was the only friend I had yet to make in the South Harriman area. I would not see old friends, nor make any new friends, until my junior year began at South Harriman High School.

South Harriman and the City of Harriman are separated by the Emory River, connected by two bridges. When we first lived in Harriman, there was only one. So, South Harriman had its own school system, and because of where we settled, in the Pine Hills area, that’s where I attended school. There was also no tuition, which made it more attractive to my father, making less than $10K/yr at the time.

I finished the first grade in the Harriman school system, attending Harriman Elementary. However, my second grade year found me at Walnut Hill Elementary, located on the east side of Harriman. I finished the second and third grades there.

For some reason, I was back at Harriman Elementary for the fourth grade, but only finished half the year there. My family moved to Indiana where I finished my forth year of school. The rest of the other eight schools I attended, over my first 12 years of education, have been outlined in this blog, so I will not go back into that explanation.

I write all this to point out that I made friends on the Harriman side of the Emory River during those three and a half years. Coming back to Harriman, and registering at South Harriman, meant that I would again see a few of those earlier friends who had moved across the river, and begin making new ones.

By the end of my sophomore year, it was announced that South Harriman and Harriman City Schools would consolidate into one building in Harriman. This was very painful for us, as well as the South Harriman community, because of school pride and an intense past athletic rivalry in both basketball and football. Gone would be the Orange and White, and the Pirate mascot we had be loved. We would have to learn to like Blue and White and become Blue Devils!

The first day of school was traumatic for most, and the authorities were very anxious about that first gathering of the formerly separate and proud student bodies in the Harriman Auditorium. Principal George Ballard welcomed us, “our friends from across the river” to Harriman. A mummer rose from the South Harriman students, as we looked at each other in disbelief – was that any way to start building a bond among his students? To us it was saying, “from across the tracks” with the connotations such a statement normally carries.

The consolidation was perhaps less traumatic to me, because I again saw the Harriman and Walnut Hill “kids” I had gone to school with earlier. Most remembered me as well and I began to feel comfortable sooner than some.

Through only a few rough weeks, the Class of 1964 emerged consolidated and dedicated to each other. We began with a 10-year reunion cycle and voted on that first occasion that we just had to see each other every 5 years. So, this weekend began Friday evening with a warm-up pool-side party at Kay and Bob Culton’s home.  

It was a casual time to gear up emotionally for the 45^th year reunion party on Saturday. The warm-up was just the beginning of the fun we had and it carried over into Saturday evening, not ending until about midnight.

It was decided, what with our advancing age and the plain fact that we love and care for one another, that we would begin meeting every 3 years!

However, those of us still living in the Harriman area will strive to each other a few times each year. We all have grand and great-grandkids, so schedules will have to be worked out carefully.

The bond we forged in that one school year is very strong and we just hope we will have many more opportunities to gather as the Class of ’64 – best damn class ever to graduate from Harriman or South Harriman! Maybe anywhere…’cause we’re sixties kind of people!

UPDATE: Here's Morgan Alred's (second from right) Official Class Reunion photo. I'm in the left arch!

Also, don't forget to click on these to make them larger, and you can go HERE to see more photos of the reunion!