Our 40th High School Reunion was held on October 16, 2010 aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach. This time around we invited Taft High School's class of 1970 to participate. The Taft reunion committee accepted, and we combined our efforts for a grand affair aboard the great old ship.
For an ice breaker, a number of classmates met the night before the reunion, at the "YardHouse" in Long Beach, over dinner and drinks. Along with most classmates attending the ice breaker, even committee members were meeting for the first time in years because all committee meetings were arranged through "skype" and were never face to face. A few people at the ice breaker were not available for the reunion event itself, but took the time to greet everyone for the evening.
The main event aboard the Queen Mary took place in what was originally the "First Class Passenger's Smoking Salon," and now renamed the Royal Salon. With participant numbers a few shy of 100, we were entertained by Jimmy O, who was the DJ for our event. His main attempt was to get us up on the floor dancing, something that he mentioned was difficult at reunions; Difficult, he said, because all everyone wants to do is reconnect and recollect. And talk we did, but many took time out to dance as well.
As the wonderful evening progressed we were further entertained by Nancy Cline, AKA Nancy Heytow Miller, who performed her own version of Patsy Cline's hit song, "She's Got You." Of course Nancy put her own spin on the rendition, and we laughed through her performance. As an added bonus, Paul Wade, Joe Peralta, and Derol Caraco performed several songs, with guitars in hand. Additional vocals were provided by Joe's sisters.
All attendees were invited to take a "crowd" picture on the stern of the ship. Our volunteer photographer, Liz, daughter of Debbie Lallo from Taft, herded us and huddled us -- and she took some great photos.
Returning to the salon, our DJ picked right up where we had left him, and the music took us on into the evening. Our reunion memory book is entitled "Memories We Treasure", and it is aply named. We recollected old memories and created some new ones that evening.
The following blustery day, on a Sunday afternoon, many of us drove over to the High School for another reunion of sorts -- to remember and reminisce about our High School Daze. Phil Martin, who was the waterboy on our school's football team back in 1970 graciously invited us to participate in a tour of the school. We walked the hallways, many of us for the first time in 40 years. And we found the bell.
Class Picture - 2010
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