{"id":20826,"date":"2022-06-02T06:58:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T11:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=20826"},"modified":"2022-06-02T07:21:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T12:21:56","slug":"the-reunion-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/the-reunion-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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(This past week was to be my 50th College reunion. Actually it\u2019s been 51 years . . Covid happened. Anyway, I couldn\u2019t go. So, this being the season for school reunions, I thought I\u2019d share my 50th high school reunion once again.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archbishop Hoban High School was an all\u0016-boys Catholic high school (since become co\u0016-ed) taught by the Brothers of the Holy Cross (think Aquinas only a bit smaller). We had 252 graduating seniors. There were about 80 classmates at the reunion with their wives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wondered if there would be some big \u201clife lesson\u201d awaiting me that weekend . . . some dramatic news about a former rival, some hugely successful person, a headline story of fortune gained or lost. Nothing like that happened. It was all very simple and real \u0016 \u0016 \u0016 this was our dinner that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

** We had gotten older. Some fellows (good friends 50 years ago) I didn\u2019t recognize, others brought immediate memories . . . Wayne Hopp, a little cheery guy, would turn back to me each morning in homeroom to share some class news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

** We all got t-\u0016shirts with our class motto (\u201cWho Cares?!\u201d) printed on the sleeve. We were at the beginning of the turbulent \u201860\u2019s and \u201870\u2019s. We thought ourselves oh so clever back then. Many of us had dabbled in Hippiedom and its various excesses. Since then I\u2019d say most of us had in fact learned \u201cto care\u201d. The wives and the children were instrumental in our transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

** Someone who cared from the beginning was Mike Kempel. He was a Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class in Viet Nam. He was killed as he carried three fallen soldiers to safe cover and was awarded the Silver Star. Mike and I had made our First Communion together at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. He was a quiet, kindly fellow who never called attention to himself . . . until he died saving his brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

** Another classmate, Steven Bligh, had just lost his wife of 45 years. Their 3 children were raised and living far away. Steve was somewhat lost as he wandered the party by himself. Finally, some of our \u201cWho Cares?\u201d classmates grabbed him and sat him down with a beer and some conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

** As I said, it used to be a blue collar all\u0016boys school. So we weren\u2019t the smoothest guys when it came to girls. Those with their own cars (a very few of us) were fast starters on the dating scene back then. But eventually the boys got their courage up and found their partners in life. The wives seemed genuinely happy to be a part of the evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

As we filtered out there were no promises to \u201cmeet up again\u201d, just handshakes, smiles, and \u201cgreat to see you\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m blessed to have 4 or 5 friends from high school that I still see when I travel back \u201chome\u201d. But I\u2019ll never see most of those people again. That, in itself, is a thought worthy to reflect on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terry\u2019s killer smile. John T\u2019s gift of getting us together. Wayne\u2019s excitement over the Cleveland Indians, Steve\u2019s sadness without his wife, Dave\u2019s quiet helping hand, Roland loud with too much beer . . . guys, it\u2019s been quite a ride. I\u2019m privileged to have known you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear God. You made each one of us as a unique expression of your glory. You put us on the earth to share your joy in the beautiful world you created. You call us to be like you in the way you love. You gave us your Son to be one of us and show us the way. Jesus told us we are your children and you are our Father. And we will be with you in the great mystery called heaven.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you so much!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Tim<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This past week was to be my 50th College reunion. Actually it\u2019s been 51 years . . Covid happened. Anyway, I couldn\u2019t go. So, this being the season for school reunions, I thought I\u2019d share my 50th high school reunion once again.) Archbishop Hoban High School was an all\u0016-boys Catholic high school (since become co\u0016-ed) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20826"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20837,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20826\/revisions\/20837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}