Thank you Kay Peebles!

Reunion?  Yeah, I’m going to go.  It’s my fill in the blank high school reunion.  There’s all sort of issues going on about cost and what are we paying for and “who decided that???”. But I’m going to go.  Because a reunion is just that.. to re-unite with the past.  We cannot keep all of our memories in our frontal cortex. Lots of the life we have been through thus far, resides deep in the back of our brains.  We hardly have any occasion to bring them forth because, really, the people that we meet today don’t really want to hear about our high school hi-jinx.  The people going to this reunion, well , they remember.  And even if they don’t, their minds will be jostled by the endless stories of days gone by. Everyone will remember things just a little bit different but the stories will be as true as though the events just happened. It’s not really about who has done what with their lives,  how much hair has been  lost, or how much weight has been gained… it’s about the re-telling of the stories of our youth.  It is about what shaped our warped little brains and how we came to be responsible adults. (most of us). It’s about the fun that we really can’t do any more, the “pushing of the envelope”  that could have put us in jail if we had been caught. I mean really? who didn’t have a drink before they were of age?  The fact that I threw up every time I drank does not negate the fact that I was trying to have a drink at 17 years old!  There are people that I have not seen in a very long time who shared those experiences with me.  I would like to spend some time with them.

But the person I would like to see the most is Kay Peebles.  I don’t think she is going because I don’t think she graduated with us.  But of all the people I went to school with, she had the greatest impact on me.  You see, my family moved to Schenectady the summer between my 7th and 8^th grade year.  I made lots of friends in the neighborhood that summer, playing “kick the can”, “hide and seek” and   walking to Friendly’s for ice cream.  But the first day of 8^th grade, they were all busy with their old friends and I sat down in the cafeteria to eat lunch by myself.  Kay Peebles came up to me and asked me to join her table.  It was the nicest thing that could have happened and I accepted with gratitude.  We lost track of each other in High School.  I didn’t really fit into to her niche; I didn’t really fit into anyone’s.  I wasn’t rich or super smart, I wasn’t nerdy or into sports.  I wasn’t extra pretty or hard core.  I was just me and I found friends who were just like me… just , you know, pretty regular. I had a great time in High School.  But I will never forget Kay Peebles and what she gave to me, the understanding of acceptance and the chance to offer compassion when I can.  THANK  YOU  KAY PEEBLES   wherever you are!!!

Who do you remember most?  Who would like to re-connect with?  Why?