Class of 65

This song is part of the Podcast Class of 65 Part Six

The song was sung for the first time at our 40 year Class Reunion in 2005. Before I sang I shared this letter:

To my classmates,

The song is meant as a tribute to special people and a unique time-and dedicated to those no longer with us-it is something to look at those experiences from the perspective of years later-with this reunion a chance to remember and be remembered-to wonder what happened to the years and how our classmates got so old-to shrug at where the hair went and the extra weight came from-to get together with those who knew us when-or even before when-back before the day-back to where we learned to drive or tried to dance and when nothing was more important than the game on Friday night or hanging out with the right people on Saturday-

High school was the last time we were all sort of tossed together based only on geography-our senior year being Abraham Lincoln Parker's last as Principal-his 40th at Lewis and Clark-back when he appeared ancient and forty years seemed like forever the student body advisor, Mr. Toev's would also retire at the end of that year. It was Coach Bartlett's last season as football coach-and we were the last senior class before Ferris - the new high school divided up the South Side-

The world as we knew it appeared to disappear in other ways as well after we graduated-Vietnam became a shadow over our lives and part of the evening news for the next decade-in short order Dylan went electric-cities burned-we lost a King and another Kennedy as well as faith in our government; reaching what we thought would be a zenith with something known as Watergate-during those same years we wondered out loud about the common good- often loudly discussing sometimes clashing over Civil Rights-Women's Rights-Environmental Rights-Gay Rights-(An African American kid would no longer automatically be told to “think about technical school” after graduation-and a high school girl could-for the most part-throw a ball as hard and run as fast and dream as big as she wanted without being laughed at by other kids.) A lot changed since our graduation – and surprising little -

Life didn't turn out the way I thought it would all those years ago- knowing myself proved more difficult-mistakes more costly-losses more painful-and genuine connections made more meaningful- 

Thank you for the connections to that special time that launched each of us toward what became our lives-thanks for remembering now-thanks to those who do the work to make this reunion possible-and thanks, too, for not laughing that hard as you look at the face and then the name tag-

Fondly, 

Mark Pearson,

Lewis and Clark High School

Class of 65