a trip down memory lane
Last weekend I helped my daughter and her family move into a new home south of Baltimore. My two friends and I decided to spend the night in the area at the nearby Crown Plaza Hotel. This Crown is a large hotel with conference space, and as soon as we checked in, we headed down an expansive hallway toward the elevators. As we entered the passageway, I noticed a small sign directing guests to one of the large ballrooms, and I could see a grand entrance of balloons leading into the area. We came close enough to read in big, bright gold letters "50th".
Ah, this event was a 50th-anniversary class reunion. It was then that I remembered this is the year of my 50th-anniversary celebration of barely graduating from high school. My age made me look like I could easily be attending this reunion. Fifty years! What! When did I get that old? I sure don't feel that old, and I'll let you decide if I look that old. I would have considered myself ancient at this age when I was young.
Anyway, then, the fun began. Since I will not be attending my 50th back home, the three of us decided we would act like we were attending this event since everyone kept smiling and talking to us like we were. All evening and the following morning, we chatted and laughed with "classmates," and no one discovered we were not part of the party. One slightly inebriated, well-dressed woman even told me I smelled good! I walked around the ballroom and munched on a few hors d'oeuvres. I chatted for about half an hour with a talkative chap who had served in special forces in the military and now owns a company that helps train them. He had some interesting stories to share. The next morning, we were sitting in the hotel restaurant as the attendees headed down the adjacent hallway to their breakfast buffet when a lady came up behind me and asked if I had seen Charlie. I told her he had just passed by on his way to breakfast down the hallway. She later returned to thank me for pointing her in the right direction. It was the least I could do since I had no idea who Charlie was.
All in all, it was both a productive and unexpectedly fun weekend, and I got to celebrate my 50th Class Reunion with graduates from a high school in Severna Park, Maryland.
1972 is frequently known as a "black" year due to many world tragedies, the Watergate scandal, and numerous other catastrophes. But not everything was black that year. Teachers were thrilled to see me exit Anderson High School, and I purchased my 1968 muscle car, a bright red Dodge Charger with a Black top. I found several other fun facts about 1972 that I think you should know.
· This year, Hewlett Packard introduced the world's first pocket scientific calculator, the HP-35. My dad, the engineer, was delighted to purchase one.
· Volkswagen Beetle sales exceeded those of the Ford Model-T when the 15,007,034th VW Beetle was produced. Before they were finished, those ingenious Germans made over twenty-one million of these rear-engine cars. I never liked those goofy-looking cars, but it was fun to see how many people you can get inside of one.
· Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney co-founded Atari in 1972, and they released Pong in the same year, which would be the first commercially successful video game in history. Pong is still one of the most enjoyable video games since the game is at a level I can understand.
· Five White House operatives were arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee. This discovery was the beginning of the Watergate Scandal. Many of you younglings don't even know what that is. Ask your grandparents about it.
· Don Mclean released the number one single of the year, "American Pie." I witnessed poor Don booed off the stage when he opened for Alice Cooper, of all people. What idiot thought Don McClean was a good opener for Alice? Duh!
· The first "pay" cable network premiered, which was HBO. "Cable," what's that?
· Prozac went on the market, a world changer since everyone was so depressed.
· NASA built the first space shuttle. Many everyday items we use today came from the R&D for space travel, including Lasik, artificial limbs, scratch-resistant lens, DustBusters, and wireless headsets.
· Color televisions finally outstripped black and white in sales. We went to my uncle's house every Sunday night to watch The Wonderful World of Disney and the NBC Peacock in living color. It was awesome!
· Jerry Seinfeld graduated in 1972. "Seinfeld" is often rated the number one sitcom of all time. He is one funny guy!
As you can see, 1972 was an outstanding year to graduate high school. I graduated in the bottom third of my class of around 600, which means I was smarter than 200 quality students. I was not fond of school, which turned out funny because I later attended school for another sixteen years before I completed a doctorate. I still don't like school because it cuts down on time I could be having fun.
By now, you might be asking, what is the moral of the story, Hamilton? Get to the point.
Well, not much, but I enjoyed the stroll down memory lane. I can tell you this. What you were does not have to determine where you are and where you are going in life. Thanks to drugs, booze, and the wrong friends, I was not a particularly nice person in my high school days. If I could attend my own school reunion, my most enjoyable moments would be when I told people I had become a pastor for forty years and then watched their jaws drop. How fun would that be?! God has good plans for you so hop on the bus.
Live Inspired!
Don Mark
