I’d like to begin by thanking the organizing committee.  This reunion has been an incredible amount of fun and so worth their efforts on our behalf.  How else would I have found out that Murray Rogers spends 6 months a year sailing in the Caribbean and that Ann Knowles has been in a magic time capsule since graduation, the only explanation for why she looks so young.  So, could the organizing committee please stand: Renee McDougall, Rod Proudfoot, Jim Hill, Torben Holm-Pedersen, Jim Matheson, Karen Leitch, and Gord Plewes. 

I’m not sure why I was picked to share a few words with you tonight.  I know there are many of you out there with a better memory than me (Irene Decker had to remind me that my sister Nevis used to sneak love notes under Irene’s cute older brother Jamie’s pillow) and some of you like to talk more than me (Doug Rault), but my guess is I’m up here because that I was the lucky one to run into Renee at the Folk Fest and in Sobey’s (we both live in St. Albert), and perhaps, I was the only one of us who returned her voice mail about speaking tonight. 

I think what’s so great about an event like this is that it reminds us that all those things we remember, actually did happen and that there are others who share those memories and poor choices in hairstyles.  It’s not so much about reliving the past, but reconnecting with it and the people who were responsible for it. 

The 60’s are perhaps a memory chest, tucked away in each of us, easily opened by a song, a photo, an old friend or flowered bell bottoms. 

In 1967, the top 3 movies were “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, “To Sir With Love” and “The Graduate”.  Some of the top songs were Light My Fire, Brown Eyed Girl, Ruby Tuesday, and Ode to Billie Joe.  Two of my personal favourites had great titles that I’d like to think reflected our outlook during high school – All You Need is Love and Happy Together. 

I know it’s not about times being better or worse, times just change.
But still, in another 40 years, who do you think will still be heard? Britney Spears and Nickelback or the Beatles and Van Morrison?

And speaking of times changing, I can remember my parents, some time in the 60’s, complaining about the cost of postage going up to 8 cents a letter and them predicting that people would just stop writing letters at that price.   I can remember collecting 25 cents a week from Heather Munro and Chris Middleditch for gas for Nevis’s and my Volkswagen Beatle and that $1.00 a week got us to Scona and home everyday in Grade 12.

A reunion is always about storytelling.
Neil Fleming told me a great story about Brian Cuthbertson’s birthday in grade 11 at Scona.  Neil and Brian and their buddies, John Wainwright, Bert Hollingshead, and Peter Higham always ate their lunch in the same place everyday – in the gym bleachers in same row.  The third seat in from the aisle was Brian’s and he always sat there.  So, on Brian’s birthday, Neil took a screwdriver to school and detached the wooden seat and presented it to Brian as his birthday present.  Neil phoned Brian today and Brian said that seat is still in his mom’s basement. 

This reunion has given us a chance to both retell some old stories and to catch each other up on what’s been happening in our lives since Scona. 

In conclusion, I think that our Social Studies teacher Mr. Sproule, if he were here, would say “Okay, students, this conclusion is important.  Please underline this and put a generous NB in the margin.”
         
Classmates of Scona 1967.  I am amazed with the optimism and spirit in this room.  As I have listened to us share what has happened in our lives over these last 40 years and have read our yearbook biographies, I believe that we lived our dreams, and, often by necessity rather than by choice, we had to find new dreams to live.  Many of us have rediscovered those dreams in our children and in, perhaps, our grandchildren.  I think we still behold the world with wonder and hope even though we can now see its imperfections.  And I speak with certainty when I say I believe that after this reunion we will continue to rediscover our dreams.

Thank you

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