SHS Reunion, Class of 1989

Went to my high-school reunion this past Saturday night (SHS Class of ’89). It’s been almost 21 years since graduation, and almost as long since I’ve been back home (my parents divorced and my mom sold the house during my first year of college, alas).



It was deep dusk by the time I pulled onto Stokes Road and approached old Medford. A good number of things have changed, but a lot of it seemed frozen in time — the cedar-shingled houses, the sour smell of the lake, lightning bugs flashing in trees. Driving along, looking at these old houses, it struck me that our parents were around the age we are now when they were raising us here. They worked, stressed over money, self-doubted, and worried about the countless things that come with having children. And also like us, they had no idea what they were doing.

But we never knew that. We woke up in those houses every morning, ate our breakfasts, got on our yellow buses…and whatever tensions and tangles we encountered out there in the jungles of childhood, we could always find solace in this notion of Home — in the sights and smells and sounds that were the fabric of this place (Medford / Tabernacle / Shamong). Nothing inherently special about it, except that it was ours…the one place in the great wide world that felt safe and right, the one place where we belonged.

Yeah, you could say it was nice to be back.

-G

http://www.gregippolito.net/