| 35
and Out in Bay City, MI |
| I leaned over to the fellow next to me and said to him,
"I remember you. You were the guy who beat me in the high
school election for class president. I'm still not sure I
forgive you." |
| That exchange happened a couple of weeks ago during the
40th reunion of the 1961 graduating class of Bay City Central
High in Michigan. The election I was referring to was in 1960,
when this guy whooped my partner and me in the election for
the presidency of the senior class. My political desires were
forever crushed at that moment. |
| Not that I hold a 40-year grudge or anything, but I didn't
sit at the same banquet table with him that evening. I think
he used dirty politics to win that election, but 40 years
can cloud the memory. Maybe he was just a better candidate
than I. Well, and then maybe not. |
| As my wife Betsy and I walked into the restaurant banquet
room where some 200 out of 447 of my former classmates, along
with their spouses or dates, were gathering for the reunion,
I mentioned to her, "Why did I ever agree to come to this
deal?" Ordeal might have been a better word. |
| It was a weekend affair, with boat rides, picnics, golfing
and a tour of the old high school. I chose just to attend
the Saturday evening banquet. |
| The first thing that struck me in that room was that all
200 or so of my classmates and I were the same age: 58. It
was as if the room was filled with clones. At first it was
hard to recognize most of my former classmates; we all looked
alikeäolder. |
| Then I learned a trick: I looked deep into their eyes. It
was there I found the person from 40 years ago. Of course,
I still had to look at their name tag to verify who they were,
but it wasn't long until I remembered stories about every
one of them. |
| I'm sure most of them didn't remember many of those stories,
and if they did, they were sorry they did. Like the time I
was driving that 1947 black four-door Plymouth the wrong way
on a one-way street when a policeman stopped me and I said,
"Look, officer ..." Oh, never mind. You had to be there. |
| Bay City, Michigan. My hometown. When I left there to go
to college at Michigan State, I never looked back. I did go
back, but only to see my mom and dad and a brother who still
lived there. But I hadn't been back since 1987 when my mom
died. |
| The old town has changed, but I did manage to recognize
some of the places where I played, hung out, got in trouble,
the river where I learned to swim, the alleys and my old friends'
houses where we played endless versions of endless made-up
games through endless summers. |
| But all the memories were only remnants of an earlier time. |
| At the reunion, however, history was still alive in the
faces and lives of my former classmates. Since most of my
classmates had never left Bay City, I wanted to know what
they had been doing over the past 40 years. |
| "What do you do for a living?" I asked curiously. |
| "I retired after 35 years with GM," he answered proudly. |
| "What do you do for a living?" I asked another shamelessly. |
| "I retired after 35 years with GM," he answered assuredly. |
| "What do you do for a living?" I asked, maybe for the final
time. |
| "I retired after 35 years and 27 minutes with GM," he answered
surprisingly. |
| "Twenty-seven minutes?" I asked. "Yes," he said. "It took
me 27 minutes to sign the 35-years-and-out papers." |
| You get an understanding, coming back to Bay City, of why
the automobile unions were so popular. Thirty-five years working
at any business is a very long time, but if it hadn't been
for the unions, with their struggle for better pay, better
retirement, better health plans and better strike benefits
to back it all up, many of these men and women wouldn't have
had the opportunities they enjoy today. |
| Of course, not all of my graduation class became automobile
workers. There were many teachers and nurses, doctors and
business owners, plumbers, welders and carpenters. Some were
actually still working. My class was a real mix of backgrounds,
education and success, just like the city in which they went
to high school, grew up, worked and retired. |
| They have all contributed so faithfully to the fabric of
American living, each in his own honest way. |
| I was happy I chose to attend this 40th reunion. There are
plans for another one in 2006. I'll be there. I'll probably
still be working, but I'll be there. |
| And that's Our Town this week. |
