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Saturday, July 23, 2011

About 50 To 311,832,658

When we were in Washington state for Chuck’s sister’s surprise birthday party, our timing afforded us a bonus event: our nephew’s senior prom! “A” is a great kid with a good sense of humor and a whole bunch of musical and artistic talent. He’s been friends with “B” for many years so we’ve enjoyed getting to know “B” during our visits to the Seattle area. The afternoon of the prom, 16 couples gathered at the home of one of the girls for photos. That’s 32 high school kids dressed to the nines, along with lots of parents, some siblings and the occasional Auntie and Uncle!

It was like a mini-prom without the dancing and completely unlike any of my high school prom experiences. We had a great time. “A” and “B”, along with their dates, were going to the prom and post prom together. So after the photo op there was a bit of coordination and combining of stuff into one car back at “A’s” house. “B’s” parents swung by to deliver something their son had forgotten. After waving goodbye to the prom bound kids, Chuck’s sister invited “B’s” parents in for a drink. The six of us sat out on the deck and chatted about the kids, the prom, the post prom, our own memories of how different things had been back in the day, etc.

We had never met “B’s” parents before but it was an easy going conversation. At one point I mentioned Rhode Island in passing. “B’s” mom asked if we lived in Rhode Island. I said no, but then gave the typical Rhode Island thumbnail sketch: born in Providence, grew up in Warwick attended such and such schools. “B’s” mom repeated the name of my parochial elementary school and followed with “I went to that school!” An extremely fast paced exchange ensued until we both said we had graduated in 1972! Yes, “B’s” mom and I were part of the same graduating class, she in one classroom, me in the other! Amazing. We spent another hour connecting the dots and reminiscing about growing up together.

There were only 50 kids in our 8th grade class. But there I was, 2500 miles away from that little school, and I was sitting across from one of my classmates. What were the odds?

5 comments:

Sprout said...

That's pretty awesome!

Anonymous said...

If you had been in RI at the time, your entire class might have wandered through - only in Rhode Island!!!
Gail

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Quick, go buy a lottery ticket :)

Pink Granite said...

Hi Sprout -
It was incredible - with just a hint of the Twilight Zone meets Candid Camera!

Hi Gail -
You are soooo right! Even Mom, at 87, still runs into people from St. X's and St. A's!

Hi Morgan -
I totally should!
;o)

Sue said...

Wow!! That actually gave me goosebumps! How very totally awesome. It's always fun re-connecting and filling in on each other's lives. Stunning story!

Sue X