Forty years ago plus a few months, I graduated from Forest Park High School in Beaumont, Texas. I couldn't wait to get out of town to Dallas, where I would attend SMU.
Some of you may remember 1969. Our country was in the middle of the Viet Nam war. We had lost one former student to the fighting. He was memorialized. There were never any war protests in our town that I remember.
Illegal drug use, as far as I knew, was not prevalent. Beer and whiskey were the entertainment beverages of choice. A lot of us crossed the state line into Louisiana where the drinking age was 18. I have no memory of any alcohol related deaths or accidents, but there were a few minor in possession arrests.
Our baseball team won the state championship that year, and like all high schools, athletics were a big deal. I was the Sport's Editor for the school paper in 1969.
And now, looking back, times were good for an 18 year old Beaumonter in those days. At least, I thought they were.
Did you have a clear vision of your future when you graduated from high school? Well, I thought I did. I was wrong. As is said, life, as I had not known it previously, got in the way.
Since then, my life, like most lives, has been on track and also derailed from time to time. Good times, bad times, sickness, misfortune, unexpected joy, and just dumb luck have all been served up. My greatest success is my family. I met my wife at Forest Park. We're still married. I expected that, but no one else did. Lucky me!
I had no idea 40 years ago that today, I would be a real estate agent helping people avoid foreclosure. I didn't even know what a foreclosure was. I thought people bought houses and lived there forever unless they were transferred by their job. How little I knew at the time.
So here I am, 40 years later, heading to a reunion this weekend, and I'm expecting the unexpected. And I'm excited and happy about that possibility. I'll miss those who don't show up, and I hope to be pleasantly surprised by those who do make it to the party.
I hope there's plenty of coffee so I can stay up past my bedtime.
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