From One End of Town to the Other

I was in my hometown of Ossian, Iowa this weekend for our 40th class reunion-the South Winneshiek Class of 1983. We arrived on Friday evening and left midday on Sunday. The time between was spent from one end of town to the other.

The reunion was at the local golf course’s country club on the southwest edge of town. Our accommodations were in a barn converted to living space that is now an Airbnb. It’s located on the south east edge of town, on what was a working family farm of one of my classmates.

I visited my mom at the nursing home on one end of town and stopped to pay my respects at my dad’s grave in the cemetery near our church on the other end.

We ate at two different establishments in the downtown area, half a block from each other.

I ran from one end of town to the other, and back, on Sunday morning. It’s about a mile from one end to the other.

It was great to see dear friends I don’t see often and reconnect with classmates, some who I haven’t seen in many years. It was nice to get a short visit in with my two sisters who live locally, and to take a walk near the family farm, now owned by my brother, a couple miles south of town.

Conversations. Catching up. Laughter. Reminiscing. Marveling at how fast forty years goes. Looking at yearbooks and senior memory books.

Remembering our nine classmates, who between them have now been gone from earthly existence for a collective 182 years.

There has been plenty of life lived by the rest of us in the 480 months since we graduated. Each of us has known sorrow and joy, success and failure.

It wasn’t lost on those of us gathered Saturday evening that although we may be more scarred and wrinkled than we were in 1983, we are also loaded with the blessings and good fortunes that have come our way. Both the pain and the happiness have shaped each of us into the interesting and varied individuals who shared an evening together to celebrate our years together in high school.

Great to see you all! A huge thank you to all who helped make it possible!

And a fall picture from our Sunday morning walk, as my classmates and I head further into the fall of our lives.