Party Tonight!

Tonight I will get together with my peeps from high school and a bunch of other people from a neighboring high school.

I had a GREAT time in high school. I watch all those movies about teenagers suffering through high school and I am bewildered. I have more happy memories than you can shake a stick at. The movies always dwell on cliques. But I know that when I walked into the cafeteria, I sat with whoever....my Charlestown friends, my Pope John friends, upper classmen, freshman. Whatever!

And I can't be alone in this because my class is always looking for excuses to get together. We have the normal milestone reunions, the last one was 30 years in 2008. And we have extra.

Tonight is the "Class of '78 50th Birthday Bash Summer Kickoff" for Pope John XXIII Central High School (me) and Everett High School (others). Pope John is in Everett so lots of my classmates had close ties to that school. I get to go even though I am not turning 50 this year, lol. I was only 17 when I graduated, so I am only 49 this year.

I have to find my yearbook, right now it's chaos in my house with the move. I will scan my pic. I was voted "Most School Spirited". You're not surprised are you?

And I was an honorary member of the football team. Senior year I was talking to some friends about the senior elections. One of the football players noted that someone from the football team was running for every office. I disagreed, I was running for secretary against Gretchen. I wasn't all that interested but Mr. Totten, my government teacher, had leaned on me. He said there had to be competition for every office. I didn't really campaign and was just as happy when Grethchen won. So I knew it was two girls running for secretary. But Keith listed them off office by office and when he got to secretary, he pointed at me. I laughed and questioned my "football team" status and he amended it to "honorary".

A few days later before the all important Malden Catholic football game, they were headed off to practice on rainy dreary day. I was standing outside the gym shouting nonsense that anyone who knows me now would be familiar with today. "Practice hard! Nevermind the rain! Play tough!". I might have teased them a little because I was headed into the nice warm dry gym where I was manager of the girl's volleyball team.

Volleyball was just about over when a breathless freshman stuck her hear on the door and told me someone downstairs wanted me. I turned to Sr. Cathy Mozzicato for permission to run downstairs and hopped up when I got the nod. The stairway was a tight square, when you came into the top of the stairwell, you couldn't see the bottom. But I heard a funny noise and more than one person calling "McInnis". I made it to the bottom curve and there was what seemed like the whole football team trying to squeeze into the single door at the bottom. They were wet and muddy........

And every last one of them gave me a hug. I felt hands in my hair and on my face. They were telling me that they wanted to share the experience since I was one of them. LOL! I had mud everywhere! All over my hair...my face....in my ears.... All over my starched white blouse (no, I didn't starch it!) and my legs.

You think I behaved after that? Hell no!!!