Melancholy Reflexions

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet,
And whither then? I cannot say.

~ J.R.R.Tolkien

I have discovered Facebook recently. Is it just me or do you all find it to be a bit addictive like I do. I find myself checking posts on Facebook more often than I check for new e-mails. A long time friend, Linda Sue from Junior High has started a group for the school that we attended way back then. So far 9 of us has joined the group and hopefully there will be many more.

As I sat and paged through the old class pictures that has been posted on the group wall, besides the fact that we all looked like a bunch of geeks, as one classmate commented, I was swept over with melancholy reflections of things that happened way back then, as well as things that has happened since those days so long ago. I thought back about the friends whose journeys have taken them on to the higher plain. My good friend Bruce for instance, who took his own life. I wondered if we had stayed in touch over the years, could I have said something to him that might have helped him move past his desire to end his life. The classmates whose car was hit by a train on their way to school one morning. Memories of my friend Tony whose life ended much too soon. He had a heart as big as Texas. There was also another classmate who took a bottle of pills in the girls restroom one day. They were vitamin pills so there was no harm done...... but she definitely made a cry for help that day.

There were also memories of good times too. My favorite school lunch was Sloppy Joes. It was always served with corn and chips. To this day when I make sloppy Joes the side dishes are corn and chips. There was the time that Linda Sue, Bruce and I were selected to decorate the Gym for the school dance. That was a fun day for the three of us. I remember the day that I got caught chewing gum during my lunch break. I was promptly taken to the office, bent over the desk and a wooden paddle applied to my rear. Hmmmmm...... I figured that since it was my lunch break I should be able to chew gum if I wanted to. I was wrong of course and received my punishment for the crime I had committed. I have thought about that many times when I have visited my grandchidren's schools where you walk through the doors and then pass through metal detectors. While some schools today not only have the metal detectors, but off duty policemen and security guards walking the halls as well.

In my Junior year of high school we moved from Springfield, Ohio to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While I attended Shawnee High School in Ohio I was part of the Block 'S' pep squad. When I enrolled at my new school in Florida I asked if they had something similar that I could join. I thought that would be a good way to meet people........ I was met with looks like I was some sort of nut case or from another planet.

Memories of riding the bus to and from school with Mr. Miller at the wheel as our bus driver. Linda Sue and I called him Poopsy..... lol He was a farmer when he wasn't chauffeuring a bus load of younguns' around and a wonderful man. I understand that he has died too.
As a final memory to share with you in this post is that during the winter when it got cold enough for the skating pond to freeze there was a phone number that you could call for information as to rather the pond was safe for skating or not. Many of us that called that number could have cared less about the condition of the skating pond. The reason being that when a bunch of calls came in at the same time it would jam the lines and we found ourselves in a huge party line type of situation where we could all talk together. I spent many enjoyable hours talking on that line. Taking into consideration that call waiting had not been invented at the time I got my rear chewed out many times for keeping the home phone tied up.

You might have notice that I changed the music on my blog. I have always associated a song or a group of songs to certain times, people and events in my life. These songs take me back to the time in my life when my Independence seemed so far away. A time when I thought I was bullet proof, until I let down my guard only to have my heart broken. The laughs and the tears that came with being a teenager. I sometimes wish that I could travel back to that time and say the things to those that I cared about that was left unsaid and keep in touch with those that played such an important part of my tender years.

May your good memories out number the bad and sweet enough to bring a smile to your face.