The Dayton Alumni (230)

Yes, it rolled around again, the first of May always on a Saturday night they gather.
At the Trails usually, the dying breed, the survivors of the Dayton Indiana High School, first the happy hour which at least gets half of them talking while the other have listens...Then comes the great meal and then the part where they introduce everyone in the room...Then some honored classes like the 50 year class and the 60 year class...always different each year the people I mean, but really about always the same...about the same stories and about the same memories.

I keep going every year for fear they will do something different and I will miss it.
Last year was sweet pea's first year to attend with me...she said it was more boring than watching paint dry...I told her she was missing something, how could it be that boring and I attend 90 some percent of the time???? This year when it started she said, "hey that's the same stuff they talked about last year isn't it"? I had to admit it probably was explaining to her that, "hey it's a small town", "there is not a lot of stuff every happened and in most cases it just happens over and over again"...She looked at me and gave me a sympathetic look. But about that time she happened to spot her Principle Mr. Charlie McDonald who she said she did like and that gave her a whole new assessment of DHS...actually it was his wife that attended Dayton not him but I did not tell her that as she was quickly upgrading her interest in what was going on...We sat at a table with my brothers and sister and in laws and nephew Bill Patton from California....he of course is here for his mother Florence Patton's funeral and I got him a late reservation for this BIG annual festivity...He was so grateful I think he may have slipped out without paying for it...But they will eventually track him down if he did...we have great secretaries and treasurers...

It was a great school to attend, we are as we are told each year very lucky to have had such a good school with such good teachers and principles...maybe that is why I go each year just to hear it one more time, I don't know...I may not go next year, it is borderline boring even for me...surely they would not miss me...no graduates since 1965, so we are an "aging" group...each year they do a memorial for those passing that year...Maybe that is why I go to see who died, maybe that is it...Maybe I will go every other year for a while...I'll attend at least every 5 years for sure, someone has to be there at the last to turn out the lights....