Revisiting my High School Reunion and my friend Rick

On a warm July evening outdoors near what is now called the old mill district, I dabbled in time travel.  That was the first night of Bend High School's 40th Class Reunion.  The lead up to high school reunions is always a bit stressful but I think it gets easier with age. Honestly the hardest thing is just recognizing everyone.  I walked into Crux Fermentation and without hesitation - misidentified the first person I saw.  I was sure I had this but clearly - epic fail.  Hair tends to be an issue for the men.  Some hair is gone. Most hair is grey. There are weird beards and a few....grey beards.  Some classmates are immediately recognizable to everyone - even to us idiots. I strangely thought I was in the "recognizable" category.  Turns out - I didn’t look like the Travelocity Gnome in 1977.

       

It's a little awkward at first but once you start mingling the edge wears off and it becomes somewhat magical. Craft beer doesn’t hurt either.  It’s almost universal how classmates seem to pick up right where they left off.  Almost unknowingly we find ourselves in a weird state of familiarity, talking as if we’re back in B-hall.  It’s all good because it’s warmer and funnier now.  Most of us witnessed our own kids go through high school.  Seeing that from a parent’s perspective reinforces how fast and intense that period really is. The combination of youth, immaturity and hormones created a roller coaster we took for granted.  Now we are just Bendites from the nineteen seventies but we still think "Dust in the Wind" was deep. 

 

Seeing old friends Rick Baldini, Bob McNair, Chuck Shannon, Earl Wilder, Tom Douglass and many others was worth gold to me.  Here’s one story and that promises to bore: 

I met Rick Baldini in Ninth Grade.  It was Mrs Edmunds second year Spanish class: Pilot Butte Junior High. To her I was Dah -veed and Rick was Ricardo. To us - she was Mrs Edmundos!   

I learned quickly I could make this guy laugh and nobody laughs like Rick Baldini. His face turns beet red and he can barely speak. Most my childhood friends were left in Beaverton when I moved here in sixth grade. Rick introduced me to guys named Mike Cutter, Tony Anderson, Todd Dinsmore and Bob (McNair) to name a few.  Thanks to Rick, I regained my lost sense of belonging and from that point Bend was my new home town.

To my great surprise – Rick asked to buy My Friday Night Lights which I painted last fall to honor football season in America.  It was a sentimental piece designed to encapsulate my experience playing football at Bend High forty years ago. The piece includes the primary stars of that fine team.  PLUS me and my other brother-from-a-different-mother - Steve Olds aka Tons. We were scrubs but it’s my painting and I can do what I want.  To my great surprise – my online audience connected with it.  It was shared and commented on by ex- Bend High players from various classes - by far my most popular post.  I am deeply honored Rick wanted this piece and now it is perfectly his.

      

I added a custom built and painted frame that includes distressed images of some classmates and team photos.