The committee would like to express thanks to all who joined us at the 30th reunion and to urge you to continue your support of our future reunions. Thanks to all our classmates who responded to the questionnaires, phone calls and e-mail requests.
A special thank you to Steve Rajtar for creating a Maple Heights High School web site, www.oocities.org/yosemite/rapids/8428. Please contact Steve or any other committee member, if there are any changes or corrections to your information. There is no excuse now, why we can't keep in touch with any of our classmates. Steve also complied all of the information for this memory book for all of us to enjoy.
We encourage all classmates to help us celebrate at our 35th reunion in 2004.
The following pages contain information which is the most up to date that we have been able to acquire. If there is more than merely an address, the text has been submitted by the person listed. If there is only an address, that's where letters have been sent, but which have gone unanswered.
This is a snapshot of what's going on in our lives right now. For the full story of what's happened since 1969, start turning the pages of the memory book.
Dear Graduating Class of 1999:
As you are about to leave and enter the "real world" of college, jobs, marriage, or whatever you've chosen, let's first take a look at what you have to look forward to. An old saying would have you believe you eventually turn into your parents. Is it true? Is it inevitable? Let's take a look at your parents' generation to see.
They were the children of the '60s, out to change the world. They didn't want to follow in their parents' footsteps, spending their non-working time with family, or dropping in unannounced on friends and neighbors. You wouldn't think of doing that now without an appointment made weeks in advance. You've come a long way.
They were going to make a big impact on society, and fix the problems caused by the older generation. However, when you look at the memory books they compiled every five years, where each person wrote about his or her big achievements, something else jumps out at you. They wrote a little about their jobs, and about their spouses (and even though they said it wouldn't happen to them, it looks as if about half have been touched by divorce), but most of all they talk about their kids. Yes, you.
They didn't wind up starring on major sports teams, or leading nations, or winning Nobel prizes. Instead, they wound up driving you to school (and of course you know that they had to walk miles in the snow when they were your age), or to soccer practice, or to the mall, or to countless other places to make sure you had a better youth then they did. Somewhere along the way, they realized that they couldn't make a noticeable change in the lives of the world population, so they decided to instead focus on the lives in their own homes. They're pretty smart people, you know.
They are about to enter a period of major readjustment. As soon as you move out, they won't know what to do with themselves. While they were chauffeuring you everywhere, they forgot to make friends with the people next door. They forgot to keep in touch with the people they entered adulthood with. They forgot that once their kids grew up, they would have to, also.
They are about to realize that with you kids gone, they need someone to sit on the porch with, to share a cup of coffee with, to go shopping with. Where did all those old friends go? You know, the ones they promised they would always keep in touch with? Pretty soon, they'll need them. More than they need sitcoms and nightly news shows.
So here's my advice to you. Don't wait until your kids are gone to do whatever is necessary to hold on to the friends you had in high school. Yes, the girl who sat in front of you in math. And you biology lab partner. And maybe the ones you sat with at football games. Some day you'll realize how important they were, and still can be.
Don't wait a decade or two or three to contact those people again. Sure, it's fun to see them once every five years to see how much weight they've gained, or how much hair they've lost, or how wrinkled they've become (of course, you won't change), but that's not enough. Spending five minutes with someone every five years isn't a real friendship.
Instead, send them a letter. Call them on the phone. Drop in on them. Surprise them. There's enough time to fit that in, even when you have your own kids that have to be ferried all over town. Your old friends are important enough to make the time for.
Don't wait to read the memory books that say "Remember when ..." or "Can you believe it's been 30 years since ...." Instead, find out their e-mail addresses and spend some time online with your old friends, and make new ones. After all, you already shared several of your most important formative years with over 500 of these people, so you have more in common with them than you'll ever have with most of your neighbors and co-workers.
You say you didn't make many friends in high school? In putting together the memory books I mentioned before, your parents consistently said the same thing, although not for publication. They all wish they had made more friends years ago. Maybe it's not too late for them.
Will you turn into your parents? In many ways, you can't help it. But don't wait thirty years to realize that you should have kept in better touch with the people you just graduated with. The longer you wait, the tougher it will be to find them.
Maybe you can just skip the Class of '69 and go back to your grandparents for role models, when they emphasized family and friends. Maybe they had it right. Sure, the world is different now. You can't walk down the block to find everyone. They've moved away to other places.
But perhaps the internet can be your front porch, where you can get together with them from time to time. Your faimly will always be there, like it or not. It will, however, take some effort on your part to make sure your friends are there for you, and you for them. Go ahead, make the effort. it's worth it.
Steve Rajtar