40 years

.
Can go by in a few blinks of the eye if you're not careful.

Time enough to get married, have kids, grow them to adulthood and send them off to have kids of their own. Sometimes you can try the getting married and having kids two or three times, if you try hard enough.

What brings this looking back on, you ask? And well you might.

Oh nothing, just that I attended my 40th high school reunion last evening. Getting together to see how much hair everybody else had lost and how many extra pounds the girls who wouldn't give you a second glance have packed on. And which had anything lifted and enhanced.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Oh don't misunderstand. There was enough thinning and graying hair among the guys, for some reason women don't seem to get gray as soon as men. And lots of belly's were a little past the ol' belt far enough that I soon quit trying to hold mine in so much. What a relief. I did suspect at least one guy of having a elastic belt on under his shirt, but I'm sure it was to protect his back or something. And the girls, while there were a few who might have had a little of the sand shift, were seen with rose colored glasses, and surprisingly friendly for a change. Probably because they knew that I'd been married since 7 months after graduation.

A couple of surprises. Joe Ford got married 2 years ago. Charlie Ray 11 years ago. You'd have to have known them to understand and I don't have time to tell those stories here.

Wade is still an Anarchist and makes his living working in a silencer factory. Still lives with his mother in the Castle his father designed and built. But not for long, she's finally seen the money and is moving out of metro Atlanta.

Gail and Nancy inherited their mother's ability to cook. Coconut cream pie, ummmmmmm one of my favorites.

51 out of 56 still among the living and 33 attended, with assorted spouses.

Below is a CD cover of the music album my friend Charlie made. He's standing in front of the Methodist church I attended every Sunday of my youth. The graveyard out of sight to his right is full of mostly my kin.

The title Wagon Tracks refers to the still visible ruts worn by iron rimmed wagon wheels in the granite rocks of the church yard.