Advil Dream: Too Weird for Words

Two nights ago I couldn’t sleep, took an Advil, and dreamt about our class, SAHS, and all of the high school reunions I had failed to attend. Like many of you, I suppose, I peek at Classmates.com once in a great while to see if anyone I was really close to had registered. So I fired up my computer, saw Linda Doering’s e-mail address, wrote her, found Jerry’s blog (fantastic, Jerry!) and have decided to become part of the Saints’ scene.

I still have memories from high school days. Viet Nam was really ramping up. I flashed back to an assembly we had where one of the Army speakers gave us a rundown on how everything was going so well over there that by the time we graduated, we shouldn’t have to worry about the draft. (Do any of you remember that assembly? If so, I’d love to hear from you to help me remember the particulars.) Later, after college and our college draft deferments ran out, the war was winding down and I ran into fellow reservist, our very own Jerry Joslyn, at my local reserve unit location. What a surprise. We had to keep our hair short, but in our unit we were allowed to wear wigs (as opposed to getting our hair cut) so I don’t think Jerry recognized me at first. I still get a headache when I think of the pain caused by that Walmart mannequin-quality rug, or maybe it was from teaching eighth graders for 30 years. Not sure which. Years later when my boys asked me what I did during the Viet Nam war, I told ‘em, “I baked cookies in the reserves.” Always good for a laugh.

I’m now living in San Diego and am retired after 30 years as a middle school teacher. My wife and I love to travel, dance, play cards, and see movies. I would really appreciate getting an e-mail from any of you who have memories you would like to share. Otherwise, I will see some of you next September and hopefully a really large number of you at the 45th reunion. By then, I will have had plenty of time to search the Web for the Perfect High School Reunion Diet or A MIRACLE DOCTORS WON’T TELL YOU diet (Come on, there’s gotta be ONE doctor from the class of ‘68 who’ll share the secret!), compare it to those from Atkins and Weight Watchers, and get busy.

Be well.

Jonathan Greene

Jon it's great to hear from you again. I spent a lot of time in the Greene's upstairs game room. I wore a short hair wig to Guard meetings too, but now I only wear a wig occasionally, when I play "dress-up", but that's another story. Speaking of "The Nam", what's strange to me is the number of single American men our age who are re-invading Vietnam. I met one in Costa Rica, a surfer dude who had just broken up with his surfer girl and split to Hanoi. Last week my sister alerted me that Phil (Randy) Slocum, class of '67 reports on Facebook that he is living happily in Hanoi. Apparently the cost of living is low and the beer is cold, and, it seems, the war is over.