Deerfield High School's 50th Anniversary

After the fabulous Amtrak vacation to the western slope of Colorado, I headed home to Deerfield, Illinois, to see some friends/family and to speak to the high school’s student body to commemorate its 50th year anniversary. I was on a panel with alumni from all different decades so that was fun to learn about others and talk about our experiences - - I highlighted my involvement with Student Council as being one of the impetuses for my involvement in community service initiatives in Colorado. I also talked about how it was hard to quit basketball in the middle of my junior year and how I asked the team if I could come back to play in the senior year. That was an interesting lesson for me at that time.
After speaking first thing on Friday morning, Sara brought me around me around to see some of the old stomping grounds like Tony Subs - a deli mainstay of the community and my favorite Dear Franks - the best hot dog joint out there.

That evening was the high school football game against long standing rival, Highland Park High School. I was going to skip this when I got a call from my friend, Corey, who I also went to homecoming with during my freshman year. He yelled at me and said if anyone from our class would be at the game it would be me and where was I…I thought about it and he was right so I looked up at my mom and laughed as I asked her to drop me off at school again. She laughed and there I was - - in the DHS circle (talk about déjà vu) closing the door and yelling, “Thanks mom” as I slammed the door shut to trot off to the next high school event. I met up with another classmate, Jorie, too.

It was great to see these folks who I haven’t seen in years and I felt at ease catching up with them even though it’s been almost 20 years. Then I ran into my old volleyball coaches in the concessions stands and we laughed at the memory of Dean Bolek running after the streaker in the high school’s courtyard for my senior year prank. We laughed pretty hard with this…more importantly, I'm finding I don't remember things anymore. I had forgotten about the streaker. I had no recollection of it. Everyone laughed saying it happens nowadays and I can't believe I'm old enough to forget these types of things. Really...I forgot my senior prank?

Then we headed out to one of Deerfield’s pubs with the class ahead of us to have a drink and we were home by 10pm…LATE night! It was fun to see my old next door neighbor and we talked about going back to our neighborhood to jump the bushes at my old house like we used to all the time. We didn’t, but I sure wish we had…

Saturday was a blur of activity - - ran into my old across the street neighbor. Met Sara's stepson, Chris. Ran errands with Tutu. Whirlwind to say the least...and more importantly, games were played so that was a highlight!

I also spent quality time with the Johnstone’s, our co-boat owners. It was SO much fun to spend a day with the entire family and again, you would never have known that it was 20 years since our last get together. I LOVED it…

Let’s see - - below is a picture of Jack with his new dinosaur flashlight which he got for his birthday…cute picture and then I captured the one of Eban poking Jack to egg him on like he was going to steal the flashlight. I love Jack’s fighting pose.

Below is a picture which I see every morning after I drop Eban off at preschool - - Brea and Eban sit at the window and wave their BIG waves to me and make funny faces as I drive off. I love this part of my day as it makes me laugh.
Finally...a cute pic of the boys to end this post...more to come. Halloween fun!