Class of 66 - 55th Reunion Saturday Dinner

The ballroom at Rolling Hills Country Club seemed to say "Welcome Home" as we prepared and decorated for the Class of 66 55th Reunion Dinner. Rolling Hills has hosted many of our gatherings over the years. Forty-two classmates had signed up and paid for the event, although we knew some could not attend due to last minute conflicts. In all, we had over 50 people attend including spouses, guests and our usual "adopted" classmates. After so many years, it was one big happy family reunion celebration.

Classmates began arriving shortly after 5pm as hugs and greetings commenced or resumed from Friday night. Slide show and background music led by our theme song; Reunited, began at 5:30pm. Promptly at 6pm, our MC, Steve Wood, welcomed everyone and began the usual housekeeping announcements along with acknowledgments and thanks for all those who had worked hard to make the event possible. David stole the mic for a moment to also thank Steve for coordinating all the planning and being our MC for the event.

During Steve's opening remarks a loud POP was heard, Steve's mic went dead, and panicked looks arose from our resident geek, the Wizard of Os. Our sound system had died! As David ran from the building, Steve continued without a mic - really wasn't needed for just talking anyway, but the rest of the program depended on sound and video.

Steve introduced our guest pianist, HG Page, who would provide background piano music while we enjoyed dinner. HG, his initials - not his name, is Nancy Godfrey Page's Grandson, and it soon became apparent that talent was in the blood line. HG played from memory, for over 45 minutes, music like one would find in any major ballroom setting. Needless to say, Nancy and Tony were a bit proud!

Rick Leeper gave a report on the John Robinson Scholarship Fund, which had its beginnings with this class, in this same ballroom, 20 years ago at our 35th reunion in 2001. Through the generosity and hard work of alumni from all classes during the "Robinson Years," 1947 thru 1967, the fund has awarded over $160,000 in scholarships. As of this reunion, the fund has an invested value exceeding $280,000. In addition, a bronze bust of our former principal was created, the gymnasium and the street in front of the old high school were renamed in his honor. You can read more about the John Robinson Scholarship Fund and memorial on the alumni John Robinson web pages.

Following Rick's John Robinson Scholarship report, Bobby Wallis, our class President, welcomed the class and acknowledged our role in the history of Lone Oak High School. Bobby blessed our dinner, catered by Parker's Drive In. While HG played, we all conversed quietly over dinner.

In the meantime, our geek wizard had returned with another sound system and soon had mic and media alive again. Many thanks to Lone Oak First Baptist Church and Brandon Gibson for not only loaning us the portable system, but backing us up with a replacement in literally a moments notice.

After sufficient time for dinner, about 7pm, Steve continued with the program.
Did you realize we had a class flower? A couple of our more observant mates noticed a singular bouquet of Yellow Roses on the piano and made a wild guess - yes: Yellow Roses. Steve found the reference in one of our senior event publications. We won't say which, but it is available on our class web site. Enjoy the treasure hunt!
Do you know our class motto? Actually, there were some classmates who remembered that: "Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I accomplish." The quote is attributed to the renaissance sculptor and painter Michelangelo. Maybe we did learn something in high school after all.

Many of our class are veterans and as we have in the past, we recognized their service. While Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" played on the screen with lyrics, everyone was invited to sing along - which we all did, some of our vets saluting during the song. Butch Walker, Navy and Vietnam Veteran, acknowledged all who had served and led a prayer of thanks for their service.

Solemnity continued as we also recognized the 33 classmates we had lost over the past 55 years with a slide video accompanied by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." It took a few minutes to recover from that. A list of our deceased classmates is also on our web site, updated as we become aware of them.

Beginning with the planning leading up to our 40th reunion, a group of classmates met at someone's house or a local restaurant for lunch and planning. After the reunion, that continued and over the 15 years since has become the Class of 66 Lunch Bunch, welcoming whomever wants to show up on the 1st Monday of each month. One person had become the defacto coordinator - getting the word out and reminding our regulars of where and when - and Steve took time to recognize Cecilia Newton Crews for her "room Mother" efforts each month with the bouquet of yellow roses, noticed earlier, and thanks from all of us who enjoy the monthly lunch bunch.

Everyone is welcome every month without reservation whether you are local, passing through or make a long-distance weekend of it - we never know who we might see. You can see some of the lunch bunch gatherings and find out where we are going next month on our web site home page.

With recognitions and remembrances aside, it was time to start the evening's entertainment with a special surprise appearance from our very own Patsy Cline, performing her hit song "She's Got You." The biggest mystery of the evening is how Steve persuaded Reva to perform this, but we are so glad he did, it was a hoot! Thank You Reva.

Once everyone had stopped cheering for Reva, we needed to attend to an important matter; take the obligatory class photo. As in previous years, we gathered in front of the white screen while our class photographers, Larry and Cheryl Heavrin, set the scene and clicked the shutters. The raw images may be seen below. The enhanced photoshopped image with a better background is shown on the reunion introduction page.

The rest of the evening was planned to play hit songs from our high school years and dance, talk and reminisce. However, a number of classmates wanted to see the slide show again. So, switching modes, we ran the 30-minute slide show of pictures from previous reunions with 60s background music.

After the slide show, while it was still early - relatively speaking - the interest was more in conversation and visiting than dancing and slowly the crowd dwindled until by 9:30 only a few were left - mostly cleaning up. Seems we may be getting older and have earlier bed times. In any case it was a very enjoyable evening and as we now live in a virtual world, we will be in contact with our lifelong friends in many other ways. Thanks to everyone who made the event possible, those who came and those who gave us these pictures to remember it by.