old ties

Saturday, in one of the classrooms in the Pawnee Rock school, there was random stuff,  including a bunch of ties lying on top of some boxes. Darla holds one up to Rick’s shirt.

It’s been 35 years since some of us have seen each other, 35 years since we had all been together as a group, but there are invisible ties that connect us.

Through the years, we’ve often thought of one classmate or another – something in our present lives brings up a memory of what someone said or did, or a time we spent together. (My friends and I all have vivid driver’s ed memories, that’s for sure. Um… thanks, Mr. Bean.) Our classmates and each of our teachers embedded permanent, and mostly good, memories in us.

On Saturday, the stories rushed back.  As we made our way from classroom to classroom, the tales were told. Yep, it’s four decades later – and we still remember exactly where someone vomited on the first grade floor, the third grade floor. Those conversations brought back the smell of the vomit-absorbing granules that Mr. Blackwell, the custodian, used to clean up our messes. Thank you, Mr. Blackwell.

And Rick, well, he’s now the class hero. He made this reunion happen. He tracked down people, made the calls, sent the e-mails. He got us together this past Saturday.

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Meanwhile, for several years, my big brother, Leon Unruh, has written daily posts for PawneeRock.org, a website he created. It has become a popular go-to website for Pawnee Rock residents, past and present.

Each day Leon includes a new or an old photo to the Home page of PawneeRock.org. And every day Leon posts an entry on his “Too Long in the Wind” page.

Like other Pawnee Rock residents who have found each other via PawneeRock.org, my former classmate Rick Clawson found me. And Rick, who joined the Marines when he was 17, wanted to come back to town, wanted to get his classmates together once again.

Rick wrote this (below) and had someone else read it at our reunion on Saturday- it’s an e-mail he sent several months ago to my brother, Leon Unruh:

Just came from your website and it dawned upon me after reading the names on “Friends of Pawnee Rock” that they are like ghosts from my past. Names I have long forgotten, faces that no longer can I visualize unless I see a picture that suddenly jars me back to that time and place more than three decades ago.

Unlike most Friends of Pawnee Rock, I chose to leave right after high school and disappeared for years at a time. Seldom did I make it back to the place I still call home to this day, and slowly so many memories that I wish I could cherish have faded away. I feel I’ve cheated myself for leaving so suddenly, not taking the time to say good bye to all those who I knew and grew up with, not staying in touch, not even a simple “Hello! How are you?”

Too often we take for granted what we have and who we know, for I guess at that time, the places and the people just don’t seem important. That’s why, at this time, and over the past few months since I discovered PawneeRock.Org, each day is a chance to rediscover who I was and who I am today. I know it all sounds so “quirkish” but my past has become extremely important, and the people I once knew I want to meet again. They are like touching ghosts from the past.

(used with permission)

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