Last weekend Richard attended his 50th....yes I said....F-I-F-T-I-E-T-H Class reunion. His best friend Joachim has been after him for years to go. The thing is, Richard only went to Evergreen for one year...his senior year. His family had moved that year. He felt he didn't know that many people and the ones he did...had all died. STORY: Our niece Julie (Who recently passed away herself) was married to Frank, who had gone to Evergreen with Richard. When we would see Frank he would say "Hey Richard...remember so and so?" Richard would say yes. Frank would say.... "He's dead" .....then Frank died!
Joachim had come to America from Germany when he was about 14. His sister had married a returned missionary that had served in Germany. His sister and her new husband came to America then later sent for Joachim and his mother. The boys became fast friends in their senior year. Through the years they went to Clark College together, served missions about the same time, double dated, worked on church projects together. Joachim was always finding jobs to be done. They helped to build the first stake center in Vancouver (there are now 4)...and after the Mt. St. Helens erruption they spent the whole night cleaning the church parking lot from all the ash that fell. When Joachim ran for Clark County Accessor (he lost) Richard worked on his campaign (is that why he lost??) Joachim recently won a landslide election (of one) as mayor of the tiny town of Orting Washington. He is married to Jeannie, and he has 3 boys.
Neither Jeannie nor I had any desire to go be around a bunch of old people....ha ha!! I did tell him though, that if he had any ideas about meeting up with any women he just needed to remember that they are all approaching 70....and that he had a young chick of a wife at home!! He wasn't really all that thrilled to go, but I told him to make the best of it....after all it was costing $50!!
Just like with our kids on the first day of school, I had "the boys" pose on the porch for pictures. If it were not for the fact that my house is literally torn apart and in chaos for our flooring installation tomorrow, I would post a picture of Richard in his cap and gown. I'll try to remember to do it later after things settle down around here.
I was mildly surprised to hear that Richard had a great time. They even asked him to say the opening prayer (something people from that generation did) because the minister who was scheduled to do it wasn't able to make it...and they heard he was a Mormon:) I'm so glad he had a good time with his very dear friend. Last Story: Our kids all graduated from Evergreen as well. It was always a proud night for Richard at the homecoming games. They would place markers on the ground for the different decades so that the alumni could stand in their decade. Richard would proudly stand in the 60's decade...there were very few of them. Last year he wanted to go stand in his rightful place, but we didn't even know when homecoming was. Maybe next year dear......
