We are scheduled to leave DC Wednesday morning for our second St. Louis trip of the year, this one to celebrate (I think that’s the correct term) my 65th high school reunion. For our summer St. Louis trip, I had carefully planned out our schedule. This time, things are much looser. A dinner Friday night at the home of a friend with about 15 (that’s a guess) in attendance. The reunion dinner Saturday night. A reunion brunch Sunday morning. Unspecified plans to meet two classmates Monday or Tuesday. They are both going to be out of town over the weekend.

I am told that 32 classmates have signed up. I guess that means a crowd of about 50, which is about what you would hope for. More than that, and you will not be able to talk to everyone.

The entire class was about 250. I would guess that about 175 (maybe fewer) are still alive at 82 or 83. And, like my two friends, some who still live in St. Louis have conflicts. Some are too sick or compromised to attend. Some don’t want to spend the price or energy to travel from faraway places with strange sounding names. And some never felt connected to the class as a whole, or had a bad experience. I think a 20 percent positive response from living class members for a 65th reunion is pretty good.

We did not attend my 60th reunion (we had a conflict), which appeared to have been a success, and which was organized by a committee of classmates. This year, that committee fell apart (this is what happens at age 83), and virtually everything was done by my friend since I was three, Mike Bobroff. Pretty amazing, I say.

As you might recall from my trip log over the summer, we spent our time in St. Louis seeing an almost infinite number of relatives and friends. Except for my first cousin Donna and Michael, we aren’t planning on seeing any of them this time. We are concentrating on the reunion. For the past 30 years or so, we have been Zooming with and traveling with five of my classmates (now one sadly deceased) and their plus ones. We and two other couples will be staying with another of the group.

The last time we got together was in September 2023 in Saratoga Springs NY. We are treating this as our next get-together, so I expect we will spend a fair amount of currently unscheduled time on joint activities. One more thing to look forward to. Of course, in 2023 half of us wound up with Covid. We plan on avoiding that this time.

I will be sorry to miss so many classmates, some who aren’t coming, and some who just aren’t.  But am looking forward to seeing those who show up, and seeing how theyvhave matured over the years.