Dec 23, 2009...A note from Claudine

Hi Bob:

I just finished tuning into the blog and so very much appreciated your last items for the blog. Very thoughtful and very much in tune with my thinking.

I too dread growing old, but feel it every day in my balance, strength and memory. I just have to keep reassuring myself that I have had a very wonderful and fun and full life and if it lasts but one more day, I have so very much to be thankful for.

The reunion was a very special event wasn't it? To be able to walk into a room crowded with people you had not seen for lo these many years and just to be able to pick up where you left off. That is the miracle of high school relationships. Never a beat missed. I can call someone and pick up right in the middle of a conversation, I do not have to explain anything about myself or my place on the earth, or why in the world the receiver would know me or care to talk to me. Just " Hi, I am Paseo of '59 "and it was as if it were 50 years ago.

And.I still love the mid-west best of all. When I was in KC for Sally's son's funeral, the CVS near my Mom's old house was having wine tastings on a Friday afternoon. Wine tastings at your local drugstore? Only in the mid-west. Eat you hearts out you snooty Easterners.

And I love the people there. When I go to the grocery they ask me what recipes I might be trying with my purchased ingredients, to say nothing of wanting to help me or just see if there is anything they can do. I was at the Hen House a couple of weeks ago and the clerk came to find me in the ladies room to give me my forgotten receipt. What can I say? Those of us who have been in the East way too long just shake our heads and thank the good Lord that folks like this still exist. And never mind the calls I make to catalogues answered in the mid west wanting to know if I am digging out OK from the 22 inches of snow we had last Saturday. Who cares but someone answering the phone in Wisconsin?

And so, thanks to all of you who contributed to making the reunion a great one.

Thanks to all of you who keep in touch--stay with it, it is important.

I hope we have a reunion event soon, it would be nice to see everyone again.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season. If it cannot be happy keep all the warm and good memories close to your hearts.

I think of you all often with fondness.

The beach is my destination for Christmas Day.

Claudine