WHAT A REUNION
There were 44 Dragons and 24 husbands, wives, kids, two dogs and a great view of Nashville. There may have been some libation to assist in understanding the Brat Japanese we all spoke as we toured Tokyo (again) in our wildest imagination.
Nashville and the Clarion Hotel were excellent hosts, the staff and management were always there to help us have a great time. I can’t thank our Reunion Chair – Betty Criner ‘62 (assisted by Nashville denizen Deana) – for finding the place and getting us the best possible deal. But she had a lot to contend with. How were we to know that the Clarion was the primo spot to have bachelorette parties and that filled up the rooms – and some of our wildest 16-year-old imaginations with the risqué doings of the 20-somethings ancients as they prepared for a life of wedded bliss. Ah well.
Most of us got out and about visiting the Grand Ole Opry, a river cruise, historical mansions and certainly some interesting eating establishments. But mostly, we just hung around and talked with friends and pals and intimates of a lifetime ago. And after a day or two, regardless of the class we called our own, we knew each other and where we had grown up, where we had lived and what was popular at the time.
The class of 57 got a prize for bringing the most folks, followed by the class of 63. But the big prize – bottle of champagne – went to the class of 56 (their 60th) and the class of 66 (their 50th). It did not take long to polish off those bottles.
We did watch movie (DVD) called “Brats – a Journey Home” which is a partly historical and partly psychological 45-minute discussion about being a brat mostly in the 50s-60s. It did center around the Europe experience, but there were some Japanese scenes. It was a much darker picture of “brat childhood” that I or most of us experienced, but there were some interesting facts we learned about ourselves.
One is that because we moved so much we became unusually adept at fitting in to a new location or school quickly wherever on earth that might be. That trait followed us throughout our lives. Strangely, I am sure I saw that trait evidenced in all of us who showed up in Nashville.
We just meshed and we had fun, though some of us had never met one another. But we had all walked the same marble halls long ago and far away. A place called: Narimasu – Tokyo American High School.
DERYL McCARTY “NHS 63
President NAA