Driving Miss Daisies

For the past few years it has been a tradition that I take my aunt, now age 92 and graduate of the class of 1933, to the Blue Mound Alumni Banquet held on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. She also has a couple of dear friends we have included for the last two years as a package deal, and all of us travel to the reunion together. As I calculated this year, the three ladies in the back seat had a total of 272 years on this planet for an average of 90.66 years of age. In the front seat were my little brother and I, mere youngsters, with a total equivalent of 139 years and an average age of 69.5 years, so it is nice when someone refers to my brother and I as the "Hedges Boys."

This year the reunion was in for big changes as a leak in the school roof had damaged some of the pictures and mold had made the high school gym unusable. There was some grumbling about not being able to use the former high school gym, which will not be used for school in the future, but the decision was made to move the reunion to the City Park and hold the gathering from noon to 3 p.m. There on the square in the City Park, 217 of us gathered. The memorabilia had been moved to the Washington School House that was in the park and graciously donated by the city fathers. Lots of questions were being asked about how will this work, and we soon found out that it worked exceedingly well, because some good people rolled up their sleeves, cleaned up the meeting area, moved hundreds of chairs and tables, arranged from everything from porta potties to PA systems, and, with the help of Chicken Mary's, we had an excellent meal and a great day. The park setting gave all of us the chance to have a short program but, most of all, to visit with the former grads of Blue Mound and meet old friends once again.

On the way home the "Three Daisies" in the back seat, having seen more high school reunions than I can count, all agreed it had been a special day and that Mother Nature had favored us with perfect weather. Once again, that outing had demonstrated a "can do" attitude and the resolve of the Blue Mound High School grads to make the day a special one.