EHS 20th Class Reunion

The Emery High School graduating class of 1993 20th year reunion was last Saturday.  I have come to the dramatic realization that age is all relative.  I am way too young to be "old" but I remember going to my mom's 20th reunion and thinking everyone was so old.but that is not true now!

Bryan and I dropped the kids off at my parents house Saturday morning and then drove the 3 1/2 hours to Castle Dale.  We were early (I didn't want to be one of the first ones to arrive) so we drove around looking at all the changes in Orangeville and Castle Dale.  I had a hard time remembering where my friends' houses had been, but I was able to find a couple.

The reunion began at 1 p.m. with mingling and games for the kids.  When we showed up the school looked the same but different.  They built on another gym in the back where the parking lot used to be.  The carpet was all gone and replaced with black and white laminate.  The red brick of the hallways had been repainted white.  So it was the same, but different.

I found my name tag with my lovely senior picture on it and then started mingling.  There weren't too many people there but Liza Winget Roberts was there so it was okay.  She and I were really good friends in high school and had gone on trips to the "Big City" (Salt Lake) quite a few times during high school.  She was the only one of my friends that I knew would be there "for sure" so I was happy to see her.

Liza and I went through the temple on the same day for our own endowments.  I was at her wedding the next week in the Manti Temple.  She was at my mission farewell and welcome home. She helped at my wedding reception.  And she was a great friend.  I have a lot of memories of getting in trouble...I mean, having fun, with Liza.

Here are some of her scrapbook pages she posted on facebook.

While everyone mingled, I took Bryan on a tour of my high school.  There were a lot of changes but I could still remember what classrooms I had and which teacher taught where.  Everything was open so I even got to go into the Yearbook room closet where we would put together all the layouts for the yearbook (we didn't do it digitally).  It looked about the same and it even had the proof of our yearbook cover still stapled to the wall where we put it.  I couldn't believe they still had it there.  One other cover was on the wall also.  That means that either 1) they haven't cleaned or painted the walls in that room for at least 20 years or 2) someone was attached to our cover and put it back up.  I think they haven't painted for 20 years. ;)

Here is a group shot of those who were at the mingling and a shot of me and Liza:

We had a couple of hours before the next activity so we went to the Emery County Fair.  I have to say that the Fair was the highlight of the summer when I was a kid.  There were events going on all the time and a dance was held at the end of it all.  I have a lot of memories of hanging out with my friends in Castle Dale.

After looking at the exhibits, Bryan and I went to the main tent where they had the Hyno-Hick performing.  He is a hick who is a hypnotist.  It was pretty hilarious and the people he put under put on a really good show.  We got to see a lot of that before we loaded back in the van and went back for the final events of my reunion.

We all met in the Spartan Center, which is a huge 2-story gym they built behind the school.  It was a nice facility and reminded me of Snow Canyon's gym here in St. George.  They had a small theater there where our 1992-1993 school video was being shown.  It was funny to watch everyone as they were 20 years ago and laugh at how we were.  I think Bryan was really bored but he was a trooper.

When the video finished up we went to the cafeteria (which is MUCH nicer than it was when I went to school there) for our dinner.  More people showed up at dinner time but it was a really small turn-out which was disappointing.  Many of the kids who stayed in Emery County didn't come to the reunion. But we had fun anyway.  It was interesting to see how everyone grouped the same as they had been in high school.  I guess some things don't change.

We had a nice dinner and then had a trivia contest about when we were in high school.  A lot of people cheated and looked things up on their phones...as I said, some things never change.  But it was fun to talk about what had been going on in our lives when we were seniors.  We even got to hear more about the "graduation incident" that prohibited some from getting their diplomas until they had performed community service.  I didn't realize how many had gotten away with it.  Interesting stuff.

Then we took pictures, chatted some more and got ready to leave.  Right then Neal Peacock, one of our teachers who is now mayor of Castle Dale, showed up so I had to chat with him.  He put things in perspective when he told us that 20 years ago, when we graduated, he was only 35 years old.  He seemed SO OLD when we graduated but he was younger than we are now.  Crazy.

Here are some more photos:

I am really glad we went, even though there weren't too many people there.  It was fun to see Liza and get away with Bryan for the night.  We drove to Cedar City, spent the night then drove home Sunday morning early enough to get the kids before my parents had to leave for 9 a.m. church.