After months of preparations and excited planning, the 35th Class Reunion of the Class of 1989 met in Tazewell, Virginia, over the weekend, some members coming from a far away as Alabama (Jeff Price), Arkansas (Robbie Yost), and Florida (Kenny Lowe). Some class members had not been back to Tazewell for more than twenty years.
On Friday afternoon, Class President Bram Massie and TJ Kegley went to the Moose Property in Tazewell to fire up the grill to make ready for the evening’s festivities. Russ and I met them with the banner Lillian Robinson Stowers had made to hang on the sign to welcome back class members and to mark the spot for those unfamiliar with the Moose Property. The four of us then went to the High School football field to hang the other sign the mark a section off where we could sit when we got to the game later that evening. After running some errands and checking into our hotel, Russ and I went back to the Mosse Property, where more people had gathered. The Homecoming football game started at 7, and most of us left to go to the game around 7:15. Here’s the thing about hanging a sign to mark your space – you need to send someone ahead to make sure people understand that others are coming, or no one pays attention to it! So, sixteen of us and our family members crowded in on the bottom three bleachers and watched the game until shortly after Homecoming Court was announced and the Homecoming Queen was crowned. By that point, our Tazewell Bulldogs were losing 28-7 and it was cold outside; we had lost interest, and most of us left the game in favor of returning to refreshments at the Moose Property, where Bram and TJ had remained to entertain while the rest of us had gone to the game. In all, about twenty members of the class came out to congregate and chill (I do mean chill, because it was frigid out there that night). We all circled up around the fire pit, where Bram and Anthony Dawson kept a roaring fire going for us way past midnight (it was still smoldering well into the next afternoon). Kandy Kiser Howlett and I took pictures as well as we could in the dark, trying to document the evening in all its glory. Stories unfolded as libations flowed, some old, some new – some I knew and had forgotten. Like the one where Gary Dixon beat all of us who usually placed in Forensics by coming in and reciting the lyrics to his favorite Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne song, and doing so with such emotion, that he blew the rest of us out of the water and won first place in Poetry that year. How did I forget something like that???
The next day, sixteen of us gathered back at the Moose Property for a picnic. We had wonderful food provided by everyone who came – who doesn’t love a potluck? And leftovers a-plenty. We gave prizes for the two people who came the longest distance – Robbie Crouse and Kenny Lowe each drove 12 hours; the shortest distance – Anthony Dawson; and the most consecutive years with one employer – Lillian Robinson Stowers, 31 with B&W Motors in Tazewell. Then we gave away some door prizes just for folks being there that Kandy and I had provided. Bram wasn’t able to be with us on Saturday because he was on very important Daddy Duty with his daughter at a cheer competition (which we totally understood and told him he needed to do), and he left a door prize for us to give away, but that didn’t get communicated very well, so – there’s already a door prize to be given away for the 40th Class Reunion five years from now. I loved sitting and standing around after we ate and just telling stories from high school and beyond, laughing together, seeing smiles that the years haven’t changed, seeing twinkles in eyes that have only been enhanced as time passes. I^T was a magical afternoon, as far as I’m concerned.
I didn’t always appreciate my graduating class in high school. In fact, some of my classmates made high school kinda miserable. I was picked on. A lot. I was not a social butterfly in high school. I didn’t become the Chrissie most of you know until I got to college. I learned not to be the butt of other people’s jokes, and I wish I’d learned that a lot sooner in life – but as least I learned it. I’m still a perfectionist like I was in high school, and I guess that will probably never change. What has changed, for the most part, is how I deal with that desire for wanting everything to go the way it’s supposed to go. I accept now that it’s sometimes simply out of my hands. It ticks me off and I lose my cool about it. Then someone special comes along and reminds me, in the grand scheme, it’s all going to be okay. (Thank you, Robbie Crouse.)
But in the past couple of decades, I’ve learned that a lot of people have grown up since high school. Thankfully, I guess most of us have. I’ve gotten reacquainted with a lot of people I loved from elementary school forward, through Facebook, and when I would see them when I went home for things. At the last Reunion, five years ago, I spent time hanging out with a guy I never cared for in high school, David Lee. And I learned a lot about him. I learned that I really liked David Lee. He was a fun, big-hearted guy, but he never acted that way in school – from what I could see – but that was because I never got to know him back then. Almost two years ago, David was killed in a freak traffic accident during bad weather back home. Several members of our class realized a few months ago that there was no headstone for David and decided to do something about it. As a class, various individuals donated to a fund, and the headstone was paid off in about four months, I think. We’re all looking forward to it being set, hopefully before truly cold weather sets in, so we can go see it and pay our respects.
Some people never change. For good or for bad. And some people, you have to work to get to know. And I guess there’s something worthwhile in everyone. Even the people that made your formative years a lot more challenging than they needed to be. Maybe they were going through things at home that made them behave that way. I turned out to be a far better version of myself than I started out, a version that I wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t left Tazewell. But I’m thankful for the opportunities to go back now. To see old friends and rekindle acquaintances that weren’t as strong as they could be. I loved the time we spent working on the Reunion and want to especially thank the Planning Committee for all their hard work and diligent efforts: Bram Massie, Anthony Dawson, Kandy Kiser Howlett, and Lillian Robinson Stowers. And a special thanks to the twenty folks who participated in one or more of the Reunion events – you guys made it all worthwhile. Let’s do it again, bigger and better, in five years!
Chrisie Anderson Peters, Tracy Connor Vance, Robert Crouse, Anthony Dawson, Gary Dixon, Tim Edwards, Keith Graybeal, Shannon Griffith Green, Paige Hackler, Bethany Karnes, TJ Kegley, Kandy Kiser Howlett, Charlene Lawson, John Linkous, Kenny Lowe, Bram Massie, Daniel McPherson, Howie Payne, Jeff Price, Lillian Robinson Stowers, Steve Shawver, Winnie Shrader Newberry, Gary “Hollywood” Stone, Link Thompson, Tom Williams, Jessie Wimmer
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