Skywatch Friday – 50th High School Reunion: Take Two

After my family reunion in South Dakota, I loaded up the car again and headed back out west to Albuquerque, New Mexico for my second 50th high school reunion this summer. The first was in Eagar, Arizona with the class I would have graduated from if my family had stayed there but we moved to Albuquerque in the middle of my sophomore year. But I had maintained connections with several of the Arizona bunch and they invited me to their celebration and off I went. Hey how could I miss riding on a trailer with my classmates in the city 4th of July parade.

The big sky of New Mexico in Tucumcari.

The High School in Arizona was small but close knit, maybe like 30 something people of whom maybe 25 showed up. Enough to see everyone. In Albuquerque I was one of 760 some graduates most of whom I didn’t know. I remember that for graduation they seated us in alphabetical order and I could swear that I had never seen the people on either side of me . I think about 150 of my fellow graduates showed up. They had several events over the weekend. No sitting on hay bales in a parade though. I went anyway.

Albuquerque Sky from the parking lot of my hotel parking lot.

I know that going to two reunions in the same year is a little extravagant but you know it’s not like there was going to be a makeup session next summer for those losers who couldn’t go this summer. My wife, Heather was very understanding about the situation and I appreciated her generosity. I am not a pick an A or B kind of guy. Sometimes I want A and B, and then sometimes C, D, through Z and all covered up with chocolate syrup and yes, supersize the fries

The Sandia Mountains from the windows of my old high school in Albuquerque. How is anybody supposed to study with that view? The Sandias are a constant in Albuquerque life. They loom over the city everywhere.

So I went to the Albuquerque events and I enjoyed them although most of my peeps either didn’t show up or were honored on the “In Memoriam” board with a candle burning alongside, but I had a good time visiting with the people I did know and more than a few that I had no remembrances of way back when.

Looking west toward the West Mesa in Albuquerque. Great skies are everywhere.

Interesting thing was that we got to visit the old high school but the whole school except for the gym had been razed and a new school built with half the capacity. The other thing is that the neighborhoods that fed the school had transitioned from middle class to working class in the fifty years and the school had changed the way they did things. They spent a lot of time, money, and effort addressing the issues of why kids from poor families don’t go to school. It was very interesting and the professional educators in our class loved what they were doing. One interesting thing was they were discouraging homework and really encouraging the kids to get their assignments done during the school day. (I did very well in school but hated homework, to me it was just busy work.)

My class reunion photograph. Can you find me? I stole the photo of a classmates facebook post.
Sandia Mountains

From the photo above, one could step thirty feet and view this view of the Sandias. I had no idea how much I missed them until I came back.

So the Albuquerque event was much different than the Arizona event but both were great. But it was time to head back home.

I was on a constrained time schedule so I didn’t have much time for other adventures but I did stop and check out some of the old obsolete grain elevators alongside interstate 40 in the Texas panhandle. I think these old structures are beautiful and we’ll be losing them over time.

I love old obsolete infrastructure. Why? I don’t know, I just do.

I saw lots of new infrastructure as well. Wind turbines for instance. I used to think they were very ugly. I still do but they are here to stay. For some reason it has turned into a political issue and I don’t know why. I’m an “all of the above guy” on energy and think that wind energy can play an important part in our domestic energy mix.

Moving up to present day, or at least a week ago, we had some storms move through Tulsa. I launched my drone but the winds picked up so I played chicken and kept the drone altitude low. We had wind, lightning, and not a whole lot of rain.

You can see how low I was, I was below the power lines. I’m a real chicken little with my drone. I had it get away from me once and I hit the emergency return buttons and they worked but that was stressful. I don’t like stress.

Full Harvest Moon

And for tonight (September 28) here is the Full Harvest Moon. I love the moon! Who doesn’t?

Sorry for my rambling this evening. I am linking with Skywatch Friday

18 thoughts on “Skywatch Friday – 50th High School Reunion: Take Two”

  3. Vicki

    I love all your photos, especially the moon which is amazing. Couldn’t find in in the photo but I’m glad you got to attend your 50th reunion!

  6. Ellen

    Not too many people get to attend two high school reunions so of course you had to go. I’m glad you didn’t make Heather go with you. I’m glad you got to go inside the old school. What a change from what it used to be. You got a really great shot of the Sandias, they’re hard to photograph. Of course, you’re the best moon photographer I know.

  10. Alana

    Those are beautiful mountains. My husband had a cousin in Albuquerque for many years (until last year, when she moved) and shame on us for not visiting. You’ll have a lot of memories from the two reunions and I could wish I had those mountains to distract me when class was boring. I went to a New York City high school so you can imagine my graduating class was big. My 50th would have been in June of 2020 and it was cancelled.

  13. Eileen Thai

    You’re lucky you could go to 2 different reunions in the same year! I spent 2 years of high school in the states, but hardly knew anyone, so I didn’t go to any reunion. I came from a small village in Malaysia, and knew everyone of the kids I went to school with. So, when I go back (every decade or so), we have reunions, which is wonderful.

  17. Lisa

    Yes, that’s quite a view from the school window. Students get jaded I think. I know my son still thinks the view of SF and the Golden Gate Bridge from the Berkeley hills are no big deal even though I tell him people come from around the world to see that view! See it too often and it’s nothing.
    I like old structures too. There’s a grain elevator down the street from me (I used to work for the company) and while it is working it doesn’t look much different from that one! They make livestock feeds for their own brand and, at least a few years ago, for Purina.

Comments are closed.