Last weekend, Marion High had their 1980 class reunion to which my good friend Dennis returned from the Arizona desert and was subjected to two days of monsoons Iowa style. I'm sure he had to encounter a big thunderhead on arrival. But he said he had a good time and wished that a few more folk would have shown up. Some do and then some don't and then there are others that wouldn't be caught dead at one.
I saw the MHS school pictures up on Facebook and I gather that one of my high school sweethearts didn't show up. I believe Janice did in 1990 but since then decided that she'd rather stay in Texas. Probably just as well. I don't think she ever forgave me for not asking her out to Homecoming back in 77, nor did I on her for making the rest of my high school years a living hell either. We had chances but as the years go on, it's obvious that we were never meant to be and therefore will never encounter each other again. However, my other high school ask out, Penny was there too. I didn't think she go to such things but she was there. We did get together after high school to make it a go but every time we did, she'd act up and we would break up on the acrimonious terms. Didn't talk to her for over 12 years after the 1994 breakup but she does get her car fixed at my brother's car repair shop and she did inquire about me in 2006. We're now Facebook friends.
My best friend Steve told me she had a Facebook page and I told him yes I know. I know she's out there and I'm sure she knows I am too but I don't see a request coming anytime soon. I also thank God that I didn't graduate in 1980. Update, we did become friends again on FB after accepting her into the FB friends that I do have now.
It's hard to fathom 30 years gone and seeing your classmates, old, gray, balding and fat. Even the good looking chicks of that era have changed and are no longer desireable. I guess Jenny Hanson showed up for the first time in years. She was that class Jessica Simpson, good looking but with no clue. Jenny was a good friend of Janice and so was Heidi. Heidi was always this Miss Goody Two Shoes and we never chatted. She was thought she was above my league.
Dennis and Doug Bonesteel played in my band and Dennis aged fairly well judging from what happened to him, Doug on the other hand looked a lot like my ex boss Denny, even down to the goatee. I really wished I could have gotten together with Doug and Dennis and have a coke or two and talked about the old days but unfortunly I had to work and deal with the typical water in the basement after a 3 inch monsoon that friday night. But who knows, maybe we'll get together somewhere down the line in the future. Maybe I'll look up Doug on the way to the Des Moines FYE store. Or maybe not.
I read a strange story on lunch break. http://www.easterniowanewsnow.com/2010/06/20/police-woman-arrested-for-a-fake-sexual-assault-report/
A story about a woman arrested for filing a fake sexual assault report on her ex boyfriend but what is strange is that she recruited her new boyfriend to harrass her ex and it turned out that I knew her new boyfriend, for he was the son of my ex boss who played bass in one of my old bands of the 1990s and actually is credited for jumpstarting my music career.
I remembered Matthew Gregory hanging around us while we practiced one night to do a kegger out in Atalissa and the dude was wanting to play guitar. He was a likeable youngster, I think he was about 5 or 6. His dad was one of the best bass players I ever played alongside but what we didn't know was that he had a roving eye and that would eventually forced him to quit his job at the old place.
It's sad to see Matthew getting caught up in the antics of his GF who for some reason had a hard on of getting back at her ex and unfortunely he's paying the price for that. Who got fed a line of bullshit from Miss Lizzy McDonald about the the ex's abuse. And now will have that on his record. I don't think Matthew will go to jail on this but I'm sure a year's probation might be forthcoming and hopefully a better choice of women the next time out. Yes, I was 23 once and yes I didn't know jack shit about women and wanted to be accepted too but if I had somebody that did the same shit that Miss McDonald pull on me, I'd run away and fast too. But then again I wonder if she would have turned Matthew in on a false abuse charge too.
In the end, this is a hard lesson of life that Matthew learned. And here's hoping that in the next time he would steer clear of such hussies such as Miss McDonald who can't seem to let it go when it's over.
