1960 Classmates writing for the Reunion Website often tell us about long-term friendships. Both men and women have recalled special memories of friends, attachments that centered around shared interests and accomplishments, sports, pranks, problems, and fun of many kinds. In February, we will be featuring your stories about enduring friendships.
Lifelong friendships can last without frequent or personal contact. Feelings of friendship continue as long as our memories persist. We all get sidetracked after high school with college, jobs, marriages, children, and may only connect with a holiday card, a letter or e-mail, or a class reunion. Yet, when we see or hear from lifelong friends, the elapsed time disappears, and we easily fall into step despite decades of absence. Reconnection happens smoothly when we shared trust, respect, sympathy, and affection. That’s how it is with lifelong friends. It’s a good feeling.
One purpose of this website is to provide a platform to renew friendships of all kinds, and also to discover connections to classmates we hardly knew 60 years ago. We all grew up at the same time in the same place, sharing many experiences that give us a foundation for reconnecting. The pandemic has reminded us of the totally unexpected things that happen to our lives, our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. That alone is a good reason to reach out and connect as never before.
Send your friendship stories to Diane (ddzinn@aol.com) or Marilyn (mbellert@niu.edu). If you want to talk about a story idea, get in touch with us.
To read stories about friends, browse through the Remembrances on the website or click on the menu’s spyglass and type a name into the Search box . We have added comments from friends to obituaries whenever we could. In case you missed them, here are links to just some of the stories about East High friends that appeared on this website in the past five months.
- Gary Byrd
- Joyce Stephens Fugitt
- Dick Carlock
- Mary Lohrenz Fox
- Dave Miller
- Vesta Patterson
- Bill Coombs
- Dave Alldritt
- Melody Beaubien
- Rick Mittelstadt
- Jane Darrah Gates
- Pete Meeds
