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What I Learned At My 50th High School Reunion

12/7/2018

16 Comments

 
...Continued From yesterday:
      Here we are on our graduation day, the Melrose Academy class of 1969. That's me in the bottom row, sitting second from the right.
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    Melrose Academy was a small private girls' school located in the Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park,
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​...and run by the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, an order of progressive, socially-conscious nuns out of Buffalo, New York, who taught at Melrose and lived in the   Motherhouse,  the big convent in the background of the above photo.
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    In my class there were thirty-eight girls who traveled to school each day from all parts of the city and suburbs.
     Me, I took a daily commuter train from the Somerton station,
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...to the Elkins Park station,
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...from which I walked the approximate mile from the station to the school with the other Melrose girls who also took the train to school.
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      I met up with 18 of my former classmates (see me in the last row, 4th from the right? I distinctly recall that I was having a bad hair day that day, thus the hair band),
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...plus several Melrose girls from different graduating classes who came along for fun and a couple of intrepid husbands who also came along, at my 50th high school reunion held at the Jarrettown Hotel in the Philadelphia suburb of Dresher.
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         Our class valedictorian                           and                    our salutatorian, then,
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...and now.
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   The intrepid hubbies who came to the reunion,
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​...good sports all.
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      The Jarrettown Hotel was charming and cozy,
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 ...and well-chosen by our classmate who stepped up to organize the reunion (left), and her two helpers (right and below).
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    And yet my initial impression of the venue wasn't of the venue itself, but of the happy energy that filled the room, probably because of how genuinely happy everyone  seemed to see each other,
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...and how instantly everyone fell into animated conversation -  even before we'd had time to take off our coats and put down our purses - though some of us hadn't seen each other in decades,
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​...or had just met, even.
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     At dinner Tom and I ended up sitting with my old high school lunch table mates,
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...though I think this arrangement just sort of happened by chance, as we were all looking for a place to sit at the same time.
     In any case, dinner was wonderful, and I'm referring not just to the food, which was indeed very good,

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...well, that is to say, Tom  enjoyed his salmon,
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​...and I my pasta with vegetables,
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...and though I didn't ask anyone how the chicken dish was, it, too, looked quite delicious.
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​     And then there were the desserts.
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     But more wonderful even than the food was the conversation at our table.
      We talked about high school, who we were then and who we are now, and the role we thought the former played in the latter. We talked about the Melrose teachers and students, especially the girls in the grades above us, who influenced us and who we admired.
      One of the girls chuckled over the girl crush she had as a freshman on an upperclassman. Her admission was rather a shock to me, as I, too, once had a  girl crush on an older girl, but I had no idea other girls in the school were girlcrushing. It turned out a number of them were, as I learned before the night was over, when the subject was brought up again while were all standing around in a group after dinner talking and reminiscing about things.  We just didn't have a word for it then, and so it wasn't a concept we could verbalize even to ourselves at the time.
       My own girl crush was on an upperclassman, a popular, personable, smart, athletic girl who was also a gifted singer, actress and class leader. My crush was born one day when this older girl, who I assumed was in general unaware of my existence, said something kind and encouraging to me. I don't even remember what it was she said, only that it made me feel worthwhile and good about myself. Here was a girl who, in my eyes at least, already possessed the star dust of social popularity to spare, and yet in sprinkling some on me increased her own wealth of it.
     I'm sure the girl had no idea of the effect of her words on me and probably soon forgot all about the encounter.
        But here the encounter is, fifty years later, still sitting in my memory bank, where it has gathered the interest of time, experience and, hopefully, wisdom.
       And if the lesson of that older girl's random words of kindness was lost on me at the time, if I was too focused on floundering my way through the volcanic soup of my own teen-age emotions to realize that I, too, possessed the power of a kind word, well, revisiting that memory was a reminder that it's a lesson never to late for the learning. 
         It was a gift spending the day with these girls, who still looked young to me.

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16 Comments
Rory link
12/10/2018 09:49:12 am

Pat, this is terrific!

Reply
Patti
12/10/2018 11:32:13 am

Oh, thanks, Rory. It was great seeing you!

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Kathy McKee
12/10/2018 10:07:00 am

Pat. I am seeing many of these pictures for the first time. It is the first time I've seen the photo taken by Frank. Turned out great. Once again... I am honored to be on your blog. Well done. All the best, Kathy

Reply
Patti
12/10/2018 11:31:24 am

Thanks, Kathy, and, again, thank you for all your hard work in arranging that wonderful day!

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Francy
12/10/2018 10:49:41 am

Pat this is wonderful! As was the day and being in each other’s company once again. I so love your story of your girlcrush. It reminds all of us how a few kinds words can change someone’s day or even change their life just to know that someone cares. Thank you for all of this- the blog, the pictures and the memories.

Reply
Patti
12/10/2018 11:33:31 am

Oh, thanks, Francy. and thank you for arranging. the Christmas project for us.

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Marycatherine
12/10/2018 11:25:03 am

Pat. Once again you've brought the reunion to life with your quirky sense of now. I believe that we all had a great tie and it always feels like we just saw each other last month instead of 10 years ago. Thank you for chronicling our collective experience of Melrose Academy.

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Patti
12/13/2018 01:51:46 pm

Oh, the pleasure was mine, Marycatherine! It
was great seeing you again!

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Margie
12/10/2018 07:20:18 pm

What a nice way to end the day, with these pictures of a really wonderful afternoon! Thank you so much, Patti! Love you all, ladies!

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Patti
12/10/2018 07:51:05 pm

Thank you, Margie, I'm so glad you enjoyed the pictures. Yes it was a wonderful afternoon. And I second that emotion!

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Andi
8/30/2021 03:34:41 pm

Any Nuns or religious come from your class?

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Edward C Rice
9/15/2021 08:47:51 am

Had n o idea there was an alumnae group. . My late sister,Merle Rice Urban graduated from High School in May 1958.
I attended th grade school until 1946 when the good sisters decided to no longer teach boys. My parents then removed me and sent me to Norwood Academy where I graduated in 1952!

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Patti
9/15/2021 10:53:42 am

Good to hear that bit of history, Edward. Thanks for sharing.

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Chris Randall
4/19/2022 10:56:04 am

Hi Patti,
This is a convoluted path trying to find out if you may know the
words to our Melrose Alma Mater. I attended your reunion and I know
you worked hard to put it together. I'm in the process of getting a few
of our class together (Class of 19770) and wanted to include our
school song, but can't remember it in its entirety. Thought I'd reach
out to see if you could help. Best wishes and many thanks.
Chrissy Randall (Margie's sister)

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Joan Zarreke Hoover
8/29/2022 09:04:13 pm

Hello. I am a Melrose HS grad class of '71. Is there an alumni website for the high school? I was hoping to reach out to some of my former classmates. Thank you. Your class pic was great. I remember so many of those faces - the names, not so much. Best regards

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Patti
9/1/2022 01:21:32 pm

Hi, Joan. I don't actually know if there is still a Melrose alum association. (I leaned about my 50th reunion from some old classmates who managed to find me). I looked online and on Facebook but haven't seen anything about an alum association. Maybe if you looked up the names of some of your old classmates on Facebook that might be a start?
Tell you what, if you message me on Facebook I'll give you the email address of an alum who back in 2019 was putting together a reunion at that time and also found my address. Maybe she might be able to help you contact some classmates?
Also, I must apologize for some of the odd, mismatched pictures that showed up on that blog post! There is a bug in the server that has been shuffling up the pictures on my post. I'm working my way back to delete the wrong pictures and replace them with the right ones, but I haven't gotten to reparing that particular post yet!

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