Helloooooooooo Class of'70!
The Miles' Files are back online ...Dateline: Newport
I returned from Newport (RI) this morning and I am now preparing for my trip to Newport (AR) next weekend to "see a man about a DOG". I am certain that I will see several "old dogs" there. I am equally certain that many of those "old dogs" have learned a lot of "new tricks" over the past thirty years. I am eager for all of you to share those "tricks" at the Big Shindig on Saturday.
There will be much pressure on Ann Gardner Hearn and Mary Wynne Parker Perryman (I have received word that Kathy Spann Snipes and Nancy Rhodes Fountain, our other two senior cheerleaders of 1970, can not be with us at the shebang) to lead all us in a rousing cheer (a jubilant toast) to "us" in celebration of forty plus years of friendship and thirty years of wandering through this chaotic world as individuals since the "Great Escape" in the spring of 1970. I am confident that Ann and Mary Wynne will rise to the occasion (they always had strong lungs) to cheer the return of over 80 Hounds to the homeland of youthful expectations and sweet memories. I will roll the dice (in honor of my father) and bet that no other Class from Newport High School has had as good a turnout for its 30th Reunion. That "fact" (I'm prone to pontificate) is a tribute to the "Scheming Committee" located in Ground Zero (right there in Jackson County) who have diligently planned this "Coming Together" for all the rest of us who have wandered away from "our roots" and are looking forward to rekindling those friendships of yore.
While I was away from the keyboard the past ten days, cybernotes from Kathy Foley McKee, Kathy Spann Snipes, Greer Guinn, Laura Benish Goodyear, Gail Thaxton Fogleman, Diane Madison Lumpkin, Margaret Ann Gillihan "Hoobub" Snow, and Cherry Lou Smith Simmons drifted into the "in basket". It is always good reading (fact or fiction, I just appreciate the banter). Kathy Foley, my cybertherapist, shared that she and Kelly went to Hot Springs to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary (still really hard for me to believe) and danced to the big band sounds of Harvey Haley and his band. She saw Drew Stewart there for the first time in about 30 years (damn that sounds like a long time, but I know it can't be "that" long since I feel just as mature as I did in high school) and mentioned that their true identities could be found in each other's eyes. In other words, enough changes had taken place in the physical appearance that it took a deeper, more soulful gaze to see the friend from days past. That sounds like good therapy to me! And one wonders why I pay so much attention to Kathy. I expect each and every one of you to be looking into my eyes next weekend as you talk to me. I'm in this body somewhere.....Look really hard.
The others who wrote this week make it very easy for me to know that the coming weekend is going to be a blast! These "Miles' Files" will continue after the reunion has come and gone. I hope your interests in these musings will continue. I am also hopeful that this "Grand Reunion" we are about to experience along with the easy communication loop we have established through these "Files" (short stories, flashbacks, memory lapses, lies, reminiscence, and the like) will cause some of us to get together more often than once every ten years. Smaller groups from time to time could meet in a convenient locale. Probably some from our Class of '70 see each other often even now, but such "visits" have been missing for many others. This coming weekend will be much fun for all who are there and it will make for great stories to tell those who can't make it due to the conflicts of the "real world" we all so eagerly attacked 30 years ago when we walked out of NHS together.
I truly enjoyed my trip to New England this past week. Kathi and I visited Fenway Park to see the Kansas City Royals beat the Red Sox 9-7 in an exciting and eventful game. The bratwurst was delicious and the beer was nice and cold! We spent three days traveling Cape Cod with stops in Hyannis, Chatham, Orleans and Provincetown. If you have never been to Provincetown on the very tip of Cape Cod, you must make it a point to go some day. It is a quaint little fishing village by day and an eclectic arts community by night (from family affair to drag queen affair, the diversity is a delight). It is actually the first place where the Pilgrims landed on their arrival from England in 1620, but they only stayed five weeks before heading for Plymouth on the mainland (we also stopped there to see the "rock"). I'm guessing that the puritans aboard the Mayflower had a tough time coping with the drag queens standing on the street corners hawking their burlesque shows. In addition, we went on a whale watching tour from Provincetown that was quite an exciting show. From Cape Cod we went to Newport, Rhode Island and to Mystic, Connecticut and acted like tourists. Wonderful food, elegant sights (mansion tours, ocean vistas, harbor scenes, historical landmarks). All in all , a great place to visit. But as Dorothy told Toto ... There's no place like home!
See you back home next weekend!!! Write soon! Keep in touch! Send money! I'm still Miles from Nowhere, but I'm sure to get there ... Soon! Is Greyhound Love anything like "Muskrat Love" (America, 1971)?
From the Miles' Files and in the Heart of the Hound, joe
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