Here is a portion of what I said, sans the personal reference to specific classmates.
Since poetry is part of life
And I have fun with rhyme
I’ll speak tonight about our past
And how we’ve changed with time.
It’s great to see old faces here
I do not recognize.
It’s also great to see the ones
I’ve kept in friendly ties.
There’re many things I know as true
These senior years, et all.
The first one is the memory goes
The rest I can’t recall.
There are four ages of each life
Where we did oft’ excel.
There’re teens and youth and middle age
The last, “You’re looking well.”
You know you’re getting older
When underwear creeps high
And pants fall down or nothing fits
And people call you spry.
We all use drugs like Lipitor
Or something just the same
To watch our H and L.D.L.
So clogs will not remain.
Now some of you have moved away
And had your houses sold.
It’s not that you were getting on
You just can’t take the cold.
One Nine and sixty was the year,
We went our separate ways
With some to learn and some to work
And plan our IRA’s.
It’s funny how we’ve changed around
From youthful skinny skin.
Now muscle bulk is in our waist
And hair is what is thin.
The many things they did not teach
When we left school back then
Was, what to do when kids arrive
Accept to say amen.
But now our kids have perfect kids
And we give lots of slack.
We play with them and love them free
Cuz we can give them back.
You want to know what age you are
Just squint your face like this.
Then count the rings around the eyes,
The crow’s feet just dismiss.
When young we ran when walk would do
To speed us on the road
Of life and love forever more
Before careers plateaued.
So let me say with certain thought
That we are here today
To hug and grasp old friends and pals
Since paths did go astray.
We’ve all become our destiny
With more, for sure, to come
With disappointments and some pride
Of actions we’ve begun.
But when we stop to think with thought
The things we think were done
They’re many things we know were right
And some were yarns we’ve spun.
The fact that we are here tonight
With visions of the past
Is testimony to the fact
That friendships truly last.
There comes a time in all our years
When we look back at youth.
Some memories fade and others hold
Not always with the truth.
There’s something ‘bout a century half
That marvels to the mind
Why some are here and others not
Yet, we remain entwined.
We’re fatter now and grayer too
And some of us are gone
To Heaven’s field of blissful truth
Where every day's a song.
We’ll all get there somehow, someday
And memory will come back.
No glasses then to read the tags
To know it’s Bill or Jack.
So fifty years have traveled by.
It seems like so much less.
Some things have changed in all that time
So let me now digress.
Dwight-Ike was still the President
When we walked cross the stage
A loaf of bread cost twenty cents.
The Flintstones were the rage.
Ben Hur was new and Can Can too
And Checker sang the twist.
Gas was cheap at just a quarter.
When parking, we just kissed.
You want to know how costs have changed
Since leaving OHS?
A House back then was 13K
A car was 2 point six.
We like Banderas and Hugh Grant
And Bono’s music too.
All three were born in that year
When high school we were through.
TV’s were mostly black and white
Cokes were just a nickel.
We feared destruction from the bomb
Sent from the hammer sickle.
Hi Fi was what we listened to
And Stereo was new.
McDonalds burgers -15 cents
And drugs were all taboo.
Jack Parr walked off his show that year
And Howdy Doody stopped.
MacMurry starred in My Three Sons
The Edsel finally flopped.
Dick Nixon and John Kennedy
Debated on TV.
Cronkite was an anchorman
But not on ABC
TV has changed from long ago
Commercials now have sex
With naked folks in tubs outdoors,
I wonder what is next?
But change is good, it always is
For that I hold no malice.
It’s nice to know I have some help
Viagra and Ciallis.
It does seem strange when some last talked
It was our senior year.
Fifty years have traveled by and
We’re back in Senior year.
I do not know what’s held in store
Beyond this passing night
I do for certain know a truth
This night is filled with light.
But let me keep us in the now
Where life should always be.
We all look good and just the same
I’m sure you will agree.
But just in case that is not true
We’ll lie a little more
Charades are for us senior folk
Our flaws we will ignore.
Let this be true forever more
Just put it in your heart
We’re old enough to stay good friends
And never trust a fart.
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