Armchair Review of the Bell Reunion this past weekend.

I think this past Larry Bell Park Reunion was a big success, thanks to Neal Lawrence. Neal did an excellent job orchestrating all his volunteers. Everything was great.

I love to see old friends that I knew in my early life before we went our separate ways. I like to remember the times we had and also get up to date in what is new in their lives. Here are some interactions I had:

One old friend I was in the Boy Scouts with came up to me and said, “You are on the wanted list. ”He went on to explain that I was listed as one of the missing of the 1961 class that the Class Reunion people were trying to locate. I told my friend I was not in the 1961 class, I was in the 1960 class. He said I was on the list anyway. I said I couldn’t be. He had the list folded up in his pocket. He took it out and handed it to me and told me to see for myself. I looked over the list. My name wasn’t on it. I told him so. He said it was too. I told him to show me. He looked it over closely, saying he didn’t have his glasses with him. He put the paper closer to his face and said, “Here!” He pointed at the name Eddie Prather. I told him that was not me, my name is Eddie Hunter. Being an invisible man I completely understand his mix-up.

We are not young. We are grandparents and great grandparents age. But when we come together I think our brains click over another mode – the same mode it was in back in the 50s when we were surrounded by the same people as the reunion day. When together we may have the mind-set of our teenage years but sometimes the subject of our conversations were much different – l am recalling three of us discussing the pros and cons of Flomax and seepage.

I saw one old friend that was there last year. With him were two old men (just like the rest of us). I noticed their name tags and noticed that one of the men had the same name as the person that lived across from the first man on Glover Street when we were kids. The other old man’s last name was the same as the first man’s cousin who lived in the same house as the first man. Then I saw is first name and it was the same as his first cousin. Well, damn! They have remained close all these years and I got left out! I sat down and with them took each family’s name on Glover and Manget Streets and they knew something about most of them – I mean what happened to them and all. I hope to see them at the next reunion to prod them some more.

One friend, Jerry was there, to the surprise to some. He had a heart attack just a week or two ago and some expected him to die within a day or so. He looked as radiant as ever. Another friend, H.A., was there in a wheelchair all the way from the Veterans’ Hospital in Milledgeville. There were others there that were fighting cancer and appeared to be winning. We renewed our friendships of friends of our youth that we haven’t seen for a while and surge our memories. It’s good for your mind.