By Gerald Hay

An alumni reunion event for graduates of Ford High School is coming up on Memorial Day.

That includes me, a member of the Ford Bulldogs Class of 1965.

Ford is a community of roughly 200 about 20 miles southeast of Dodge City. Ford High School educated students, mostly from nearby Ford County farm families, from 1916 until school consolidation closed the high school in 1972.

In the school’s 56-year history, the alumni totaled roughly a thousand grads. Graduation classes ranged from as small as three seniors to most classes numbering in the mid-teens to low 20s. According to the reunion letter, approximately 236 living grads remain.

It has been seven years since the last all-school reunion. One was in the planning stages two years ago until COVID-19 derailed the plans.

The class of 1965 had 19 graduating seniors. Like me, they now average 75 years of age.

A month from the Memorial Weekend gathering, only three, including me, have joined the reunion’s Facebook site, indicating their plans to be at the Dodge City gathering.

Attending a reunion, any reunion, especially as one gets long in the tooth, is a walk back into one’s youth and one’s memory. It’s a realization on how you and your life have changed over the years. It is also an opportunity to participate in a collective shared experience that, if nothing else, says: “We ain’t dead yet; we are glad you aren’t either.”

Age, cancer and other health issues have taken their toll over 58 years for the Class of 1965. We still remember and honor fellow grad John Robert Brock, a childhood friend since kindergarten and a casualty at age 19 of the Vietnam War only a year after graduation. There’s a sad reality about a third of my classmates have died. The status of another third is unknown since they had not attended past all-school reunions or kept in touch over the years.

It’s always interesting to learn and hear about what your classmates have done after graduation as they transitioned from old teenagers to young adults in a changing world. Yearbook pictures show how young we were back then. Mirrors reflect how we have changed since then.

For the most part, I have always been somewhat shy and introverted. In my three years at Ford High (my freshman year was at Dodge City Junior High), I was an average student, probably because I was a consummate daydreamer with enough Brylcreem in my hair to lubricate my 1958 Ford. I had hair to comb and gas for the car was only 31 cents to roam.

With my last name (Hay), I quickly settled into attending a small town, rural high school with mostly farming students. I was often teased that hay was the first stage of horse manure. I reminded teasers I didn’t have to shovel it as part of my chores. That was just some horse sense to share with them.

Young, full of vim and vigor, we were naïve back then. We graduated at the dawn of the Space Age and amid the Cold War and the civil rights movement. Vietnam was getting more attention with more U.S. involvement. There were no drugs, and only those on the edge drank beer.

Rock and roll did not die with Buddy Holly; Elvis was the king, but Beatlemania had arrived. We danced the Twist, Jerk, Loco-Motion, Mashed Potato, Swim and Watusi at our high school proms. A yearbook picture shows a line of students, including with me and Nancy Boyd, my date, dancing the Bunny Hop.

In taking Nancy home that night, I gave her a gentle hug on the front porch and thanked her for a good time. It was my understanding nice girls never kiss on the first date nor do more serious activities no matter how long the courtship lasts. We didn’t date afterwards when our interests shifted to others.

At a past reunion, Nancy, now a very nice retiree, laughed, admitting she wanted to be kissed that night. Darn!

Reunions are a celebration of life and recall an important chapter in one’s life story, even it occurred long ago. Unspoken is the awareness that the opportunity or ability to attend a high school reunion has no guarantees as bygone classmates age.

As a victim of nostalgia, I valued the time I spent at past reunions — catching up with fellow classmates, stoking priceless memories, remembering the fun and joyous moments and swapping yarns about teachers, classmates and activities at Ford High.

So, for anyone out there who is contemplating attending their high school reunion, I’d say go for it, if time, distance and health don’t stand in the way.

That’s my plan in a few weeks. Might need a few tubes of Bengay for dancing to the old tunes at the reunion and addressing new aches and pains from aging joints.

I was cautioned to have fun but remember to act my age. Have to figure out if that means as a senior now or as a senior in high school.

Hope more members of the Class of 1965 are showing up.

Wonder if Nancy is attending.

Stay tuned.