Page 18 - Discover Winter 2021

Reunions &

Reminiscing

By Kate Hofstetter

The search for two classmates, Donna was doubly impressive. Today it would be
and Sharon, came to a head this summer after equivalent to a high school student giving you
talking with Bud and Jack. Both of them the Latin nomenclature for every herb at the
still live in my old hometown, and are active local nursery.
in planning our class reunions. I missed our
Then there was Sharon. By the time she
66th class reunion, so Jack sent me an update
was in high school she was an accomplished
on known survivors. Prior to receiving his
violinist, playing solos at every school
packet of what’s happening to whom, we
program, and was often an invited guest with
spoke by phone.
nearby symphonies. The
“Has anyone heard furthest I got on the old
from Sharon or Donna?” upright that my mother had
I asked. I have been bought from a neighbor was
asking that same about 30 seconds of chop
question at every reunion sticks. When “reading”
over the past 66 years. music, I was reduced to
identifying lines and spaces
The answer was
by reciting: Every Good
what it has always been:
Boy Does Fine, or FACE.
“No”. So, I decided to go
Among my favorite songs
digging for them myself. It
at the time were Hey Good
wasn’t because we had been
Lookin’, and Blueberry
close friends during high
Hill. It’s likely that neither has ever been
school, or that we had that much in common.
adapted to such a sophisticated musical
Donna, for example, knew the names of all
instrument as the violin. If they had been, the
the famous dinosaurs, and the periods in
name of the instrument would surely have to
which they lived, while I had trouble spitting
be changed from “violin” to “fiddle”.
out the word “optometrist”. I still refer to
them as eye doctors. The differences between me and them
went even deeper. I was an average student
No one had yet thought of making and
(by that I mean C+, or on a good day B-) and
naming toy dinosaurs for pre-schoolers, and
Sharon and Donna had never received a grade
it would be 40 years before the film Jurassic
lower than an A- to anyone’s knowledge.
Park hit the big screen. In those days, there
They were our gold standard for judging the
was zero interest in dinosaurs among the
difficulty of quizzes. If we would get a low
general public (I considered myself “general
grade or fail a test, the first thing we would
public”), so Donna’s knowledge of them
ask is, “What did Sharon and Donna get?”
16 Discover Smith Mountain Lake WINTER 2020