Holding The Fort Down

Cutter's Log - Stardate 3102.12.50
Current Song - Street Life (Herb Albert)

I look at myself as the unofficial historian of the Sterling High School Class of 2005. After all, local history and history that is closest to me was my forte. However, I have not been involved with the administration process of our reunions (yet).

All these years being an "outsider" of sorts within our Class has pretty much led to this "role" I have. Over the years I have been that center of the wheel which connects the many backgrounds that make up our Class. I could relate to most, if not all. Therefore, I tend to keep more tabs on more people.

As the historian of sorts, I can take the makeup of our class and relate that to the history of our surroundings. When we were in middle school, the bottom dropped out when it came to Sterling's manufacturing presence. Northwestern Steel and Wire closed, and things went south from there. All of a sudden, the surroundings didn't appeal to us once we were able to drive to other places.

Right around this time came the rise of the phrase, "There is nothing to do in Sterling."

Those that had the opportunity and resources to take the first train out of Sterling after receiving diplomas did just that. Some even took their families with them.

Half of our Class left. Half of our Class stayed. I was one that stayed. And by "stayed," I mean not going away to college for four years. I completed the college education that has suited me so far by commuting to both Sauk and Highland. I have lived in Sterling since 1997. I have lived in either Sterling or Rock Falls in all of my 27 years on this Earth. I have no plans to leave at this moment; even after moving into a house just a few blocks from my parents' less than a year ago. It doesn't make me any better or any less of a person.

We had our 5-Year Reunion in 2010 at Moonlight Bay. About 25% of our graduating class showed up. I have nothing to compare it to since that is our first get-together, so I can't determine if the rate is good or bad. But it is not 100% or 50%. Should it be? I don't know.

There are many reasons as to why 75% of our graduating class was not able to attend. Much of that due to work and children commitments, and conflicts with travel.

I ran into one of our classmates not too long ago that didn't even know we had our 5-Year. Seven years after graduation, he asked me if we had such a thing. I told him that we did, and that we probably didn't know how to inform him of it. He had lived in Texas for some time, and that's probably why.

It was nice of him to think of me when inquiring about class reunions, as he thought I knew quite a bit about everyone.

I told him about that night: about how 25% showed up, everybody was conversing with the same people in high school, and two classmates that talked to no one but each other.

"That's all?"

I didn't take that as a slight toward Tricia and Jenna, who organized the whole thing. I took his response as proof of the evolution of class reunions by way of social media.

Social media started when we were in middle school. The first form of social media were the Expage guestbooks. As we had more access to the Internet, we all thought it was cool to create our own websites. Expage provided that opportunity and the guestbooks would be littered. Then ICQ came around. Then MSN Messenger. Then MySpace. Then Facebook. While Facebook seems to have withstood the test of internet time, subsquent sites such as Skype, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are starting to take shape.

Facebook seems to be the thing that is actually working. It has allowed our Class to remain connected to each other, even when we are thousands of miles away. Thus, we still interact on Facebook with the same people that we interacted with in high school. We are all able to keep those tabs on each other, through pictures, chat, commenting on statuses, etc. Starting families can slow this interaction process, but I don't think it has slowed it down too much.

Even for those that never interacted with each other, the portals exist though just having a Facebook account.

Many people that look at social media in one hand and class reunions in another are often faced with the question of, "does social media eliminate the need for class reunions?"

I don't think so. We just need to refer to our own senses. Seeing someone is different than looking at a computer picture (and even Skype). Hearing someone talk is different than typing things into a chat box. Hugging someone cannot be done through a computer. "LOL" and "ROTFLMAO" are interepreted differently in person.

I may not have these interesting stories about myself to share, but I can certainly define my purpose in attending these reunions. I write a lot about my memory and memory retention, and thus preserving the surroundings, atmospheres, stories, etc. that shaped us into who we are today.

I'm the old grandpa. Gatekeeper of Memory Lane.