Reunion could not have been much better

ROYAL CITY - The 50-year Royal High School reunion, the feature event last Friday at Royal City SummerFest was better than I thought it would be.

Too bad those graduates who didn't attend may have to wait another 50 years.

SummerFest Committee member Leslie Fanning, the woman who has put her heart and soul into SummerFest for years, was so happy she was at a loss for words. She even did the Cha Cha Slide to help kick off the dancing and entertainment.

"It's just amazing," she said.

When I arrived at 4:30 to take the pictures you see this week, I was surprised at how few people there were. After chatting with the SIP people, I went into the middle school gym to see that set-up.

There were more than 100 people signing in, meeting and greeting. And more came after that, and then more.

Shock and amazement, smiles and laughter were registered time and again as graduates who hadn't seen each other for decades met. There were wide eyes and open mouths.

The reunion was good for me because I met some people I'd been wanting to meet.

I even had a good time with Mike Brown, who asked: "Can you put something nice about me in the paper just once?"

Here it is Mike: I had a wonderful time visiting with you. Now let's get together and write your life story, including that quarterback sneak that led to victory against Othello.

So many people showed up for the reunion that it threw the carefully planned schedule out of whack. The meeting and greeting was still going when the dinner bell rang.

The famous SummerFest BBQ meal, prepared and served once again by the Ted Christensen family, took more than two hours. The activities, including the 5 p.m. sock hop, were delayed until after 8:00.

But here's the thing. Nobody cared. Everybody still had a great time. It was a reunion that will not soon be forgotten.

I took a ton of photos, but I had to pare them down to the following.

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