More about “Fort Knox High Days” (2015 Reunion Overview) (6 Sep 15)

Sunday morning started with breakfast at Golden Corral. I lost a phone earpiece so I had to go to WalMart and buy a new one; and get some gasoline for the drive I thought across the state and then back down to my hotel room here in Tennessee.  Plans changed…I’ll make it up to those I was to go visit hopefully this coming week.  One of our graduates made a video and sent it to me and some other folks…I don’t use Dropbox, so while initially I could try to assist, I was lame in getting it done…good things for Regina and her school experience!! *smiling*  We ate breakfast — I should have went back for more, but I did not — and recalled the great times we all had the previous night.  Some folks who were not able to attend Saturday night did come and have breakfast with us and that was great also because I finally got to meet and hug DeeDee in person!

 

Phyllis Williams Dyer summarized the weekend and tearfully thanked those who assisted her with putting on a successful event. She really did do a great job in this… I also got to finally meet Pastor Billy Myers, who along with Tracy Williams, provided a somber but heart-filled remembance of how short life really is, how many of our fellow FKHSers are no longer with us, and how God’s love for each other and ourselves has maintained and kept all of us.  Billy took a few minutes and ministered to all of us…I expected nothing less…but he reminded us that while he’s a Pastor with an active ministry, he is also a fellow Eagle and remembered likewise all of the great experiences he had at a high school on the “Home of Armor’s” Army base. When I saw Susan Pennington’s name and the year of her death – 1975 – my back started to itch and I started to water. That long ago….I can still to this day recall the details, the words which were later exchanged between her dad and me at Ireland, the scar which remains on my back.  I did my best but I was simply too late. If I ever had an excuse for not attending these reunions, that would be it.  I promise that I will share my color photo of Susan she gave me three weeks before her death so that others can remember who she was.

 

While sitting there beside Hector Ortiz, I whispered to him that I didn’t know that so many from my high school year passed away…I counted six. There were probably more.  Nobody mentioned SGM Paul Squires, and I didn’t see his name in the listing of those “departed Eagles”. I may have missed it. We lightened the mood by taking a group photo…well…several group photos, of us being serious and goofy…it helped a lot!!  And we thanked the group organizing this event and offered suggestions to the next group of folks who have already started planning the next reunion two years from now….With lots of hugs, tears and admonitions to stay in touch, we all left — well, we were TOLD that we had 15 minutes to leave by the management.  They wanted their “overflow and meeting room” back so that they could feed and sit all of those coming from church…

It was very appropriate for me to be at Golden Corral… it was my dad’s favorite place to eat.  He simply loved looking around at all of the people who would come in…some of them knew him and would sit at the table catching up with him and commenting that “I haven’t seen him (pointing to me) since our kids were all in school….” 

 

A wonderful event. Reunions are great events, if one keeps them into the proper perspective.  I have lived a very charmed — blessed — life and those I interacted with at Fort Knox High School (and before that MacDonald and Walker Middle Schools) were key to that life –if not in person, they were in spirit. You may not have known me and that’s okay…we became friends through the sharing of stories about our shared high school adventures/misadventures. The ONLY thing which would top this weekend was if Belinda Withcomb Brown, Cyndi Priest Corbin, and Brenda Kay Vockery were there.  I finally let myself cry while waiting for the gas to fill my car’s tank at the Speedway.  It was that good of an event — the entire weekend was. 

 

Betty Jane Kirby, you encouraged me to write from my heart…I did and will continue to do so.  Thank you and those others who helped shaped us.  I really hope and pray that those teachers and administrators now at Fort Knox High are doing the same things for our fellow Eagles.