My 50th High School Class Reunion, October 2 - 4, 2009

My 50th Detroit Catholic Central 2009 Class Reunion was like slipping back to my youth at Detroit Catholic Central and paling around with my old buddies again after an absence of over forty years.

Zeke Seacourt, who stood up at my wedding, Charlie Incaudo, who was my ring side trainer,, Bill Butterfield, who I car pooled to school with, and as many as fifty - seven other classmates showed up for the reunion activities, some traveling from as far away as Michael Murphy from Ventura, CA and Mike McInerney from Dallas, TX.Festivities started off fast and furious at the Boys’ Bowl Game Pep Rally in the school gymnasiumand were close to the way we used to get ready for that game fifty years ago.Friday afternoon, Class of 1959 Alumnae Coordinator, Rudy Seichter, showed Joanne and me around the 5-year old, state of the art, Catholic Central building and campus, which are far removed from the intimate, little bandbox we seemed to have back at Outer Drive and Hubbell in our days.I watched the football team practice and made arrangements for a photo shoot with our star running back Niko Palazeti for Sporting News that afternoon. I noted that the football players of old were minute compared to the likes of our 2009 football team.At the stag party Friday night, forty-seven classmates talked a blue streak with each other until the five hours limit ended the conversation too soon.Fortunately, particularly after our long stag party the night before, Saturday morning was a quiet time until our fantastic banquet in the evening.Fifty -four couples attended, ate a great meal, and talked the whole night as a fine band played music of old.A big Catholic Central win over St. Marys Orchard Lake, 27 -0, to make them 6-0 on the season and ranked third in the State of Michigan, topped off Sunday and a great reunion.I want to thank our class coordinator Rudy Seichter for a great job contacting our classmates and organizingsuper reunion festivities. When we were going to school together I saw Rudy always smiling, and even today so many years afterwards, he has not lost that smile.Seeing the guys again made me nostalgic, questioning my reasons for leaving the Detroit area so many years ago but when I got home to Sterling VA, my six grandkids quickly reminded me why I was still there.