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1961
2001
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An Editorial
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On June 16, 1961, forty years ago, the Class of
1961 of the American School In Japan graduated. We celebrated the event
with pomp and circumstance at commencement exercises in the Mayer Gymnasium on
the Meguro campus. By then, most of us, the 17, 18, or 19 year olds were ready to leave childhood and move on to experience life.
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We had long waited to be adults, see new worlds, and needed to wait no
more. Many of us saw the new worlds in the form of college campuses.
Freedom ... free at last, free at last. Compared to that freedom,
friendship built over prior years or, in some cases, more than a decade
seemed unimportant or, at least, not as important. |
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We were the flower children, we had the power. It
was time to move on. Some of us just completed the next phase in
rote fashion, others
were university activists, and a small minority were party animals.
Lucky for us, to the best of our knowledge, none of our classmates
died in the Vietnam war. After school — and, in a few cases, the
service — we progressed to the next plateau, had
families, careers, and raised kids. Even grand kids.
And, a few of us passed away. That's life.
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Then, one morning, we woke up and realized that
it had been forty years since we graduated from high
school. We
wondered
what happened to so-and-so and were embarrassed that we had not
taken the time to stay in touch with our best friends. They had
been our best friends for so long, but we never even picked up the phone to
say hello. |
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Thinking about this state of affairs we were sorry, sad, and longed for
a return to the good old times. The same
good old days that we couldn't wait to get away from. The ravages of
time will do that to you — make you sentimental and melancholic.
Your grown daughter probably got it right when she
mumbled:
"You're getting old, you need to get out more, why don't you
go to that reunion of yours — talk to those other old geezers!" Yeah, why don't we. Let's make up for the lost
opportunities. So, as the song says: See You In October [sic]. Or, as
our friend and fine lady from the Midwest says: —Be there, or be square. |
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The dog
at Shibuya station where people met. |
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