I attended a Teachers' College in 1957-58. It was organized as a glorified elementary school. We were organized in classes and the whole class moved throughout the day. We were together for everything for the whole year. We even had coed phys. ed!
75% of us were rural kids from farms or small rural towns. About 50% of us were right out of highschool and the others had done other things before attending the teachers' college. So most of us started the year and didn't know any other students. Since we were in the same class all year, we made some great friendships.
At the end of the year all of us went our separate ways. About half of these students never taught. They decided they wanted to do something else. Many of the girls got married.
I soon moved far and wide. I saw very few of these people after I finished teachers' college.
So every once in awhile I will google a name. You find some people that you know of.
The other night I googled the names of three guys that were my former colleagues. I found obituaries for all three of these guys. I had not seen them from the day we left teachers' college. What a shock! We had been together for a year as 18-19 year olds. 59 years later they were gone. Two of these fellows made a career of teaching. One did not teach and went into business.
I spent a year with 400 students and often wonder what happened to them.
So I made three strikes and missed on each one.
How about you? Have you kept in contact with students from a long time ago?
I still have a good friend from Grade Primary. We don't see each other often now, but we've shared so much of each other's lives.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling I'm going to start dreading the obituaries within the next decade.
There ets to be a time in ones life where there's acceptance of an end.
DeleteI have never been to a school reunion or a university reunion. Deep inside I want to resign those features of my life to history... but I have been in touch with a few of those educational contemporaries - mostly they have got in touch with me. You wonder where the years have gone.
ReplyDeleteI've never gone to a reunion but I am still interested in what happened to people.
DeleteI think that anytime you Google your own name, and yours isn't in the Obits, is a good day!
ReplyDeleteYou are our Energizer Bunny! Our role model!
Thankyou. Now about half of obituaries are younger than I am. This isn't a brag but an acknowledgment of fact.
DeleteThat would indeed have been a shock to me, too. I don't keep tabs on old classmates, since I moved around a lot as I grew up, but people I've known over the decades are still friends. Some of them are on Facebook, a great resource for finding people from long ago. :-)
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to remember and try some contact to keep us connected.
DeleteNo, i have no connection with former students. Kinda sad, really.
ReplyDeletePeople tend to get lost in large urban areas.
DeleteI keep track electronically, it saves me every time. I have a friend whom I met when I coached baseball. We still get together even though we are 4 hrs apart.
ReplyDeleteI like facebook but I don't go out and recruit people.
DeleteI've never been to high school reunions. The few people I wanted to stay in touch with I have.
ReplyDeleteI've never attended reunions either.
DeleteI have attended some high school reunions to reconnect, but nothing otherwise. I attended a 50 college class reunion last summer and I exchange
ReplyDeleteChristmas cards with a couple of former roommates.
Bigger schools have a better chance of organizing reunions.
DeleteI have kept in touch with a few school friends and I'm connected with many through Facebook. It's kind of fun being in touch like this.
ReplyDeleteI like facebook but I don't go out searching for friends.
DeleteI'm sorry you didn't find at least one of your former friends still with us. I keep in touch with friends from high school through Facebook. Facebook has really revolutionized the way we maintain contact. Twenty years ago I had no idea what any of them were doing or what they looked like. Now I know all!
ReplyDeleteI have done that with a few surprising result. One a best friend from childhood turned out to be a world famous liturgical composer and professor of music at the Univ. of Colorado at Boulder. I contacted him and since my son had recently moved to a nearby city, we met and had a wonderful time reviewing our growing up days...:)
ReplyDeleteThat is too bad that they are gone. I keep in touch with just a few of my classmates, most were pukes or better than everyone else:(
ReplyDeleteSince I was a first grade teacher I prefer thinking that every one of my students are still alive. I have kept in touch with a few of the parents who tell me what their children are doing. One has gone into the Peace Corps like my son. Another became a reporter in China. It's pretty darn wonderful.
ReplyDelete