ZenVeg and Other Nonsense
High School Graduation!
June 13, 2025
Many of us had a suburban, high school experience. This is the time of year when our graduation experiences come flooding back. Not for you? Maybe you did not really participate in graduation, prom, football games, marching band parades. Maybe you were in all of that. If you want to see if you have a nostalgic bone in your body, watch Glee. Show choir is not for everybody, but in this wild world of Trumpism/Tacoism, this uncertain financial climate, the impending hurricane season, go on, enjoy that old school music.
I was never in show choir or chorus at all as my voice resembles Frank the Frog from out in the defunct hot tub frog paradise. I did play flute in marching and concert band, as well as belong to many different after-school clubs. This was more about avoiding my nutso mother Martha on a Stick. Watching the Glee competitions does bring me back to my days in Forensics and my Oratorical Declaration category. More raucous, however, were the Band trips. We were not as wild as the American Pie band camp depictions, but there was quite a bit of sketchy stuff. (There was an ongoing taunting of our nerdy band director, which most of us now regret). We certainly regretted when he found the vodka we hid in the acoustical tile ceiling of the hotel. Whoops.
Hometown Naperville, Illinois always had great fourth of July fireworks at the high school football stadium. For Labor Day weekend, the Last Fling events included parades, fun runs and a fantastic carnival down by the quarry. For my 25th reunion, I returned after many years in Virginia only to find that my old neighborhood had been completely reorganized to the point where I couldn’t even find the entrance to the neighborhood. My little idyllic neighborhood of Green Acres, 40 houses each on an acre, was now insulated by huge townhouse complexes. I recently learned that the rancher I grew up in, even heavily renovated, was no longer good enough. It had been torn down and replaced with a mini-McMansion. Ugh. The bitter sword of going home.
Maybe grab a yearbook if they haven’t already been part of the Swedish Death Cleaning plan. It is not just the graduation buzz that has me thinking about 1975, but the notice that we were doing the 50th reunion in September. These events put us in emotional crosshairs from “those were the days” to, “OMG, I’m certainly going to be dead soon.” We can’t think about playing football, cheerleading, dancing to the Bee Gees without acknowledging that we can no longer do most of those things. A few yoga sessions, some golf and for the still fit, diving around the tennis and pickleball courts are on the agenda.
This graduation nostalgia stirs up all sorts of longings. We went to Broadway in high school for Thespians, Holland, Michigan for “band camp,” all over the state for speech team. I was privileged to rub shoulders with great students and friends who went on to do great things. Many, like Paula Zahn, Bjorn Johnson, Jim Ramlet, and David Ellzey, Cindy Halgrimson stayed in news/theatre, entertainment. Paul Sereno is a world-famous Paleontologist. Kirby Wahl and James Witte became professors. These are just top of mind notations because when you are staring down a 50th reunion, you are coming up short on memory cells. Ah, the double edge sword of nostalgia. We kinda sorta remember something, but who was that and where did they go and what did they do?
And then there is the body changes. Ugh. Add in the slew of old-age syndromes and diseases (COVID and it’s Long Covid cousin) that altered us all significantly in just the last five years. I am struggling with long Covid that has a whole host of nasty, lingering symptoms. Trying to exercise to battle the old-age bulge is difficult with muscle and soft tissue issues as a result of cellular damage from that nasty virus. My case was severe, but not hospitalization severe. Again though, at our ages, we have lost many to a variety of disease issues. I can long for the days when I was NOT Covid-fatigued, and then I snap into the present where I am still alive. Some are not.
We are saying good-bye more and more these days. I brought my 1975 yearbook to Bonnie Neighbour’s memorial so that her Richmond friends could see her younger life. Somehow, she and I wound up in Richmond Virginia and developed a late in life friendship quite coincidentally. Many of the guests at the memorial knew people who knew me or my brother or father. All of that triggers so many memories and pangs of sadness. Nostalgia is a double-edged sword.
And here we are. Staying in the present is not just a good goal of meditation, but it is a soothing stop off of the nostalgia nudgings of the past. Wallowing in retirement can find us with too much time, not enough structure, and no guardrails from the feelings of losses be they people, lovers, pets, houses, fortunes, friendships, careers, or health. It can also be unmitigated freedom, couch-lounging, Netflix binges (Ginny and Georgia is a current favorite, complete with all the filthy teen-age stuff), day-drinking, wineries, cooking weird stuff, impromptu road-trips and tackling projects. Second current binge favorite is Boomers, a British comedy with people OUR age.
I am currently trying to stay within budget on a bathroom renovation and decided to demo all the plaster to shave costs. I can pound on plaster for approximately 12 minutes before the arms give out. And, because I am the Queen of the ZenVeg Estate, I find a pre-occupation with weeding. And poison ivy eradication. And mowing. And raking and planting seeds and cursing the humidity. Yes, I’m a totally well-adjusted retiree.
Instead of Band trips and misbehaving in Manhattan, I am enjoying short trips to places more suited to old, creaky joints and rusty body parts. To celebrate my second year of retirement, I’m joining my bestie at a hot spring in Bath County, Virginia. Aptly named, this area has several hot or warm springs in a mountainous valley area. I am SO looking forward to the mineral water soak, the history of the springs seeping in by osmosis. No weeding, nostalgia, no fearful future fretting. Just girls having fun and relaxation.
What cool venue or attraction is in your home state that has never made it onto your itinerary? Venture out. Tomorrow may never come. Hit up something interesting, rejuvenating or just plain fun. Just like that Labor Day Last Fling in Naperville, Illinois. Get yourself as many Last Flings as possible.