In the 50 years since we walked the halls of the Detroit Country Day School and played on the athletic fields that had been a mandatory part of the school’s culture and discipline, our lives were being shaped by personal and professional experiences that we would accept as the natural course for growing up. Jobs, children, mortgages and for us 401(k)s and plans that would include scaling back to enjoy the next 20 or 30 years of our lives. It was just that time in our lives, and we would come to accept stepping back as an unaltered and absolute truth. It was what it was … until we got back together and took measure of our accomplishments.
During the milestone 50th year class reunion for Detroit Country Day’s Class of 1976, aka the Spirit of ’76, I reconnected with former classmates whose faces and voices had been sprinkled through my memories over the five decade chasm of wondering what their lives were like, particularly in comparison to my own. More importantly, I was able to reconcile my high school experience with a life expectations and achievements that had shaped my world and ultimately brought me back to see how I had measured up to my peers who I was sure had excelled and wild and spectacular ways.
Over the years I had imagined most of us becoming larger versions of who we essentially were in high school. But now we were solid members of the establishment, we had matured into busy professionals with life commitments of the everyday variety – work, bills, retirement kids and grandkids – the stuff every other person looking 70 in the face had to think about.
Steve Modell, now a respected doctor in Ann Arbor, Michigan had taken the lead on organizing the three-days of reunion related activities and gatherings. I was mildly apprehensive but smiling inwardly as I walked onto DCDS’s impressive campus, and through the doors of the Upper School to join other alumni in the DCDS Hall of Fame.
When our class leader looked up and saw me coming, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped before he enthusiastically shouted my name “Roz Edward,” and I was immediately embraced by another classmate who apparently missed me as much as I did her.
David Payne, a renowned spinal surgeon, who was now living in Los Angeles regaled us -as he was known to – with colorfully detailed remembrances of high school antics that most of us recalled just a little bit differently, either because we were less experienced story tellers or we just lacked some of the insider information that Payne had been privy to.
But it was all in the true Spirit of ’76.
And the real surprise, a true-life love story that had spanned a period of nearly 60 years, Leah Dennis and Howard Longear. The two who both attended lower school at Country Day met when Leah was in second grade and Howard was an upper classman, being a year ahead in the third grade. They maintained their friendship throughout their entire middle school and upper school careers, dated through their college years at the University of Michigan and ultimately married after graduating from the Big 10 school. Now living in Florida where Howard retired and Leah was still working as a medical expert.
Throughout the weekend, Steven who is a beguilingly kind and humble leader in the world of groundbreaking medical research,
So, my best friend flew in flew in from Atlanta for a matter of hours to see me and my three other classmates take the field to be recognized before the kickoff of the big homecoming game as we walked onto the newly completed Shaw field, named for the school’s founder.
The four of us walked onto the field hand-in-hand, feeling and looking like the proud champions we were. Before and after taking the field, we enjoyed walking around the grounds basking in the remarkably warm October temps and unseasonably sunny Saturday in Michigan. We stopped and talked with past and current students, and relished being referred to as legacies who had impacted their school careers thanks to traditions we started all those years ago.
Over reunion weekend several other classmates joined us intermittently for brief “hellos” and to spend time reminiscing about our escapades and recall what campus life was like in our hey day at Country Day,
But none of us mourned our youth. In general life had been good to us and we shared pictures of beautiful families, beaming grandkids and spectacular vacations. We exchanged phone numbers and in the 48 hours since we parted we have reached back out to share our new memories and promise each other to stay in touch and nurture our renewed friendships.
And we are already living up to that promise, sending a flurry of messages confirming the importance of reunions and checking in with each other as we returned to our home cities, and riding the waves of friendships that brought us back to DCDS for another round of camaraderie and class solidarity.
Roz Edward is an editor and content manager for the Black Press. No AI was used in the composition of this story.