A man went to his  reunion celebrating

                  fifty years since graduating

from high school.  It was his first time

                  back.  Nobody recognized

him, even though he had stayed in shape,

                  in fact, had jogged twenty-five

thousand miles (the equivalent of around

                  the world at the equator) in

forty-two years and still had some hair,

                  albeit, white. The two buddies

he had stayed in touch with along with their

                  spouses knew him. An old

acquaintance said she never would have

                  recognized him. He wanted to ask

if that were good or bad, but fearing the answer,

                 he bit his tongue. He didn’t tell her

how she looked to him. He asked people

                   about  themselves. A few asked him.

The host told a joke about his prostate and

       bemoaned the fact that there

were no class officers at the reunion, even

            though the man was one and no

one at his table stopped the host and called

                   attention to that fact. He would have

if another class officer had been sitting at his table.

                     The cheerleaders hung by themselves

(seriously,

                    even after fifty years?), and wore their

old cheerleader capes. He wondered if they were

                  going to lead a cheer later when the

floor was cleared for dancing to songs like “Little

                  Darlin’” and “That’ll Be the Day.” He

thought to himself, perhaps he could encourage

             them with a cheer of his own, one

his buddies and he used to whisper to each

      other in the stands: Two bits,

four bits, six bits, a buck, come on cheerleaders

           we want a……cheer.  He laughed,

 again to himself.It was nice to see a couple of

    guys he had thought about on

occasion over the years. The food was pretty

   good but the drinks were just

        so, so.