Of Facebook and Youth

Facebook is a strange animal.  Seriously.  Come January - well, tomorrow - I will have been on it for two years, and being the social person I am, I really do enjoy it.  Nevertheless, some aspects of it are quite odd.  I suspect people find it easier to 'hide' behind the written status update and/or comment rather than face people personally, all of which I find annoyingly passive-aggressive.  But to each his own, I guess.  And, hey, I love to participate in a religious debate as much as the next person, but wowzers, can those get ugly sometimes - the comments coming from professing believers are anything but Christlike.  Very unbecoming the redeemed child of God.  All that aside, though, Facebook has served as a great way to connect with people - old and new, past and present, known and unknown.  It just IS a good way to be in each other's lives.  Sometimes a little too good.....  :)

I grew up in Austin, Texas.  I love Austin.  (I love it so much that my son's middle name is Austin.)  I attended Cunningham Elementary School, Porter & Bedichek Junior High Schools, and David Crockett High School - graduating class of  1977.  One of the best things about good 'ole Facebook has been reuniting with classmates from my humble high school, some of whom even date back to Cunningham days.  It's stunning the things technology has produced in my lifetime.  Probably to be expected, though, I have some friends who have no interest AT ALL in setting foot back into the (figurative) hallowed halls of high school, but I just find the whole idea of it - well - really, really fun.  I enjoyed every minute of my time in high school, with the possible exception of the whole studying and homework part.  But even that was a pleasant endeavor with Max Fisher teaching Texas History (yeah, FB friends now, too).  And of course there was my first love, the dance.  No, not prom - drill team.  Tex-Anns.  I was in that glorious group of dancers three years - after, of course, satisfying the embarassing 'pep squad' requirement in my freshman year.  I'm sure that requiring a one-year pep squad commitment as a prerequisite for drill team was the ONLY way to insure that a pep squad existed, although why one was even needed I do not know.  Reflecting on those white gloves, pompoms and brown plaid uniforms makes me shudder all these 30+ years later.  But I digress...

To me, one of the neatest and downright coolest things about Facebook is how it has brought people together - and by brought together, I mean high school sweethearts.  First loves.  Or just people who kinda, sorta knew each other in high school.  Why, in my class alone there are three examples - that I know of. 

One:  Charlie and Cindy.  I started elementary school with Charlie, unicycle rider extrodinaire and first (OK, only) boy with whom I ever played "post office."  Ha!  He was married many years to a girl (oddly enough, also named, Gayla) two grades below us.  Sadly, Charlie was widowed several years ago.  But, via this new fangled digital means, he connected with Cindy, a girl who was in the class ahead of us.  They recently married - in Austin, of course - and they were gracious enough to invite me to their wedding reception.  What a treat it was to see Charlie again and to meet Cindy, whom I did not know in high school.  Theirs is a wonderful love story of which the providential hand of God in their lives is more than evident.  Congratulations to this lovely and godly couple! 

Two:  Don and (another) Cindy.  OK, so a while back I just decided to look Don up on Facebook.  Why?  Because, oh yeah, I had a huge schoolgirl crush on him when I was a freshman or a sophomore, or something.  I sent him a FB message, and fortunately he remembered me.  How could he not?  I not only chased him around the halls of Crockett H.S., but, without shame apparently, chased him around his place of employment as a shoe salesman guy at a local department store.  Good grief!  Anyway, somewhere along in this saga, he got himself a girlfriend, Cindy.  I knew Cindy, as she was in the drill team too, a grade ahead of me.  So, long story short, these two have reconnected with one another after 30 years!  Fabulous, guys, and I wish you all the very best!

Three:  Pat and Lisa.  New on the horizon is this couple with whom I ran around a lot.  Lisa and I were in the drill team together, always on the end of the line as we were the two shortest little girls on the team.  There aren't many people shorter than me, but Lisa was - still is, too, according to our recent phone conversation.  :)  We had some fun times getting ready at her grandmother's house for meeting our guys at Mr Gatti's after Friday night football games.  Well, you guessed it - Pat and Lisa have recently reunited after 32 years.  Thirty-two!  That's a long time, folks.  I'm tickled pink for them because they were just the cutest couple back in the day, and it looks like the sparks are a flyin' once again.  And as Austin has a way of drawing it's own back to the fold, Pat will be making his home there once again in the near future.  May God bless you as you make a new life together, Pat and Lisa!

So there you have it - Facebook reconnecting us to our youth in more ways than one.  I have so enjoyed reestablishing friendships with my classmates.  Maybe I'm a sentimental geek, or maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I view my classmates as a very unique group with whom I share a particular bond.  In all the world there is only ONE 1977 graduating class of David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas, and I share that experience with only a handful of people.  Bonding 101.  In 2012, we're looking at 35 years out of high school.  The reality of my mortal state has very much set in as we've lost a number of classmates already, some before we even turned 50!  So as the years click by, I'm ever grateful that God has seen fit to allow me a life that is rich beyond measure because of Christ and made all the more meaningful because of the family and friends He has allowed me.  May God be glorified in it all.