Rick Houser

Recently I got an e mail from a lady who I had graduated with at Felicity a few years ago. Here is where I must correct that statement. We had graduated 50 years ago this spring. When I heard that number it just didn’t and for a good while wouldn’t register with me. But as I spoke with a few others and we began to meet to attempt to organize a gathering to give this event some recognition I began to realize that yes it was 50 years. Since only a couple or three would attend the annual alumni dinner each year I was in great concern if there was any interest at all.

Rick Houser

So last September we drafted a letter to each member of the great class of 1967 and sent out a letter asking if there was any interest at all. To my surprise and pleasure about half of the class sent back a message of yes we certainly do want to gather and show our school colors. The gathering will be small and we will for a fleeting moment get to stand up and tell the alumni just who we are. I have always noticed that when my class would decide to remind folks of the unforgettable class of 67 we seemed to get the point across that we are still around and going strong.

So on the night of the dinner our gathering will be getting carried out. We will talk and tell old tales that might possibly have grown since they happened but we will be having fun and doing so our way. I think back to when we were honored for our 25th year and we were all smiles and full of energy that we now we will again smile and show energy for a while. Celebrating then and now will be very different as you see we have doubled the time we have been out in the world and all the successes and failures we might have accomplished or endured. I think that during the gatherings when we were graduating so many of our elders would tell us we were about to begin a long journey. We needed to be prepared for this journey and face the world as it would be there for us to have to move through. (Most of us snickered a little and thought oh sure.) But as we can all attest to it the journey began and the world advanced upon us way faster than we ever thought it could. I remember that during the week we practiced graduation I did some math and counted just when 50 years would arrive for us. When I came up with the year 2017 I thought to myself oh my gosh that year is so far away and I don’t even know if it will ever arrive. Well not only did it arrive but it arrived faster than any e mail ever has.

I keep thinking and asking myself how did time move so fast when so much has passed in my life? I have asked myself if I could have in some ways slowed father time down any at all. I keep getting the same answer of no you could not. Time was never intended to be controlled or monitored. This year just as it happens each year we take a moment out of what we call a lifetime and say to all “well folks here I am! I have traveled the time and what I have done is what I could do. So accept me for who I have been and will continue to be!”

Thinking about leaving the secure surroundings of school and going out into a the world and working at a profession we really hadn’t thought about to finding a mate and raising a family to becoming that generation that we had looked at when we were young to being that generation the young look at now. We now look at how we are going to confront that last couple of laps in what we have called living. If you stop and think on it we have been doing all that those before us have done. The difference is now it is about us! Hey this has gone too fast and it doesn’t seem like it is slowing down.

I learned recently that since I had attended Moscow school my first seven years and moved to Felicity due to consolidation the class of 67 that I began school with will be the honor class this year. So my class is to be honored twice. Tell me just how cool is that. My sister Peg and brother Ben both graduated at Moscow and it was always to my way of thinking that if they did something I should also. So it looks like I will kind of get to join them and that is so very special to me. Also to be honored twice? Just how cool is that?

So when the first Saturday in June rolls around I along with a good sized group of Felicity Alumni’s’ will stand up and be counted at the dinner and then we will party to music from the sixties and stories that will return from that time also. I don’t feel the term wild can be used about us anymore but for at least one evening we are all going to take time out to celebrate our success of dealing with the past 50 years (maybe in a little calmer way.). Everyone should take that time to stop and reflect on where you have been and where you want to continue to move forward to because you will continue on that journey the very next day. In each of our own ways we have done our tasks.

Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and loves to share stories about his youth and other topics. He may be reached at houser734@yahoo.com.