TOAST TO MY OWN REUNION, THE ESSAY
Here it is the long awaited, so how was it story, of my 10 year class reunion.
Registration at Fiorello H. LaGuardia happend at 3pm on Saturday June 11, 2005.
I got there and I was looking for the sign that said LaG 95', but I didn't see one so I went to one of the tables for another year and asked "Where are the tables for LaG 95'?" I was told that I had to look for the sign that said LaG'95. Now, I knew that I had graduated with a diploma from HS and I wasn't stupid after all I was in my senior year of undergrad, so I know she wasn't telling me something that I could have told myself.
N E Way. I was finally directed to a desk near the security station. What did I see an envelope that said LaG 95' on it with a sign that said the same but it was upside down on the table. Go Figure. Ok, so I tell the nice graduated dance major my name and class. He hands me a welcome packet and proceeds to do something else. So I have no idea what I am suppose to do. Until, I look in the welcome packet and there is an itenerary. It says we are suppose to meet in our respective class rooms. LaG 95' was suppose to meet in room 561N.
Now I was a student long enough to know that if a room has a 61 behind it, it's a studio or a closet. So, I proceed downstairs again to talk to the guy and ask him where my class is suppose to meet. Which is when I seen my first classmate. First of all, ten years is a beautiful thing for attractive high schoolers. He was insanely goregeous, but I just nodded and called his name. He was like "Hey!" I asked the woman at the table if she could tell me where the Class of 95' was to meet. I told her that the room in the brochure was not there. She then told me "Oh you must have got an old version of the itenerary." So she gave me the new room 645W and I went there quickly to see if anyone else had shown up.
When I got there, there were about 6 of my classmates from that year in the room. I knew two of all. But I came in and introduced myself which I really didn't have to do cause I had this big sticker on me that said Kenneth "Latif" Alston "95. So they called me by name when I walked in the room. I brought that people obviously looked different than they did in HS so I pulled out my yearbook for about 30 -45 minutes we were going through the book talking about the pictures that we saw and matching them to the folks in the room .
Every other class had their own refreshments of some sort. We didn't we were too busy stealing from the M&A class of 55'. I mean they gave us nothing. We were feeling like second class citizens. That is when we started to talk about how we were a indignant class and the administration was always on our cases because we were all really rude, crass, insensitive to the rest of the school we just did what we wanted. Hell, what did they expect we were seniors and our class was fabulous in both music, art and the performing arts. So we had a feeling that things were going to be shady all night.
So it's time to eat. We are all walking around like blood thristy hounds looking for the cafeteria that our reception was going to be held in. I mean there were only two, other than the teachers cafeterias that the 50th Class reunions were being held in. So we looked at our itenerary and it said to go to the 7th floor cafeteria. Imagine, 12 alumni walking in sync towards the cafe and the person at the door says "What class? " and when you tell them they say "Your class is suppose to be on the fifth floor." Ok, so I guess it's downstairs we go. We get downstairs and the very same thing occurs we notice that there is no place settings that say LaG 95'. So we are pissed off now. But the classmates that I had with me were very unfamiliar with my low tolerance of BS. So when we got to the 7th floor again the Asian girl came to the door and said what class and I told her. Once again we heard "You are not suppose to be here, you should be on the 5th floor", that is when I said " What I am going to need to to do is find out exactly where our class belongs there is no table marking for us downstairs and none here either, you are going to have to find out for us before we all get pissed off." I have my classmates looking at me now as if I had turned into the class representative. So she walks away.
As she is walking away I see about 8 more classmates from my year. I immediately yell out LaG 95' and we all bumb rush the door start talking to each other. I told them the situation. Then I said " Look them tables don't have any designation, lets go get em' bump protocol" guess what 95' was back in effect. That is how the night started.
Somewhere through the stealing of seats and the frustration of not having our own place we found ourselves like first in line for the buffet style food. Now, may I be the first to say that the food was poor quality. Ok, I was the one to say it. Myself and about every other classmate on the line. We were through. But I found that we were bonding through our disgust.
I thought that some of the African-american students would bail out on me, but to my surprise there were about 5 there already when guess who walks in. Our senior class president and former Miss. Johnson C. Smith University 1999. So I was screaming my head off. This girl told her sister to tell me she wasn't coming. But there she was in the flesh looking fabulous. All of the sistas that came back were doing it something special. The brothers that came back were doing it something good too. We just had it going on. We started to see some of the instructors that we had during that time and taking pictures.
We headed down to the Senior Chorus and Senior Orchestra concert. All of the black students kinda gravitated to one another as we did in the mid-90's. That was when I seen the one of the only Jewish guys in the whole school that made my life happy everyday cracking up all the time, I mean he wasn't the only but the best. Kaback, I can't believe that he came back for reunion and when asked why he had a wonderful and quite sexy tan he said "I just came in on my boat", in the words of Paris Hilton, "That's Hot!"
The Concert was good, although I missed the singing of the school song that is based on Bramhs Concerto in Cmaj. I was off looking for one of my teachers for an umbrella. Did I mention that it was raining as if the devil had gotten married to an archangel and God was mad.
Off to BBQues.
BBQues, is a LaGuardia tradition, stemming back to the first gospel chorus concert that happend in 1984. So it wasn't a big surprise that everyone wanted to go. It was now about 17 of us, black folk from 95' ready to go and eat. Now, I knew that there was gonna be a wait if we came in with like 15-25 people so I did a reservation over the phone for us, 25ppl. When we got there I went to the host stand and told them my name and my friends were like we put in for a table already so I was like OK cancel mine. Well they weren't ready to seat us and that is when Kaback decided to go and buy a round of drinks for the group. Wow, Kaback, there you are getting us drunk like you did back in the day. So we were getting restless and still waiting for some more people. But we opted not to wait for them to get seated immediately.
As soon as we got downstairs we got to the table but there still wasn't enough room. There were some empty tables next to ours and we asked the hostess if we could sit there. She said "No. This is for a party of 25." as soon as I heard this I started laughing and went to the hostess and asked her the name on the party of 25 she said Alston. I was like, I am Alston and this is my party it's a little smaller than 25, but this is what we have. My classmates were looking at me as if I had just delivered them from pharoah in Egypt.
The best time of the whole night was that fact that were down there in the lower part of the restaurant. There was another party there that we quickly found out was LaG's first graduating class, the class of 85'. So all night there was much love being spread around. Most memorable of the whole night was that 85' had challanged 95' by singing a song that the Gospel Choir sang in their year. They were fabulous, especially since they haven't really been singing together for 20 years. Well when time for 95' to represent we didn't have a choir so. The Class President chose me to represent the class. I sang "Give Me A Clean Heart". None of my classmates that were there had heard me sing in 10 years but 2. So they were amazed at how my vocal ability had grown.
One of the 85' ers came to me and said "If you are any indication of what LaG produced after 85' then we definately know that you have upheld the legacy."
It was at that moment that I knew that all of my excitement for being at my 10 year was good. It's good to be apart of a legacy. I pray for the ones that came after us, and the ones after them.
I feel it coming together
People will see me and cry
I'm going to make it to Heaven
Light up the sky like a flame
I'm gonna live forever
Baby Remember my name. Fame
Registration at Fiorello H. LaGuardia happend at 3pm on Saturday June 11, 2005.
I got there and I was looking for the sign that said LaG 95', but I didn't see one so I went to one of the tables for another year and asked "Where are the tables for LaG 95'?" I was told that I had to look for the sign that said LaG'95. Now, I knew that I had graduated with a diploma from HS and I wasn't stupid after all I was in my senior year of undergrad, so I know she wasn't telling me something that I could have told myself.
N E Way. I was finally directed to a desk near the security station. What did I see an envelope that said LaG 95' on it with a sign that said the same but it was upside down on the table. Go Figure. Ok, so I tell the nice graduated dance major my name and class. He hands me a welcome packet and proceeds to do something else. So I have no idea what I am suppose to do. Until, I look in the welcome packet and there is an itenerary. It says we are suppose to meet in our respective class rooms. LaG 95' was suppose to meet in room 561N.
Now I was a student long enough to know that if a room has a 61 behind it, it's a studio or a closet. So, I proceed downstairs again to talk to the guy and ask him where my class is suppose to meet. Which is when I seen my first classmate. First of all, ten years is a beautiful thing for attractive high schoolers. He was insanely goregeous, but I just nodded and called his name. He was like "Hey!" I asked the woman at the table if she could tell me where the Class of 95' was to meet. I told her that the room in the brochure was not there. She then told me "Oh you must have got an old version of the itenerary." So she gave me the new room 645W and I went there quickly to see if anyone else had shown up.
When I got there, there were about 6 of my classmates from that year in the room. I knew two of all. But I came in and introduced myself which I really didn't have to do cause I had this big sticker on me that said Kenneth "Latif" Alston "95. So they called me by name when I walked in the room. I brought that people obviously looked different than they did in HS so I pulled out my yearbook for about 30 -45 minutes we were going through the book talking about the pictures that we saw and matching them to the folks in the room .
Every other class had their own refreshments of some sort. We didn't we were too busy stealing from the M&A class of 55'. I mean they gave us nothing. We were feeling like second class citizens. That is when we started to talk about how we were a indignant class and the administration was always on our cases because we were all really rude, crass, insensitive to the rest of the school we just did what we wanted. Hell, what did they expect we were seniors and our class was fabulous in both music, art and the performing arts. So we had a feeling that things were going to be shady all night.
So it's time to eat. We are all walking around like blood thristy hounds looking for the cafeteria that our reception was going to be held in. I mean there were only two, other than the teachers cafeterias that the 50th Class reunions were being held in. So we looked at our itenerary and it said to go to the 7th floor cafeteria. Imagine, 12 alumni walking in sync towards the cafe and the person at the door says "What class? " and when you tell them they say "Your class is suppose to be on the fifth floor." Ok, so I guess it's downstairs we go. We get downstairs and the very same thing occurs we notice that there is no place settings that say LaG 95'. So we are pissed off now. But the classmates that I had with me were very unfamiliar with my low tolerance of BS. So when we got to the 7th floor again the Asian girl came to the door and said what class and I told her. Once again we heard "You are not suppose to be here, you should be on the 5th floor", that is when I said " What I am going to need to to do is find out exactly where our class belongs there is no table marking for us downstairs and none here either, you are going to have to find out for us before we all get pissed off." I have my classmates looking at me now as if I had turned into the class representative. So she walks away.
As she is walking away I see about 8 more classmates from my year. I immediately yell out LaG 95' and we all bumb rush the door start talking to each other. I told them the situation. Then I said " Look them tables don't have any designation, lets go get em' bump protocol" guess what 95' was back in effect. That is how the night started.
Somewhere through the stealing of seats and the frustration of not having our own place we found ourselves like first in line for the buffet style food. Now, may I be the first to say that the food was poor quality. Ok, I was the one to say it. Myself and about every other classmate on the line. We were through. But I found that we were bonding through our disgust.
I thought that some of the African-american students would bail out on me, but to my surprise there were about 5 there already when guess who walks in. Our senior class president and former Miss. Johnson C. Smith University 1999. So I was screaming my head off. This girl told her sister to tell me she wasn't coming. But there she was in the flesh looking fabulous. All of the sistas that came back were doing it something special. The brothers that came back were doing it something good too. We just had it going on. We started to see some of the instructors that we had during that time and taking pictures.
We headed down to the Senior Chorus and Senior Orchestra concert. All of the black students kinda gravitated to one another as we did in the mid-90's. That was when I seen the one of the only Jewish guys in the whole school that made my life happy everyday cracking up all the time, I mean he wasn't the only but the best. Kaback, I can't believe that he came back for reunion and when asked why he had a wonderful and quite sexy tan he said "I just came in on my boat", in the words of Paris Hilton, "That's Hot!"
The Concert was good, although I missed the singing of the school song that is based on Bramhs Concerto in Cmaj. I was off looking for one of my teachers for an umbrella. Did I mention that it was raining as if the devil had gotten married to an archangel and God was mad.
Off to BBQues.
BBQues, is a LaGuardia tradition, stemming back to the first gospel chorus concert that happend in 1984. So it wasn't a big surprise that everyone wanted to go. It was now about 17 of us, black folk from 95' ready to go and eat. Now, I knew that there was gonna be a wait if we came in with like 15-25 people so I did a reservation over the phone for us, 25ppl. When we got there I went to the host stand and told them my name and my friends were like we put in for a table already so I was like OK cancel mine. Well they weren't ready to seat us and that is when Kaback decided to go and buy a round of drinks for the group. Wow, Kaback, there you are getting us drunk like you did back in the day. So we were getting restless and still waiting for some more people. But we opted not to wait for them to get seated immediately.
As soon as we got downstairs we got to the table but there still wasn't enough room. There were some empty tables next to ours and we asked the hostess if we could sit there. She said "No. This is for a party of 25." as soon as I heard this I started laughing and went to the hostess and asked her the name on the party of 25 she said Alston. I was like, I am Alston and this is my party it's a little smaller than 25, but this is what we have. My classmates were looking at me as if I had just delivered them from pharoah in Egypt.
The best time of the whole night was that fact that were down there in the lower part of the restaurant. There was another party there that we quickly found out was LaG's first graduating class, the class of 85'. So all night there was much love being spread around. Most memorable of the whole night was that 85' had challanged 95' by singing a song that the Gospel Choir sang in their year. They were fabulous, especially since they haven't really been singing together for 20 years. Well when time for 95' to represent we didn't have a choir so. The Class President chose me to represent the class. I sang "Give Me A Clean Heart". None of my classmates that were there had heard me sing in 10 years but 2. So they were amazed at how my vocal ability had grown.
One of the 85' ers came to me and said "If you are any indication of what LaG produced after 85' then we definately know that you have upheld the legacy."
It was at that moment that I knew that all of my excitement for being at my 10 year was good. It's good to be apart of a legacy. I pray for the ones that came after us, and the ones after them.
I feel it coming together
People will see me and cry
I'm going to make it to Heaven
Light up the sky like a flame
I'm gonna live forever
Baby Remember my name. Fame
posted by The Divo at 11:26 PM
2 Comments:
I am glad that you had fun. I am counting my reunion down....5 MORE YEARS!!! LOL...
Did I read correctly...7th floor cafeteria? What? Why does a high school have 7 floors...
Any instance. I am glad you had a seemingly good time...
Sounds like such a good time. I personally don't look forward and hardly care about my ten year reunion...but I may rethink.
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