School Days, School Daze

Last Fri. night I attended a high school reunion of sorts. It was not my graduating class reunion, but rather, a reunion of all band members of my high school during the years of our beloved band director, Mr. Haar. I attended Richard Gahr High School in Cerritos, CA, and graduated in 1979. Mr. Haar was the first band director at Gahr, which opened around 1965, and remained there until 1989. He was such an influence to so many students, and made an impact on so many lives, it was no surprise that a celebration in his honor was finally held.

So yes, I was a member of my high school band, and I'm proud of that. In the marching and concert bands I played clarinet during my first two years, and bass clarinet in my second two years. In the dance band (jazz, big band music, etc.) I played piano. My three sisters were also members of the same band, under the direction of the same teacher, Mr. Haar. The only difference is that Mr. Haar left Gahr H.S. after my youngest sister's first year in high school. Us three older siblings got four years of Mr. Haar.

There's a wonderful web site set up an run by one of the Gahr Band alumni, which I will link for you here. If you feel compelled to, please check it out. If you're looking for my goofy picture, you won't find it very easily. It's under the photo album link - 1979 - a few pages in. The only one I could make out was the band officers' picture, and the quality is pretty bad. I think it was scanned right out of the year book.

Back to the reunion story. It was good to see so many of my friends from so long ago. I have done a poor job in keeping in touch with them. In fact, there are only two that I've seen on occasion over the past couple of years: Janeen and Dorothy. Both were at the little Christmas gathering that Laura and I had last December. But several other band alumni who graduated in my year, and the neighboring years, were there Fri. night, and I hadn't seen them in years. All three of my sisters were there, including Diana who lives in Portland, OR. Diana is on the reunion planning committee, and was there with her husband Scott.

Even my mom, a band booster, and my grandmother were present. There were quite a few band boosters present. This was also nice, because I hadn't seen some of these people (parents of my schoolmates) since about the time we graduated high school.

Laura and I arrived fashionably late, and I started recognizing familiar faces. Laura had not met most of these people, so I made many introductions. (Side note: Laura would have met some of these people - the ones who graduated with me in '79, but we didn't attend my 20th H.S. reunion. It was held the week before our wedding, and we had too many things going on). We found Mr. Haar right away, and greeted him and talked for a couple of minutes. As the guest of honor, he was being sought by many former students.

Laura and I went through the buffet line and sat at our table. My sister Diana had arranged to have other people from my year with me. That included Janeen, accompanied by her husband, Bob; Janeen's mom, Liz; twin sisters Marci and Mary Jo - all the way from Colorado; Mike; and Dorothy (class of '80) accompanied by her mom. Russ (class of '78) squeeze in to make a cozy 11. We no sooner sat down when the video presentation began.

A stream of pictures were shown from all years of students, parents, and Mr. Haar, all set to band music. Some was concert music, some was marching band music, and of course the pictures matched. There was even a tribute to some of the students and boosters who have died since graduation.

Following the video presentation, the reunion chair made a speech honoring Mr. Haar. Then Mr. Haar himself made a speech. As the evening went on, people visited with each other (and Mr. Haar), browsed through old year books and various photo albums that people brought, and otherwise had a good time.

We took a few pictures, which I will post soon, as an addendum to this post. We didn't stay too late though. The following morning was Laura's and Nina's first game of the season; a scrimmage, and we knew we wouldn't be able to sleep in. Right now, cheer leading is running our lives.

I was okay with leaving the reunion anyway. I had visited enough, and I'm not really good in these type of social situations. I was not exactly blessed with the gift of gab; I don't easily strike up conversations about any hip topic, and don't have a lot to say about much anyway. Ask me about something I know about or I like, and I'm good for a couple of words, but other than that - I got nothing. So we left, but it was an enjoyable evening.