On 10 October, we celebrated our 68th reunion after graduating in 1958 from Sinton High School in Sinton, Texas. Our class size was ~78. Of the 14 people attending this year, only four were from our class. Four others were from other graduating classes. That’s eight SHS graduates plus six wives, husbands, and other relatives. Many of our classmates would still like to come but can no longer travel.
So, the big question looms—how much longer can this go on? Oh, well, never mind. Let’s just kick the can down the road and enjoy being here now. It’s great to be vertical and looking out instead of horizontal, looking up.
They asked me to bring my horn, so I prepared another trumpet show—my fourth since I started doing this in 2022 (my wife and I had to miss in 2024). Naturally, I use my Jupiter pocket trumpet. To begin each show, I always distribute a handout with the lyrics for all the songs. For each show, there are four “standards” that I always play: the Alma Mater and Fight Song to open the show and “You’re a Grand Old Flag” to close it. In between, I feature three or four special songs of my choice, always different from ones I’ve played in the past.
This year, I chose two John Denver classics—“Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Back Home Again”—plus “That Old Feeling,” But I modified the lyrics so that they were about Sinton, Texas! For example, here’s what my classmates sang as I played the melody of “Take Me Home”:
Almost heaven, Sinton, Texas, Grain and cotton, Welder Park and—flat farms, oil and gas. Life is old there, Older than the Court House, Younger than the oak trees, Growin’ like the breeze. Chorus: Country roads, take me home To the place I belong: Sinton, Texas, Rialto Theater, Take me home, country roads. I hear her voice, in the mornin’ hour she calls me, The radio reminds me of my home far away, And drivin’ down the road I get a feelin’ That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday. Country roads, take me home, To the place I belong: Sinton, Texas, Chil-a-peen Creek, Take me home, country roads. Take me home, country roads. Take me home, country roads.
In between the three featured songs, I told two jokes and recited a limerick. For example, Police officer, as he handcuffs a crook: “If I were you, I’d get myself a good lawyer.” Crook: “Officer, if I could afford a good lawyer, I wouldn’t have tried to rob that bank.”
Did those six songs amount to our reunion’s “Swan Song?” Was the 68th our last reunion? Will we ever reach our 70th, just two years down the road? Who knows? Every day is a new day, and as the saying goes, “Today is a Good Day to have a Good Day.”
And this limerick: “There once was a man from Nantucket, Who kept all his cash in a bucket. His daughter, named Nan, Ran away with a man, And as for the cash, Nantucket.” Chuckle.
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