On Saturday, 30 September, my Sinton High School (SHS) Class of 1958 met in Fulton, Texas to celebrate the 65th anniversary of our graduation. Our class graduated 76 seniors on 23 May 1958. As our members now continue to dwindle, we gather each fall for another reunion. We attended school in nearby Sinton, Texas, a town of about 5,000 and the seat of San Patricio County. Fulton is a coastal town on the Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christi.

Initially, our class met every 10 years…then every five years. Meanwhile, I was living in Seattle and Mercer Island, and I declined every invitation to attend, always promising to attend the 50th reunion. In 2008, my wife and I showed up. We liked it. We liked the people and the event. And that was the year that the group decided to meet every year “till death do us part.”

Only Covid interrupted our sequence. Every year, we stay at The Inn at Fulton Harbor, where the group rents a meeting room on a Saturday. We talk amongst ourselves there in the afternoon, go across the street to eat supper at Charlotte Plummers Restaurant, go back to the meeting room, and talk some more. That’s it. Very simple. We say goodbye on Sunday morning and wait till next year.

Then things changed. In 2022, I offered to entertain the group after supper in the Inn. The leaders accepted. So, I played five songs on my Jupiter pocket trumpet, handed out the lyrics so that they could sing along, and told five jokes. First was our Alma Mater, “Maroon and White,” written by an SHS student, Daniel E. Sharp, in 1925. Next was our Fight Song to the tune of the march, “On Wisconsin.” Then came The Beatles’ song about aging, “When I’m 64.” After that came “What a Wonderful World”–Louis Amstrong’s recording in 1967 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Then we stood, faced the flag, hands over hearts, said the Pledge of Allegiance as we had done every morning in Grammar School, and finally finished with “God Bless America.”

They enjoyed it, and I was asked to do it again this year. I used the same format and changed only the jokes and two songs: “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” The former was written in 1980, and the latter was made popular by The Mommas and The Papas’ recording in 1968. We reminisced about (a) the Sinton Plymouth Oilers, our town’s semi-pro baseball team which won the national championships in 1951 and 1957, when we were sixth graders and seniors, respectively, and (b) our crushes and dates in high school. Again, it was fun! Lots of stories and laughter and teasing.

Here’s a video sample of this mini-trumpet show for my classmates: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nzD9pTFaJw0&feature=shared. You’ll hear some jokes, some banter, some faces, and some sing-along music.

Lo and behold, they’ve asked me to do it again next year, and I will, God willing! Gotta find two different songs and five different jokes…