It's been a really busy weekend. But of all the things I did this weekend, it's the Saturday night "Double Nickels" celebration that is causing all the buzz. Double Nickels refers to my cohort who were born in 1955 and who will all turn 55 this year, assuming they survive the year. As one friend who couldn't make it to the celebration observed, high school classmates are "dropping like flies." Well,not quite that bad, but still. Our 40th high school class reunion is still 3 years away. 
We did just lose a beloved classmate, Michael Orr. There have been others. It's scary and sad. 
So thanks to Facebook, we organized in just a week's time this Double Nickels thing at Brew River. Now, non-Facebook users were kind of left in the cold. A few heard about it by word of mouth, but others did not. And none of us had time to search them out this time. We're planning to get together more frequently. 
We invited people from our big cross-town rival, James M. Bennett High School, to join us this time. We'll probably do that again, at least for these more frequent, smaller get-togethers. 
Don't you know, though, we still segregated ourselves pretty well. We all said hello to each other, and talked a bit, but generally one side of the bar was Bennett alumuni and the other side, WiHi. 
Still, it was really alot of fun. And we started between 4 and 5, so we were done by 9:30 or 10, even the diehards -- in plenty of time for bed.
Now I could overanalyze the reasons why high school friends are so dear, even 40 years and a lifetime later. But I'll leave that for another time. It's late and I've got a busy week ahead.