MARLENE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION. I'M ENVIOUS

I met Marlene Wagner, now my wife of 57 years, when I was flying the mighty T6 in Aviation Cadet pilot training at Malden Air Base, Missouri. She lived in Dexter, Missouri, some seventeen miles north of Malden. Marlene’s a graduate of Dexter High School and, after my fighter squadron reunion in Ohio, we attended Marlene’s 58^th high school reunion in Missouri (smart politics begins at home).

Dexter today has a population over 7,000. When Marlene lived there, Dexter’s population was under 6,000. In a small town, everybody knew everybody. Many of her school friends are still there. More came to the reunion. Marlene won a prize for coming to Dexter from Alaska, the most distant place.

I’m envious. My school, Garfield High in East Los Angeles, was crowded, and school gang warfare was common. I don’t know one Garfield alumnus. In contrast, Dexter High School alumni abound, Marlene knows her classmates, and many of them were at the reunion. That’s the way it should be.