50th Catonsville High School reunion

In just a few weeks, on September 12 through September 14, my Catonsville High School class will be having its 50th reunion. There is something really special about the 50th reunion.

Our reunion committee, chaired by Rick Webb and our class president Richards Steinboch, has had eight meetings over the last eight months to prepare for event.  The planning started when Rick discovered that Catonsville would have a home football game Friday night (against Dulaney) on September 12 and that got the ball rolling.  Where could we have a "before and after" reception, we asked?  After much serious research, we settled on Matthews 1600 on Frederick Road.  It was the first of many decisions that turned out very well.

Friday is also the day we traditionally held a little golf tournament and this year, the ladies are fielding more golfers than the men!  Thank you, Barbara Sheetz Kight, for making that happen.  The main event will be a Saturday night dinner at the Rolling Road Golf Course and Barbara is a member.  But I got a little bit ahead of myself.

One of our traditions is a tour of the high school provided by the Honor Society.  Paulette Geisenkotter Hammond organizes these tours and they are always terrific...and sometimes a little embarrassing for the high school students as we tell them that this is what they are going to look like in 50 years.  It's all in good fun and we get to see our classrooms again and the library and gymnasium.  All have been kept in good condition and its a pleasure to visit.

Saturday evening is the main event, the reunion dinner at the Rolling Road Golf Club from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m.  We will have hors d'oeuvres from 6 until 7 p.m. and then a lavish buffet with two carving stations the rest of the evening.  A professional DJ is providing quiet music during the first three hours, but after our president, Richard Steinbock, has his remarks at 9 p.m.,  we will crank up the volume for the dancing.  A professional photographer has been hired to take pictures of each individual when they arrive and then lots of pictures when the reunion really gets underway. The cost of this is $100 per classmate and $75 for their guest and that's why it has worked out so well that we have multiple events at various locations and that classmates can attend many of these events for free.

The weekend will conclude with a farewell brunch at Dmitri's International Grille, also in Catonsville.  Our president, called "Steiny", is a professional graphics artist and he has put together an awesome book for the reunion that includes high school pictures and updated information about our classmates. There is a memorial section for the nearly 60 classmates who have passed away from our class of approximately 530 students.  Too many have been lost.

My role in the reunion has been as a communicator;  setting up the e-mail and US postal mail systems to be in contact with our classmates.  There are so many classmates that I have gotten to know through the reunion activity that I didn't know before.  It's been demanding, but very rewarding.

And finally there is an ironic note to all of this.  I have needed to have my left knee replaced for a long time and incidents over the last three months have caused the surgery to become imminent.  So, I'm having the surgery on Monday, just six days before the reunion dinner.  I've been warned about the pain, but I wouldn't miss the dinner.  It just means no dancing by me.