Great 30th Reunion!

Thanks to all of our classmates and friends up showed up in spirit and person to our 30th high school reunion at Murphy's Law Irish Pub. Patriots forever! See video highlights here.

"Papa Smurf," you will be always be in our memories.

Rest in peace, Coach Jimmie "Papa Smurf" Parrot. I just learned about his passing. He had planned to come to our reunion this July. Here is a story on him and his recent retirement. Cherish every moment, Class.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, American High graduates, among them my own dear Class of '85. We're seven months away from our 30th reunion. If you haven't purchased your tickets to the July 18th Happy Hour at the Marriott in Hollywood Beach, please do so soon! Details are to the right of this blog. Coach Charlie Yanda who led our football team to many wins is our special guest speaker. Other coaches have also been invited. In the meantime, here are a few images that might bring back some memories. I just pulled out of my memory book and saw my much neater handwriting offering the following: Favorite Movie: Beverly Hills Cop Favorite Group: New Edition (I actually added a slash and wrote Lionel Richie). Favorite Movie Star: Eddie Murphy Favorite Sport: Football Favorite food: Pizza, subs Favorite car: Cherry apple red Nissan Favorite television show: The Cosby Show The only thing still true is favorite sport. It's still football. And Roll Tide even though I must watch those Oregon Ducks duke it out with Ohio State tonight. In memory of the latter's win over the University of Miami in 2002 owing partly to a bad ref call, I'm going for the ducks. What about you? Sharony

the class of '85 across the years

Here's a look at the Class of '85 in 1985, 1995 and 2005. How many people do you recognize? Just tap on a photo to enlarge an image. By the way, the image for our graduating year is massive so I digitally split it in half for our 20th reunion. Maybe by the time of our 30th next year, I'll figure out a way to present it in an easy-to-see single photo. As you can see, the Class of '85 is sponsoring a multi-year reunion for our 30th, a trend that is not uncommon in recent years. Fewer people attend reunions for many reasons including travel distance, financial obligations like putting kids through college (hence, our wish to keep the reunion ticket prices down), but especially the ability to stay in touch via Facebook and other social network sites. But there's nothing like seeing people in person, too. For sure, it was good getting together with some of our classmates last December to start planning this reunion. Celebrating with other classes is also appealing because as we get older many of us are probably realizing we have more shared memories than not. We grew up in the same neighborhoods, have siblings or children who know each other or people we know, and so on. For example, last week one reunion activity required me to speak with someone who knew Fred Bertani - the principal at the time the Class of '85 attended American - when he was the principal at North Miami Beach High and even when he was an assistant principal at Miami Norland. Discovering as much led to a more lively connection between me and the person to whom I was speaking. I bet you have had a similar experience over the years, haven't you?