MIA

Hello Blog.  I have missed you & apologize for my long long absence.  Do I need to get a permission slip from my parents for my absence?  I feel like it as I've been busy with nostalgia train. Why?  Well, I hate to admit my age, but this is the 40th reunion from my high school class.  Yes...I graduated from high school in 1972!  I've gotten the old year books out, reconnected with some of the people that I went to school with, and am actually seriously going to the reunion in 1972.  Shock!  If you would have asked me last year if I was going, I would have said NO. But...I have changed a whole lot of my perceptions about my family's home town after belonging to a group on Facebook called "You know you are from Portsmouth if..." which was started originally by a class mate to tell funny stories about the home town most of us left due to the economy of the area.  It started simply with about 70 people who we went to high school with. Then more and more and more people invited family, friends, and the whole mixture of the group changed and people started to share idea, stories, picture, and most of all history of Portsmouth Ohio.

I only physically lived there 10 out of my 58 years.  I was born there & my parents moved to Los Angeles when I was 3. Then when I was in 8th grade, they moved from LA to Portsmouth.  Oh yes, a true culture shock.  I didn't have many friends as I mainly was the family baby sitter having to be home 1/2 hour after the 3:15 pm "school's out" bell rang.  About the only thing that I really got to do was to be in the Senior play which I had to beg & beg & beg to do.  On one of our 1972 reunion FB pages we discussed what we would have done different back then.  I definitely would have rebelled against my Mother's rules & done more in school to met people and not be such a loner.  I think my life might have been a little different if I would have just said no ever once and awhile instead of being the good girl.

I did move back in 1975 & met Chris at Shawnee University.  I was in MLT school and he was in Electronics school.  We shared lounge with their class (oh our director told us to stay away from THOSE people, but I saw those brown intense eyes, long hair/beard, and just melted).  We moved permanently to Columbus in 1977.  I didn't go back much even though my family lived there.  I had some pretty negative thoughts about Portsmouth with lots of anger thrown in as a seasoning.

Okay so back to NOW and the Portsmouth Facebook page.  I can't tell you how much I've learned about the vast and rich history from this group.  My Father's family were some of the first settlers in the area & there is a whole chapter of them in the History of Scioto County.  We all get on sharing pictures and stories about this establishment, that teacher, this building, that perfect make out place! And what have these people done...first of all, they've helped me heal the big gash that I felt whenever I thought about Portsmouth.  They humor and caring has made me a part of a community that is constantly questioning what happened to this once vibrant wonderful town to make it known to the world as Pill Capitol?  Thank goodness, we've found through this group those who still live there that are on the front edge changing our hometown to wipe out the corruption and the crime.  Those people are the true heroes to me.

What started out as a simple smile gathering group as now reached over 2050 members!  And they are all planning on having a get together there in Portsmouth next month.  The Daily Times is a part of the group now & on Sunday's post comments from the group along with photos that people are sharing from their personal albums.

Back to my reunion...I've found a group of very caring folks I went to high school with.  Many of them stayed in touch all these years.  They have opened their arms to me making me truly feel a part of that 1972 class that "keeps on Truckin'".  We've lost 20 from our class and with each mention, I pick up those year books and see the young smiling faces and see that person I was in Chemistry class with, or shared 321 study hall with, or just passed in the hallways.  I'm rediscovering a part of myself that I thought I would never see again.