{"id":147,"date":"2011-05-19T12:20:31","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T20:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/?p=147"},"modified":"2011-05-20T11:11:26","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T19:11:26","slug":"%e2%80%9cstranger-in-paradise%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/%e2%80%9cstranger-in-paradise%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cStranger in Paradise\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Emphasis on \u201cStranger!\u201d\u00a0 We were so full of ourselves then\u2014so filled with hopes and dreams for what lay ahead of us.\u00a0 And far less worried than what we were to become, because we knew less.\u00a0 We had a whole lifetime ahead of us to understand how much we must rely on faith to live well.\u00a0 Then, we simply did it.<\/p>\n

Sara Carriker, our \u201cMost Industrious\u201d classmate, led the organization and planning of our Senior Ball based on the theme song \u201cStranger in Paradise\u201d. Our other \u201cMost Industrious,\u201d Mark Briggs, had co-chaired the Junior Prom.\u00a0 The ethereal atmosphere in the high school gym, a paradise created from billowing parachutes, pink lighting and wistful trees with pink leaves, honored our Junior Class.<\/p>\n

It was Friday, April 7, 1961.\u00a0 From a field of 22 princes and princesses, we crowned Ron Berg and Pam Brooking our King and Queen and proceeded to \u201cdance the night away.\u201d\u00a0 I was privileged to escort Princess Joanna Cravey, along with Ron, voted our \u201cMost Popular.\u201d\u00a0 Paradise was about to end as we knew it, and the real world awaited.<\/p>\n

We were serenaded by musicians who included Michele Priebe (\u201cPrettiest Smile\u201d\u2014Michele went on to raise a family of six children as a single mom in Utah before we lost her to liver cancer on June 2, 2002), and Darrel Smaw (\u201cBest Vocalist\u201d\u2014Darryl, an ordained minister, and college dean at Swarthmore College, just outside of Philadelphia, will join us for our 50th Reunion, and has agreed to sing the theme song for us again as he did on that long ago evening).<\/p>\n

Looking back on that night, I can still remember the sense of closing in rapidly on the end of a magical time in my life.\u00a0 I could already feel the loss of something which I wanted to hold onto\u2014graduation was coming too fast.\u00a0 Those feelings are still with me, as real as they were then.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been fortunate to remain in touch with each other over the ensuing 50 years.\u00a0 We\u2019ve experienced life\u2019s wonders and joys, and also its sorrows.\u00a0 We\u2019re older and wiser, more humble and grateful for having lived.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all strangers in a universe about which we learn exponentially more every day.\u00a0 How small we are.\u00a0 And yet how significant, especially for having known each other and the memories we share.<\/p>\n

I co-chaired our Senior Ball with Sara\u2014moral support to her excellent leadership.\u00a0 I remember thinking of Sara when told that I was to support her in this role \u201cNow there\u2019s someone you could spend your life with.\u201d\u00a0 But that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emphasis on \u201cStranger!\u201d\u00a0 We were so full of ourselves then\u2014so filled with hopes and dreams for what lay ahead of us.\u00a0 And far less worried than what we were to become, because we knew less.\u00a0 We had a whole lifetime ahead of us to understand how much we must rely on faith to live well.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahs61.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}