Once upon a time, there was a young man who had been bounced from school to school his entire educational career. The most time he had spent at one school, due to his parents moving to follow his Dad’s job, was three years. Almost.

One day, his Dad found a nice little farmhouse in Darke County, Ohio, on Farmer Ross’ family farm. Farmer Ross no longer lived there, he had bought another farm and lived on that one. Dad rented the house, located on Highway 36 about halfway between Palestine and the Indiana Sate line, and discovered that it’s location was such that he didn’t have to drive very far to get to an interstate that ran north-south, or east-west. The family settled in, halfway through the young man’s freshman year.

The young man started going to school at the unified Tri-Village High School. As usual, he didn’t know anyone at first. There had been many schools where the young man didn’t even try to make any friends, because he knew the family would be moving again very soon. This was different. His first day at Tri-Village High School he ran into three guys – Bob, Kenny, and Gene. Bob, Kenny, and Gene made the young man feel welcomed – something else that hadn’t happened before. The young man fell into an easy friendship with all three of the guys, enjoying numerous classes and after school activities with them. “After school activities” is a high-school euphemism for sports or parties.

The young man had a moment of doubt, when the Dad announced they were going to move – but it turned out they were moving closer to New Madison, where Tri-Village was located. Whew!

In case you haven’t guessed, I was the young man.

At graduation, the four of us celebrated the end of our High School years with vim and vigor. Bob, Kenny, and I shipped out to Marine Corps Boot Camp, I lost track of Gene entirely. Kenny and I went through Boot Camp at the same time and the same place, but in separate platoons. I kept in touch with Kenny off and on through our years in the service, and afterward when my route would take my truck through the area, I would stop in and visit Kenny.

However, Bob seemed to drop off the face of the earth. At one time, I heard a rumor that he had been involved in a training accident. That’s a Marine Corps euphemism for killed in training or in covert action. This turned out, happily, to be not true. However, I still lost track of Bob and didn’t hear from him for many, many years.

A few months ago, while trying to coordinate travel and time off and the budget to attend my 25th High School Class Reunion, I noticed an e-mail address that was kind of descriptive of Bob – it was his last name and the service branch! I took a chance and shot a blind e-mail to that address. It was him!

We reconnected and started chatting like we hadn’t really lost any time. I missed the reunion due to a transmission problem that was more than expensive. However, I found out that Bob had met a wonderful girl named Sheila. They are getting married in about a week and a half. Time, Budget, and Travel abilities cooincided, and I will be at their wedding. I cannot express how much it means to me that he would want me at his wedding. Even though the celebration will be about an hour out of Cleveland, as opposite a corner of the state from where we went to school as possible, it kind of feels like I’ll be going home.

As an added bonus, since I’ve been working on getting my grandfather’s book on my other blog, I’ve been getting more familiar with the family history. Turns out this guy is buried at Lakeview Cemetery, and I might be able to squeeze in a side trip, since it’s only about twenty minutes from my hotel.

I can’t wait to get there and visit with Bob and Sheila. Congratulations, guys! May God bless your marriage with longevity and love!