Greenwood High School - Springfield, MO

My mother enrolled me in Greenwood shortly after I was born. I began formal education in Greenwood's kindergarten along with 29 other children, a class of 15 boys and 15 girls. Greenwood was not a private school, but a school located on the campus of Missouri State University that served as a training school for prospective teachers. I was blessed to have excellent teachers along the way and spent 13 years in that school.

It is interesting to note that even with 30 young people in our class, each one graduated from high school and matriculated into college. Not everyone graduated from college, but most did. Still today, I enjoy relationships with several of those classmates.

This weekend, I will return to Springfield for a reunion with at least 17 members of my class. Of the original group, six have died which makes the turnout for the weekend remarkable. We plan to go by bus to Branson for dinner and the Shoji Tobuchi Show. The trip to and from Branson should be a good time catching up because we always take up where we left off. On Saturday, we will visit the building that housed Greenwood when we were students. It is now the education building of Missouri State. Memories will be voiced and so many good times remembered. Saturday evening, we will meet for dinner at Riverside Inn in Ozark, MO. My uncle Will Keltner took me there when I was about 3years old. During the evening, we will have some entertainment by a couple of classmates, a challenge of their recall about Springfield, and I am going to give each member of the class some kind of remembrance of the evening. I plan to give Jerry Fallin a baseball autographed by Lou Brock for his grandson. Sue helped produce a mini-yearbook of those who will attend the reunion. In that little book are answers to some questions and pictures of classmates, their families, a look at the old days and a view of previous reunions. Sue worked that into her altogether too busy schedule and if there is one person who has no appreciation of the book, they will have to deal with me.

Sunday morning, we will meet for brunch and a message from our class president, Wayne Niederhuth. Wayne is a pastor and has also served as a Navy Chaplain. We will sing a few choruses of praise before ending the reunion. It is so special that almost all members of the class are active in a church. My first remembrance of the hymn "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" was not singing it in church, but in the processional to begin the elementary Christmas program at Greenwood.

Sharing these remembrances on the blog is for my benefit I guess. I hope it rings a bell of thanksgiving for all that God has given you. God truly is SO good.