While visiting my niece and nephew

 about 6 years ago I encountered someone from my high school days. Apparently she remembered me and recognized me. For the life of me I didn't recognize her.

She asked me what I had been doing all these years.

I was feeling sarcastic so I spun a pretty good yarn.

Jailed for a murder I didn't commit, I spent 19 years in a West Virginia penitentiary before the DNA evidence exhonorated me. As compensation for jailing me wrongly they gave me a portion of the state number plate business as I had worked there. About the time I was released they had to privatize it because it became illegal to have convicts working for the public.

By that time my wife and kids had left me and refused to even talk to me. I had to write them off.

I knew 54 was a little late to start over again but I decided to anyway. If you look over there you can see my wife and two daughters. 

I pointed at my niece and her two, caught her eye and waved. She raised her voice a bit and asked, "Got everything you need?"

I nodded.

Then I took my leave, went over to my niece and we left. As we were leaving I saw the woman pull out a cell phone and I just knew she was calling someone to say, "Guess who I just met..."

Not a bad yarn considering I had no warning. A pretty good hipshot.

I told my niece what I did and she shook her head and seemed a little miffed. When she told her mother (my sister) she got nothing but laughter for an answer. Her brother laughed, too.

No prisoners in our family.

The real fun over this incident came about a year later when I got an invite to reunion 40.

I called my niece and asked her if she'd go to the reunion with me and let me pass her off as my wife. Bring the kids.

Of course, she adamantly and indignantly refused.

When her brother called and asked her to 'Help out her Uncle Pic" she refused.

When her mother called and asked her the same thing she realized she was being rat-packed and told us all where to go. I suppose she got over it instantly. You have to admit it was sort of funny.

As it ended, I was at sea for reunion 40. I was slated to come but my work sked changed at the last minute. I was bummed. Maybe it was for the better.

Anyway, I have posted that reunion 45 is coming up and have posted a few bright ideas for my arrival there, none of which I am going to use. I'll probably just arrive and have my nephew drop me off and pick me up quietly.

Still, for the next couple of months I'm going to have a little fun and post a few half-baked ideas for showing up at the reunion.

Fast-roping out of a helicopter into the parking lot, parachuting in. Landing an ultralight in the parking lot. The possibilities are endless.

Incidentally, the hot babe draped on my are isn't all that too far fetched. Mrs. Pic can look pretty damned hot for her age if I could get her to doll up.

While I don't think there would be daggers coming out of the eyes of my female classmates like there would be if I showed up with a hottie half my age, there sure would be looks of envy. She looks pretty damned good for her age. Real good.

Sometimes I think I ought to bring her. I can hear her telling someone that she met me as a wildman, which she did. I was a shaggy being, close to being a total savage when we met. 

She could tell people that she had to teach me to live in a house again and that in exchange I taught her to live on a sailboat.

I was at sea doing a sailboat delivery for reunion 20 and at sea fishing for reunion 10.

I think I was lucky to miss 10 and 20 because it seems to me that 10 would have been a bunch of boasting about new careers and new babies.

If I recall I had a couple of months notice for reunion 10. I was in Kodiak at the time and met a couple of French travelers. I sent my regrets by having the Corsican travelers send the letter to Corsica for reposting. My return address on the letter was a French Foriegn Legion barracks. The 2e REP (les paras) was and still is stationed there in Calvi.

At that particular time I had no interest in going. I figured then that it would be nothing but a brag fest. I suppose I hadn't mellowed out by reunion 10. 

Twenty would likely been a bunch of career bragging and I did get word that one buffoon dragged a twenty-ish year old girlfriend along and managed to outrage some of the women.

Forty-five seems like it ought to be a pretty good reunion to go to because by one's 60s things have settled down. The kids are up and raised and jobs and careers are winding down. Likely I'll have to listen to stories of grandchildren, though.

You're likely to hear about successes, but along with this you'll hear of failures and maybe get a better rounded story of people's lives.

I do know some of my classmates are retired and in a lot of instances I think that's a waste of talent. I won't get into that here except to say that they could be working in their fields and doing good by bringing their life's experiences into play.

Actually when you get down to it, I will likely be walking into a group of total strangers. None of us are even remotely close to being the people we are 45 years ago.

Oddly enough I can count four that I know of off the top of my head that became teachers. My guess is that none of them taught math or science but I may be wrong.I would also guess they are now drawing pensions.

I had best keep my mouth shut with them, though. I blame an awful lot of what's happening now in this country on people like that. Liberals that went into teaching have done a lot of damage to this country economically.

I most likely disagree with almost all of them in the areas of social programs, taxation, government intervention, gun control and big government in general. 

Oddly enough, though they would find me in agreement as somewhat of a social liberal in that I consider an awful lot of things to be none of government's business. Truth is I think both parties suck.

There are a small handful of people I really want to see. One of them is the kid that lived across the street when I was growing up. We were constant companions when we were little but about halfway through junior high we went different ways. This is actually only curiosity. 

There are a couple others, but really only a few.

Still, I'm going to have some fun with this until it happens. My fertile mind can conjure up some pretty off-the-wall scenarios for arrival. 

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY