My Nostalgic 40-Year Reunion at Montana’s C.M. Russel High School

It's time once again for another edition of "What I did on my summer vacation." This time it was my forty-year class reunion. C.M Russell High Schools' Class of 1981 got together.

Graduating classes were quite a bit bigger back in those days. We had 519 kids graduate on May 31st, 1981. That's not counting classmates who didn't have enough credits to walk across the stage and get your picture taken with the principal and wouldn't get their diplomas until all of the work in summer school was completed.

I didn't get my actual diploma until months later due to the fact that somebody in charge didn't order enough of them for everybody to get one. So, if your last name started with a T, U, V, W, Y or Z, you didn't get your paperwork until later that summer.

In addition to scheduling several get-togethers for our group, one of the other options was to take a tour of the high school itself, which I did. I had not been in the school since the twenty-year reunion, and that year they didn't have the theatre open. I was a theatre kid while in my high school years and had plenty of great memories in that building.

I remember auditioning for "Christmas Carol." There was some singing involved for the lead characters. I sang "Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys." They heard me sing and instantly made me a dancer. The only good role that I would get in my illustrious acting career would be when I played Helen Keller's brother in "Miracle Worker."

Only a handful of the "drama geeks" attended the reunion, but it sure was good to hear some of the stories that I had forgotten about from them.

Now, only ten more years until our fiftieth.