toledoblade.com --

The monthly high school class meetings have moved into a new chapter in life, one that we have come to accept just as we did when we were beginning another school year in September and studying toward graduation.

Let's just say the chairmen never leave home without a supply of sympathy cards. We have been meeting each month for the last 10 years and have always been faithful about sending greeting cards. In the last two years more sympathy than get-well cards have been required.

Those in our age group still believe in cards with an appropriate verse, a pretty picture, and a complete address, and we send them ASAP.

We don't disagree that e-mail is easier and faster, but we question if it is as sincere as a handwritten card signed by everyone.

In the first place, many class members do not own a computer. That may be hard to believe when you can get information from travel to denture cream online. It's probably difficult for computer geeks to believe that people without computers can survive in the technical world we live in, but they seem to do very well and perhaps have less stress than seniors who do tackle the keyboard.

Our meetings are pretty cut and dried. We gather in a restaurant, order the cheapest foods from the menu, complain about the service and the lukewarm soup, and converse with the classmates who are seated closest. Our method of networking is to try to sit by other people the next month for a good balance in conversation. It's not like high school with cliques that weren't cordial to newcomers moving into their intimate circle. We genuinely enjoy everyone's company and can always find something to visit about. That's why we attend.

We decided early on not to have a program and certainly not gamble on a speaker. We like to be entertained but are not in the market for anything boring and educational. Been there, done that, as they say. The only thing on our business agenda is to decide where to meet the next month.

Occasionally a member reads a humorous poem about aging and the inevitable.

It's the inevitable that is increasing the need for more sympathy cards to our meetings.

Yesterday classmates gathered at Oakwood Cemetery in Adrian for a memorial service. The original plan was to attend a service for a classmate's husband, but much to our dismay, our classmate also died unexpectedly, making yesterday's service a double observance for husband and wife. Last month the class was well-represented at a local funeral home. As the number of deaths rose, it was voted to reduce the amount of our contributions given to the Adrian High School Foundation in memory of members for fear our meager bank account would be depleted. As children of the Great Depression we believe in saving.

That's another wrinkle in this getting older and dying chapter. Our treasury was established to pay for a dance band for a big weekend reunion, not for memorials, cards, and postage. But no one is complaining. We knew it would come to this. We just never thought it would be so soon.

Mary Alice Powell is a retired Blade food editor.

Contact her at: mpowell@theblade.com.

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