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| YOUR TOWN: Caroline | Culpeper | King George | Fredericksburg | Orange | Spotsylvania | Stafford | Westmoreland | |
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Annual gatherings just weren't enough for Stafford graduates
Traditional reunions weren't enough for this group from Stafford High School, who decided to have monthly luncheons
Date published: 5/14/2008
By CATHY DYSON Sitting around the table with others her age reminded Shirley Thomson of Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone talked at the same time and there were half a dozen conversations going on. They know each other so well that those on one side of the table could finish the sentences of those on the other. "It's so nice because we all blend, we all mesh," said Thomson. Actually, in this circle, she's known as Shirley Garnett Thomson. All the ladies who meet monthly for lunch use their maiden names, both for old times' sake and so newcomers will recognize them. The women are members of Stafford High School's Class of 1961. With their male classmates, the group held traditional reunions 10, 20 and 40 years after graduation, then decided they wanted to meet more often. So the class members, who are in their mid-60s, started an annual picnic in 2000. Each June, 50 to 80 graduates--of the 188 who got diplomas--attend the informal gathering, said Beckie Birt Resio, the class historian. (This year's picnic is at 4 p.m. June 28, at the Knights of Pythias pavilion in Spotsylvania County.) After the yearly picnics got going, a few women met for dinner last year when a classmate visited from out of town. Several commented that it would be fun to see each other more often, and the next thing they knew, Clara Limerick Patton was sending out e-mails about where the group was meeting each month for lunch. Not everyone who goes to the picnic attends the monthly lunches or the bigger reunions every five years. "But every year, we get to see somebody we haven't seen in a while," Resio said. When organizers invite classmates to a function, they tend to hear the same reasons people don't want to attend. They're too fat or too gray, suddenly single or not interested in being part of the same cliques they spent time with in high school. "It's sad, because that's not what it's like," Resio said. "We've just become friends, new friends." New friends who have shared the same past and the same geography for decades.
Date published: 5/14/2008
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