by Shelley Bennett
This week is that week smack dab in the middle of my summer. Far enough away from the last day of school that I don’t know what the date is and close enough to the first day that I am getting anxious about lesson plans. Truly the “dog days.”
The Miss Lassen County pageant is just eight days away and Sofia is busy with preparations. It has been a gift to be a pageant mom this summer. We have dress shopped, discussed interview questions, reminisced about our favorite pageant moments, and practiced walking.
And by we, I mean Sofia. She has done the hard work.
Thank you to director Jen Wood for giving this to me. We have shared conversations, laughs, and even some tears that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
I can’t wait for pageant night! There is some magic that happens when the contestants get onstage with the lights on them, their hair and makeup done to the nines, glammed out in their sparkling dresses and heels. Tickets are available at the fair office or on their website.
Fair week will be capped off with our 35-year high school reunion on Saturday, July 22nd.
Friendly reminder that it’s NOT TOO LATE to get tickets! (Jeremy, I’m talking to you) This Thursday, 7/13 is our deadline, you can follow this link to purchase tickets.
I know that reunions are not everyone. I am struggling to put my own complicated experiences and feeling into words. All I can say is that I love talking, laughing, and remembering with the cool people I went to school with. Our class is so diverse and has done so many interesting things, it’s impossible to know all of that by looking at their Facebook pages.
Even though I see my best friend Becky all the time, we have had some of the best conversations at our class reunions. Sometimes it’s a long-buried memory that comes out, or a secret revealed, or the fact that so many people get us confused. (I’m the brunette, she’s the blonde.) Granted, we were joined at the hip for our four years at LHS and her maiden name was Bennet while my married name is Bennett.
We totally understand the confusion, but we are still making a list.
This year means a little more to me. One day a couple weeks ago a classmate reached out to me and left a voicemail on Facebook messenger. He told me he thought he would be able to make it to reunion and hoped he would be out of his wheelchair and able to use a walker.
I was so excited to hear that Freddie would make one more trip to Susanville. I don’t remember when Freddie Franco joined the class of 1988, he blended in that seamlessly. I do remember how he would dress up for every spirit day. I remember the purple and gold tie he wore and watching him perform with the band.
I remember going on CSF trips with him and how seriously he took his job as manager of the football and basketball teams. I remember how devoted his parents were, they could be seen at all the games and school events.
His mom was our cheerleading coach and Becky and I nicknamed her “Aunt Mary” while we were at camp during the summer.
I remember when he was crowned Prom King with our classmate Melinda. With laughter through tears, I remember a comic he left in my yearbook. I pulled it out and saw he had written “Something to remember me by! Fast Freddie” in the margin. (I’ll never forget, my friend.)
A few days after he left the message, my friend and classmate Freddie Franco passed away.
This year’s reunion seems more important. A time to remember our dear friend and a time to make memories with the ones who attend. I have been reminded too many times in the last week that life is short. This is the way I know how to refute that claim.
Remember when news was ‘newsy’? When you read about weddings, family events and engagement announcements in the newspaper? If you have something that might be newsworthy, please submit it to [email protected] and I’ll do my best to include it here in “The Good Stuff.”
