ICEBREAKER SHOCKERS

If you don’t know already, an ‘Icebreaker’ is an informal get together before a more formal event, usually a cocktail party of some sort, like a preliminary first event.

50 years is a long time, and in those many years we all change, some for the better and some not so. But looking at the positive side of things is always positive. Redundancy is my forte.

A  gathering of classmates from our high school graduating class, some meeting for the first time in 50 years, was rather an interesting time for me, seeing people in a almost semi-focused view, not sure if it is them or not, you cautiously approach them and ask timidly if they are who they should be. Most of the time I got it right!

George, Mario and Ken, with some drunk who drifted by!

Seeing someone for that first time leaves you with a strange going on in the eye of your mind. First you get over the shock, then the reality sets in that it IS the person and the questions flow, then the memories, and then the good byes, as you drift off to the next semi-stranger.

Being in a large crowded room, packed with tables and chairs, moving about and saying hello to old friends while holding your drink gets to be fun, almost a sport.

My old buddy Ken, never changed

Some people become caricatures of themselves, sporting new accents and behaviors your don’t remember them having, and then you realize it is a product of 50 years of living, 50 years of growing and 50 years of being away from influences that once affected their lives.

Some of us are still in the old neighborhood so to speak, sounding and looking the same, not changing at all, and those are my kind of people because I always knew them. The newer version of people I saw at the icebreaker took me by surprise and I needed to get re-acquainted and used to, which is like finding new friends. (Everything old is new again!)