I was trying to go to a religious high school reunion

However, I became ill primarily because: "My religion was the best and the very worst thing that happened to me in my life".

So, when it came time to go to the first reunion I was to attend since I graduated in 1966 I got sick instead of going.

First of all, because I'm presently 75 it likely would have been the first and only reunion I would ever go to.

And I didn't really want to thank the religion for harming me and my life.

Instead I wanted to share how much going to a private school saved me from dropping out of high school. 

Because I had started dating a girl 21 when I was 16 I found that I was growing up too fast and didn't want to go to high school anymore because I thought it was stupid. But, my parents being older and wiser than I at that age got me to go to a church private school in Santa Fe, New Mexico so I went there for my senior year in high school instead of just dropping out of high school which is where I was headed at the time.

But, going to a private school I was the biggest and oldest person there. People looked up to me as as senior and as a leader. I liked this a lot because I didn't have to argue with people or to fight them to survive like sometimes I had to in public school. I prospered there and realized that I was college material because I wasn't so preoccupied with physical survival every day at school.

In fact, the worst thing that happened to me while there was a baby sitting job where I was supposed to baby sit to 12 year old boys. At one point or another they told me that these boys had tied up the last girl who baby sat them and put her in the closet until the parents returned.

I didn't think to much of this at the time after what I had experienced in High school and grade school being public schools myself. I figured I could handle whatever two 12 year olds were going to dish out to me.

So, the first thing they did when the parents left was to pull off the main electrical breaker to the house so we were totally in the dark. Then they came up to me and started kicking and hitting me like two crazy 12 year old boys. I got them both by the back of the neck and told them if they kept this up I would kill them (which is what you did back then to stop bullshit from happening in 1965). I grabbed the both of them by the back of the neck and pushed their faces into the carpet while I told them this. I told them to turn back on the main breaker.

Actually, they never bothered me again after this. I'm not sure why they were that way but they actually liked me like this because they knew I was no pussy (which is what people would have said then).

So, we enjoyed watching my favorite program on TV together which was starring robert Culp which was "I Spy" and happened to be on the night I baby sitted these two 12 year old boys. Somehow they needed to know I could protect them from others as well as themselves. I meant them no harm at all and once they figured this out they were fine with me and we became fast friends.

But, the main point I'm trying to make here is I wasn't going to this reunion because of the religion. I was going to thank everyone at the school that they had helped me become college material and completely changed my life in a new and wonderful direction that allowed me to have the really great life I have had ever since. No one's life is perfect but I have had a lot of happiness in my life because I chose to go to this school and then to college. My life view broadened immensely and I became a world traveler which is an amazing thing to be.

By God's Grace 

IN 1965 I lived in Glendale California and traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico which I believe took about 18 hours on the El Capitan train. At this point in my life I don't think I had ever flown on a passenger jet even though I had piloted at least 2 small aircraft or more by this time. I just realized more because I remember flying a glider at El Mirage Aiport in the desert then. I was in a two passenger glider. So, I and an instructor flew together in the glider. They let me pull the red nob that releasing you from the plane pulling you aloft. My first passenger jet flight was in 1966 at Christmas with friends to a religious conference in Chicago then. Then we flew back by way of Denver. My friend rented a car and didn't know how to drive in snow so when he exited the freeway he was going too fast for snow without chains so we went through a guardrail but we were okay and the car was mostly okay too. We slowed down after that. So, I was 18 before i ever had a reason to fly on a passenger jet. They were only starting to use them in 1957 so they hadn't been around that long yet.