Newspaper Obituaries, the Score Card of Life

That bully from grade school, ex-spouses, those popular kids from high school. When I retrieve the newspaper from my front stoop, the obituaries are the first place I turn. The older we get, the ability to say, "Ha, I out lasted another one" is a prize to be held high. Not in a nasty way, the meaningless issues of your youth go by the wayside early in adult life. No longer bearing a grudge, it's merely a milestone, just another meaningless way signify your still sucking in air.

High school in a city with a population of 100,000 was a huge collection of kids from surrounding school districts. Our group of proud graduates encompassed enough eager youths that many had not made my acquaintance during the entire 12 years of schooling just completed.

Much sooner then I ever imagined my 40th anniversary of walking across the stage to collect my diploma is scheduled to take place in 2008. A class of well over 500 placed me somewhere near the middle in academic accomplishments. By any standard mediocre at best. To that end, I had a small number of close friends, a moderate collection of acquaintances, and a huge quantity of class mates who if asked, would say they never heard of me. Of course you can add a handful that would be classified as memories I'd rather erase from my mind as well.

I'm sure most people will admit to a similar collection of class mates, as it's doubtful that I'm unique in any way. Upon walking across that important stage, a stepping off point in life, I promptly walked out of the auditorium and into a job that took me out of state for the summer and on into the military for the next 4 years. End result, I never again ran into any of my class mates.

So where do I go to find out what has happened to them, the obituaries. May sound a little harsh, but it seems the only time their lives become public information is when it's over.