The Reunion
Coming of Age in the Age of Aquarius
The Reunion Coming of Age in the Age of Aquarius
Robin Williams joked that if you remember the Sixties, you weren't there. He was wrong.Nick Taylor remembers Coming of Age in the Age of Aquarius. But then, he remembers everything that ever happened. He cannot forget anything. He is a freak. For Nick, time may pass, but there is no past. Everything that ever happened, just happened. This perfect memory has got him in trouble now and again with people who wonder he knows so much about them. Nick attends the 50th reunion of the Class of 1969 - last to graduate in the Sixties. What does Nick think, what does he say and what do he and his classmates remember? Will he let that freak flag fly?At any reunion, there is a lot to discuss. For those who graduated in the late Sixties and early Seventies, there is Summer of Love ? Woodstock ? Kent State ? The Mobe ? and of course, now.But there is a lot more to remember ? like songs so incomprehensible - there was no Google to tell you the words - you made up words to sing along ? like cadging cases of watery 3.2 beer ? like big crushes and first dates ? like pulling gauchos and doing other things that seemed like a good idea at the time.Every person Nick sees triggers thoughts and memories. So does who he does NOT see, not at first. THAT girl. Everyone had a "that" girl or "that guy."That raises the question everyone faces about their reunion. Should I go? Is Nick happy that he decided to attend?Maybe because classmates are people we grew up with, we have a shared bond with them. Some of them anyway. Some people go to reunions to show they are the same. Others to show they are anything but the same. Others will never go. Some wounds never heal.Everybody thinks they know what happened in the Sixties ? it was all sex, drugs and protests ? and they're just as wrong as Robin Williams. Because there was life to live.