Clyde Moore: WPHS alumni get together

My lack of desire to attend any of my own high school class reunions was not lost on me as I anxiously awaited the Winter Park High School “Get Together” planned for Hannibal Square last Friday evening.

I think some of it was surely the enthusiasm I saw from the growing list of attendees on Facebook. They were reliving best high school memories while encouraging others to attend, high school reunions and social media now as perfectly matched as the head cheerleader and the star quarterback. It’s a natural.

But, too, at some point in life, you begin to realize just how quickly life has been speeding by, you hear yourself saying things to younger people that sound an awful lot like things once said to you. That acknowledgement makes such gatherings that much sweeter. The desire to enjoy times passed via common experience grows.

Bruce Corn, the event’s initiator, was already among my friends on Facebook. He envisioned a small get together at Dexter’s, but the enthusiasm it met led to ever increasing numbers of planned attendees, required more and more coordination with not just Dexter’s, but other businesses on the Square, and with the city. The small get together grew and grew, until it became a street party.

I talked to Bruce on Friday night as he estimated a total crowd of 400 attendees. Posts on Facebook in following days, including “Bruce Corn for President,” were as common as the positive, appreciative comments I heard toward him that evening.

“It’s just something I organized a few months ago to keep the community together. Winter Park High School is a great school,” he said. “Great people. We’ve got a bunch of outstanding members of the community, and I really wanted to do it to keep in touch, network, really make a difference in the community.” A nonprofit focused on Winter Park High School graduates, but open to all, has now been established to do positive things in the community, he said, adding, “Big high school. Big aspirations. We want to give back.”

“The whole reason I put it together, I happen to enjoy watching other people connect. If you look at their faces when they see someone they haven’t seen in 20 years, they’re looking at their nametag, and they’re hugging each other. It’s really cool seeing people connect again,” he said.

I asked what his fondest memory of high school was and he responded, “I’m in business and whenever I have challenges in my life, whether personal or business, I always remember my wrestling coach – his name is Johnny Rouse – saying, ‘no pain, no gain, you pass out before you die.’ Whenever I’ve thought about quitting anything, I hear him saying ‘no pain, no gain, you pass out before you die.’”

Walking among attendees it was not uncommon to see hugs, cell phones lighting up as the skies darkened and photos or contact information being shared. There was laughing — lots of it. I heard stories about “Burst girls and Battaglia boys,” which were lost on me, but no doubt a wonderful memory for sisters Kim and Laura Burst who shared it. I heard about Julie Fisher’s brother and sister-in-law, the first married couple to both travel into space in the ’80s.

Willy McCullen quickly introduced me to his friend Cactus Jack (aka Jim Stanley) who now travels the southeast with a new band, Cactus Jack & The Cadillacs, but was a founding member of The SOMF City Band (‘Sons of Maitland Florida’) in the early ’70s. “His band played for us in high school all the time,” Willy said. Cactus Jack proceeds to tell me about his love of ’60s and ’70s rock music, “I mean I’m talking about the music from the middle ’60s to the end of the ’70s. I’m talking about the classic rock, the real music.” I mention The SOMF City Band to others to test their popularity and everyone knew them and had a story, another catalyst of transport back to that time and place casually referred to as high school.

Shortly before I left, I noticed a woman, Marjie Ertler Adcock, attempting to hang a banner on a signpost on the sidewalk. The attempt was falling short, but she only withdrew to regroup to try anew. I asked her if she needed any help, but she assured me she was good. She tells me it’s the “Hall of Fame” banner she received for being an All-American on the WPHS swim team. She went on to the University of Florida and was to compete in the Olympics in Moscow, but the U.S. boycott prevented it. She speaks of classmates writing, “Good luck in the Olympics” in her yearbook.

I left wondering a bit more about what my own classmates have been up to over the years.

Local Luv'n Local

Town’s Garden Center on Lake Howell Road carries a large assortment of succulents from Florida Cactus in Apopka, in addition to the other varieties of flora and fauna, which can thrive in your local garden. Visit www.townsgardencenter.com and/or www.floridacactus.com or call 407-733-8383.

Clyde Moore operates local sites ILUVWinterPark.com, ILUVParkAve.com and LUVMyRate.com, and aims to help local businesses promote themselves for free and help save them money, having some fun along the way. Email him at [email protected] or write to ILuv Winter Park on Facebook or Twitter.