Thank you, Ray.  It’s good to see you.  And it is good to see all of you, as well, after a fifty year road trip, on a night when some great conversation and communication are about to take place.  But before we go on, please power down your laptops, tablets, IPads, IPods, IPhones, Kindles, and Androids so that we don’t have any interruptions from blogging, emailing, texting, tweeting, or streaming

Has the way we communicate changed, or what?...arguably, everything has changed since we graduated…well…some things don’t change.  If you put your T-shirts and socks in the dryer, they always come out inside out…but most ways we communicate have changed in a giant way…like tonight…we all wear name tags…because we have changed…I’ll admit that I didn’t recognize many of you and most of you needed to read my name tag to find out who I am…but there is a reason for my not being recognizable…let me tell you a story…

…a few years ago an intruder broke into our house well after midnight…he stealthily ascended the stairs to the second floor, then quietly headed down the hallway toward the master bedroom…my wife, a light sleeper, sensed someone entering the room and sat upright …but he didn’t go to her…he immediately lurched my way…then, in full view of my wife and in an instant, he attacked me, tearing away my youthful, slim, and chiseled body and replacing it with the cartoonish torso you see before you tonight!…true story…this is not my real body…I used to be lanky!…

…On a more honest note, I did try to observe something as we all arrived tonight…I wanted to see how you communicated your greetings with one another when you met…there were handshakes, some pats on the shoulder…but the way we greet is different than how the younger generation does it…they have morphed from handshakes to high fives to hand slapping to chest bumps to fist bumps to hugging that is completely out of control…

 BTW, for you trivia fans, the “high five” was reportedly first publicly expressed between two University of Louisville basketball players during a televised game in 1978, fully 15 years after we graduated…

 The way we communicate?...T-shirts…Mickey and Minnie are still around, but so are t-shirts that inform and amuse, like “Be yourself, everyone else is taken”…and “I’d give my right arm to be ambidextrous”…

 But communications took a huge turn with the development of the cellular telephone…Chicago was a test city for cell phones in 1985…my first phone weighed almost 30 pounds…the battery itself weighed 22 pounds…it was a leather-bound briefcase phone…you released the two side clasps and half the briefcase opened…out popped the antenna, allowing me to reach in to the coiled corded handset…$2,500 and 45 cents a minute…

 …then we had the arrival of the most pervasive way in which communications have changed us…the internet…my oh my…talk about disruptive technology…the English language exploded…audience participation…anyone know how many words there are in the English language?...according to the Global Language Monitor, the English language reached 1 million words in June of 2009…the English language increases on an average of just under 15 words every day…and our language has grown by over 300,000 words since the 60’s…

 … chat rooms, instant messaging, America Online, dating sites… for purposes of full disclosure, I met my chronically beautiful wife Cate on AOL…and who performed the wedding ceremony?...our own Pastor Greg Dell, who is with us tonight…thank you Pastor Greg….it’ll be 15 years this December… 

….the internet and the years since graduation also gave rise to the greatest gift that folks of our age could ever have received…the gift of clichés and quotes…in fact, we are swarmed with them…well…24/7…

…emailing and texting have given us acronyms like LOL (laughing out loud), TMI (too much information), and BFF (best friends forever)…they have also given us the most important acronym you may ever know…

 …831…audience participation…anyone know what that stands for?...it means “I love you”…8 letters, 3 words, one meaning…please guys, no groaning … 831…remember it…this is something you CAN attempt at home…it could be a game changer… 

We have learned new terms like the Mullet hair style, which someone perfectly described as “business in front, party in the back”, chick flick, couch potato, flash mob, mega church, staycation, and the perfect storm…

 And we have quotes from everywhere that I am sure most of you have either heard or used yourselves:

…”been there, done that”…”but wait-there’s more!”... “I’ll be back”…”just sayin’”...”it could happen!”...”dude”…Audience participation…you can help me finish these quotes: ”I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!”...”It’s so easy a caveman can do it”…”make him an offer he can’t refuse”…”Who you gonna call?...Ghostbusters”…excellent, thank you…

Now…I’m not suggesting that you have ever had a disagreement with your spouse, significant other, or a family member…we know that doesn’t happen…but, for the sake of discussion, let us say you’ve had a minor dispute…have you ever used or heard these terms:…”Houston, we have a problem!”…”Is that your final answer?”…”Hello-oh!”…”That’s my story and I’m sticking to it”…”Duh!”…”Don’t make me put my cell phone down!”…or the big one, “Don’t go there, don’t EVEN go there!”…any sound familiar?...cliches and quotes, what a gift…

Lastly…Let me communicate a final thought to you before you begin your own communication at your tables tonight:

 There are those who say the Class of ’63 is “over the hill”, that we are beyond our “use by” date…I respectfully, but very vocally disagree.  We still rise.  Each one of us was blessed with individual gifts and talents at birth, to which we have added education, experience, and the wisdom of the years that we still share on a daily basis, whether we recognize it or not.  We still rise.

 If you have ever knelt down to teach a child how to tie her shoelaces, you still rise.

 If you have ever taken a long walk with an ailing friend just to listen, you still rise. 

If you have ever cared for someone afflicted by disease or accident or simply being older, you still rise.

 If you have ever stood and saluted or covered your heart with your hand as the American flag passes by or the National Anthem is sung, you still rise.

If you have ever volunteered your personal time to help support a worthy cause, you still rise.

If you have ever freely given of your expertise to someone you know can’t afford to pay, you still rise.

 If you have ever attended, your high school’s, 50^th year reunion, you not only still rise, you rock!

 8-3-1, Class of ’63…it’s not just good to see you, it’s good to be seen with you…rock on!

September 21, 2013
At Bartolini's Restaurant
Midlothian, Illinois