High school reunions cool for most people

My wife and I are doing something this weekend I've never done myself.

We're going to her high school reunion outside Columbus, Ohio.

Sherri actually graduated from Bayshore High when her family moved to Bradenton after her sophomore year at Groveport-Madison High.

That's where she grew up and those bonds remain strong.

Me?

I graduated in 1967 from DePaul High in Wayne, N.J. , enjoyed my time there and dug my classmates.

But I haven't been back to any reunions.

Why not?

I choose to remember us as we were in those days of innocence.

Hanging out at the Milk Barn in Pompton Lakes, N.J., after football games, guys in their letterman's jackets, jeans and button down shirts and penny loafers; the girls in their sweaters, skirts and up-dos.

Drinking? That didn't happen until college, at least with my friends.

Dope? Nobody knew what that was then.

Maybe we were a tad naive, but they were good times.

Hitchhiking wherever we had to go.

Few of us had cars. I didn't.

Going down to the Jersey Shore was like a trip to California --- a journey that brought genuine excitement, because we didn't get to go that often in North Jersey where we lived.

Point Pleasant. Seaside Heights.

Those were the days.

I think of them whenever I hear certain tunes, especially something R&B.

They always trigger fond memories, which is the way I want to keep them.

We're forever young.