Facebook has been around for a long time. I remember signing up for this social website when it was first came on the scene as “the college app.” New toys always fascinate me , but lately, this website has grown to something much more than college students. In fact, Facebook is the reunion website for everyone.
For the past several days, several friends have stated, “I’ve connected with so many people on Facebook.”
Seems alot of people are discovering this website now and what they’re finding is that you can reconnect with plenty of high school buds. In many ways, Facebook has become the new Classmates website ( another popular social site geared toward reunions and school alumni.)
Everything used to revolve around Myspace.
The press turned that brand into a predator website a couple of years ago and in many ways, MySpace is so passe.’ You might say this popular social media website owned by Rupert Murdock is the domain of teens and musicians.
For me, it was the deluge of spam, porn and the slow download times that left me bored with this website. Not to mention my disdain for the way people would clutter their sites with cheezy graphics and silly photos. Whoever thought it would be cool to let people design their own websites never considered the visual anarchy this philosophy might bring about.
Over the past couple of years, my Facebook account has been simmering right a long with a friend here and there, but recently, it’s like everyone’s coming out of the woods and I’ve never felt more old.
A couple of weeks ago, I accepted Rick Hill’s friend invitation. Rick was the only person with a camera back in the late seventies and he’s started uploading pictures that I didn’t know existed. In a way, I’m thrilled to see these moments that I didn’t even know were recorded, but dang those pictures have aged. The old color photos are yellow now and it seems like so long ago and again – it seems like only yesterday.
Rick posted several photographs from our years in the Sullivan Central band, performances at high school musicals and other bus trips. It was a trip in time too as I looked across all of those young faces and careless times.
One of my favorites is the Central High School Jazz Band performing a musical in the high school theatre. It was 1979, we had on powder blue tuxedos and my friends Derek Helvey was playing guitar, Bobby Smith on drums and Jim Thweatt on bass under the direction of Bill Canny. We had a thrill playing those musicals and they are some of the fondest memories of my musical life.
It’s interesting to look back on these times and realize it still seems like yesterday (guess that dates me now), but what’s more intriguing is sharing photos and experiences with these old school mates and seeing how they’ve changed and more important where they are now.
Andrea Spears and Lynn Canny Houser never looked more beautiful in their current photos and I have to smile when I see their kids, their critters, their celebrations and all the new episodes that make up their life.
There’s a lot more to do n Facebook than keep up with old friends and some people like to play games. It’s not one of my favorite things to do, but there’s a lot of talk about Mafia Wars lately and although it sounds interesting, I’ve got enough on my plate already.
It’s hard to know where this jacked-in age of social voyeurism will take us. Everyday, I’m amazed all the excitement as everyone shares a part of their life on Facebook. Working late over the past several weeks, it’s a thrill to get a pop-up chat message from someone who I haven’t talked to in years.
For now though, I’m thinking about digging through my photo archives because it’s great to know there are some images of my life out there that have been recorded by my friends who publish their photos and I look forward to sharing as many as I can locate.
For now, I’m reliving my youth with friends all over the country and glad to know they’re still soaking up life like we did back in high school.
If you’re looking for a reunion from your desktop, sign up to Facebook and get started on this technical yet soulful journey. You never know what you might rekindle or re-ignite.
Here’ s a few more pics from that collection.