"We Grew Up In Moraga" - Where Every Day Is a Reunion

The inquiries come by email or phone and usually start out the same way: "You probably don't remember me, but we went to high school together..."

It can be a little daunting, your past coming back in an instant, good memories and bad as the face behind the phone call swirls into mental view, followed quickly by the "Dammit, John (...or Mary, or Mike, Sue or Steve) it's great to hear from you."

And it is. The people who played such an active role in your life so many years ago reaching out to touch it again, heads of families now or their own companies, retired and living in Europe or back in Moraga again and raising families - their kids playing on the same trails we walked on or swimming in the same creeks we swam in as kids.

Many have kept in touch through this site and another, "I Grew Up In Moraga," which has brought a number of people who spent their formative years together again.

Old photos of much leaner kids in frayed bell bottoms and love beads, air-injected hair and muddy football uniforms fill the pages and dribble in with terse inquiries from people who signed our yearbooks.

"Remember the Turkey Bowl game where Dave knocked his tooth out and ruined his mom's Thanksgiving?"

"Remember when so and so ran his trail bike up the stairs and through the halls at Campo?"

And the inevitable: "Whatever happened to...?" The answers sometimes bright with hope or even hilarity, sometimes marked by a tragedy or tale of a life that failed to live up to its early promise. And then there was Vietnam, Watergate, a lunar landing.

It's a trip down memory lane we take as we reach a "certain age," I'm told. I've never been much into the reunion thing, preferring to concentrate on what's ahead of me than what's in my past, but I'll admit to the deep, warming feeling of comraderie that comes from a recounting of experiences shared so long ago - the memories almost universally good.

So, keep the calls and letters coming. You're a great bunch of people and it was nice to have shared the earlier stages of life with you.

J.D. O'Connor
Campolindo/Class of '72