For the 50th Reunion
October 28, 2010
Dear Fellow Tigers,
Many times I’ll be setting around on my Veranda in the evening enjoying life and thinking how good things are and invariably my mind wanders back to what I consider a better time…. My days growing up in Little Rock…I think about many aspects of life then and the people associated with my youth and the experiences we enjoyed together. For some reason these thoughts always make me feel good. You see, to me it was a time of innocence and people seem to possess more goodness in their hearts. Yeah, we had our spats and played our pranks but these were just things that kids had to do, and I don’t really remember any true malice in our intentions. Maybe it’s just the way I remember things, but those memories have grown very dear to me and I value them greatly.
Many things have happened socially, culturally and politically since that time. We’ve seen our friends die in wars, riots in our streets, assassinations of our leaders, evidence of corporate greed, the growth of political corruption and general mayhem around the world. We’ve also seen many improvements in our world. Medical science has conquered many diseases and provided better treatment options for others. Scientific discovery has given us tools to make our lives better in many ways. Our transportation and communications capabilities have progressed exponentially and I can’t imagine what we would do without our computers and the Internet.
Yes, we’ve seen great change in the world during our lifetimes and gained much knowledge from our experiences. Certainly we’ve all grown wiser, more worldly and maybe even a little cynical over these last five decades since leaving Little Rock Central High.
I regret that time and experience seems to have taken away our innocence and robbed people of that goodness-of-heart I remember from back then. But, the one thing it has not taken is the memories, they seem to grow more important everyday. For that I thank you…you’re the ones that gave them to me!
-Fred Stansberry
St. Petersburg, FL
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