Wednesday, June 09, 2010

June 9, 1972

The day of my graduation from High School. We were the 100th class to graduate and the first time in 100 years it rained. No class before ours had ever had to graduate in the auditorium of a (rival) Junior High school. A few years later, our High School was closed and remaining students merged with the rival High School. Glad I was long gone by then. Imagine having to call your hated rival high school your own?

After all these years, I'm not bitter! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Tipper & Al Call it Quits

I am in shock. 40 years of marriage and kaboom, just like that, it's over? This was a solid together couple if ever there was one, real role models, so-to-speak. I mean, if it can happen to THEM it can happen to ANYONE now.

"They" say there was no infidelity, but time and the National Enquirer will tell. Was it that pesky "empty-nest" syndrome? Suddenly, one day the kids are gone and one of them turns to the other and says "Who the HELL are you?" Or worse "Who the HELL am I?" Parenthood is a powerful identity (personally, I wouldn't know) and when your kids are grown and gone, you have to find a new reason to get up and face each other every morning. They weathered so much: Al's deployment to Viet Nam, raising a family of 4, almost losing one of those children in a car accident, a Vice Presidency, a Presidential campaign, and then a Nobel Peace Prize. Still, the experts claim that if couples don't evolve together over the years, opposites no longer attract and opposites become just . . . opposites. To me, this translates simply as "You're no longer a priority in my life."

It's not uncommon I guess. They did "beat the odds" by staying together as long as they did. But still, it's depressing. It's almost like there's no point in getting married at all anymore.

Thank goodness, Bill & Hill are still together!