Ogden High School Class of 1968

Perhaps, If We Measure Our Lives in Decades…



My classmates and I have reached another huge milestone:

Those of us who are still here are marking our 60th birthdays!

Wasn’t it yesterday when Kennedy and Khrushchev ruled?

Many World War II vets are leading useful lives into their 90’s,

Yet here we are, entering our 7th decade on Planet Earth en masse.

(What you talkin’ about, Willis? What happened to the first 6?)



Most of us react to “Grandma!” or “Grandpa!” as instinctively

As we used to respond when we heard a child’s voice cry out

“Mommy!” or “Daddy!” in a crowded public place, like Lagoon.

Too many of us have become orphans too soon, as well. Yet,

It is true; some of us are young at heart despite our pacemakers.

In fact, a fearless few are leaping out of wholly intact airplanes



Just to prove something to themselves (and/or the rest of us?).

A fortunate few have already retired, and it wasn’t considered

An early exit on anyone’s part, either! Oh, well; at least the

OHS Class of 1968’s 50th Reunion is almost a decade away.

We have enough time to prove how “functional” we really are,

To give our descendents long-term reasons to hang onto us.



Perhaps, if we measure our lives in decades, the present one or

The ones before or after this brief 10-year stretch will balance

Each other out somehow. Perhaps, when somebody else calculates

The value and meaning of our entire generation’s impact on society

At some future time, from wherever this world may be at that point,

Then our personal contributions will fall into their proper place.



How will you and I be assessed when we hit our 9th or 10th span?

What will we have to show that might justify our reason for being?

Isn’t it enough to identify with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, or

How carefree life was when Roy and Dale rode along happy trails

On Trigger and Buttermilk? Mercy, where have all the flowers gone

By now? Into Cyberspace? Maybe into shared memory banks.



© 2010 Marney Hilton Zambrano