Bloom where you are planted

I suspect that the yoke falling on my shoulders is my classmate's getting even for electing me class president long ago. Two weeks after graduation I joined the Air Force and with my family spent the next 25 years living all over the USofA. During that time I was all too happy to return to class reunions organized by graduates who remained in the area. Now it is payback time and I have the "honor" of putting the reunion activity together.

Over the years I've observed that class reunions are much better attended by those who have chosen to immigrate than by the ones living locally. That fact has always puzzled me somewhat because I have always been overjoyed to return and see those who stayed. Now I'm equally happy to welcome back those whom we haven't seen in years.

This week I asked the question of an attractive, much younger (than me), bookkeeper in one of the local businesses that I frequent. "Ashley (not her real name), are you looking forward to some of the events taking place at the 4th of July All School Reunion?" She gave a quixotic smile and replied "probably not." "But Ashley, there will be a lot of your classmates coming from out of town and they want to see you!" I answered. Her response stabbed me in the heart "They didn't care to see me when I was in school! Why would they want to see me now?"

Now understand that I first met this same young lady in a continuing education class at MCC. We were taking a night school course on real estate -- not to attain a real estate license but to gain more understanding as to how real estate market works in an effort to be better at our day jobs. She is svelte, married to a local successful business man and who in the world would not want to see her again to enjoy her company?

It is the local people, the graduates who stayed right here where they were planted that make our community the dynamic economic engine that it is today. For instance, I look at my own high school class graduating in 1955 for example. Who has the reputation for best taking care of his employees while running a successful implement business in the McCook area? Who took over a failing livestock exchange and made it the leading sales barn in the area? Who was behind the efforts to build the "new" modern YMCA building, the original Senior Center, and the Kiplinger Arena that draws so much activity to this area? Well it is none other than Don Klein, but one could never get him to admit it.

Another example is the our classmate who successfully ran area-renowned DeGroff's Department Store until modern taste and easy transportation made that type of retail outlet unfeasible. Spotting a niche market John T Harris Jr. and his brothers developed a nationwide chain of ladies specialty apparel stores. J.T. has since "retired" to Lincoln but still keeps his finger on what happens in McCook.

I think of Kenny Spencer a native local farmer for whom I worked summers while I was in high school. Kenny kept the farm but also acquired the local John Deere dealership and parlayed Southwest Implement into one of the leading implement dealers in the whole country. How about the Hagen brothers who operate a nationwide flatbed trucking firm right from the center of the USA, in Culbertson, Nebraska?

Who would want to miss the pleasures of a relaxed cup of coffee or an evening of musical entertainment at, stay at home, Matt Sehnert's Bieroc "on the Bricks"? Every McCook grad has a story and reunions are a chance to share those experiences!

In another time Ann and I had returned to McCook for a visit with family and friends. At the time we were living on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, courtesy of Uncle Sam. Over dinner with a local couple who had stayed in McCook, we were talking about our experiences living in the alien culture that was the East Coast when suddenly the wife exploded with a "We are tired of hearing you talk of all the places that you've seen and all we do is stay in McCook, Nebraska." Oops, we thought we were sharing experiences of interest, she thought we were bragging. And yes that same lady eventually divorced her husband and moved on to Wyoming. Sad.

So come on, all you local people who have prospered and done well in life. You have built a legacy of which to be proud! Come to your class's scheduled events and enjoy visiting with those classmates who went out into they world to seek their fortunes. Truth be known, they probably secretly envy you who have chosen to bloom where you were planted. You have built a legacy, the community that we see today, of which we all can show great pride.

That is the way I saw it.