"Thoughts"..................... by Harvery C. Jewett, IV

A bit of time has passed since the CHS Class of ’66 had its' 50th reunion and I find myself still thinking about it. I find myself re-energized and reinforced in the pride I have in Aberdeen and the precious friends I have here, particularly the “old friends” from high school. This past summer, I attended two 50 year reunions. In many ways those reunions were very different but, with the passage of a little time, I think very much the same. I have always greatly appreciated the invitations to the Aberdeen CHS Class of ’66 reunions. As you may know, while I was born and raised in Aberdeen, I did not attend Central but attended an all men’s Jesuit boarding school that my father, his father and brother had attended. I was away at boarding school from just after 8th grade at Monroe until graduation in ’66.

It was a very different place with classes six days a week in a very competitive academic environment with students from Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, and Spain, as well as about half the States. We all knew that we would graduate, go our separate ways and see very little of each other in the future. That has all been true, although virtually everyone living returns for the reunions. I still have people who are great friends even though I talk to them infrequently and see them (with two exceptions) only at reunions. The same groups gather, their personalities seem unchanged, and their interests and politics are about the same. Even people like George Wendt (Norm on Cheers) seems just like the people they were in the nightly 10:30 p.m. poker games those 50 plus years ago. The friendships pick right up again.

I did not expect to have these boarding school classmates as my closest friends for life and they really are not. I always expected to return to South Dakota and probably Aberdeen. I always regarded my Aberdeen friends as my “real friends”, for lack of a better term. I attended college in South Dakota with my Aberdeen friends. I lived my entire life in Aberdeen except for later education, a short stint with the U.S. Courts after law school, and a shorter stint with the U.S. Army.

To a very large degree, my closest friends are today those who were my friends or whom I knew in high school or college in S.D. They have really influenced my life to a significant degree. Although I had a Jesuit professor/advisor in high school who had a defining influence in my life and a few professors in undergraduate school and law school who had a positive impact on me, the majority of the people who have influenced my life, (aside from my wife), are the friends I made in Aberdeen and South Dakota. 

At the CHS 50th reunion, it took about one minute to feel right at home with friends from the past. One close friend traveled to Calgary, Canada with me one summer and I had not laid eyes him on since 1966. The same old stories were just as funny, sad stories just as sad, and old victories and losses just as wonderful or pathetic. The women had definitely weathered the storm of age much better than the men! The women had the same terrific smiles as I remember. Alice Disbrow and Ella McDowell looked wonderful but Diz and John maybe … not so much! People were comfortable with themselves and others. It wasn’t just the women this time who were showing pictures of children and grand-children. Even grandpas brag! It was overwhelmingly warm, friendly and comfortable, and frankly reminded me of the price I paid to attend a boarding school away from my hometown.
When I think about those four years at my actual high school, I really recall the intense academic challenge as well as life in the dorms. Friday nights were just another “school night”. School days began at 7:00 a.m. The school had only one dance a year which was for graduating Seniors only. Two special friends traveled to Wisconsin from Aberdeen for my only school dance in those four years. Friends there played a part but were not the focus of my memories.

When I think about high school times in Aberdeen, I really think only about my friends. I did not attend the prom, did not attend the state basketball tournaments, did not cheer at the old football field or basketball arena. I did not participate in school activities. My memory is about going to small towns to listen to bands, drinking beer in the country or at the Starlite, driving up and down Main Street (again drinking beer). My memories are about going to Mina and Richmond Lakes (and again drinking beer), dances at the Y, friends won and lost, loves won and lost, and the real pain of getting on the 2:30 a.m. train to Minneapolis to start school in August. I left my life in Aberdeen behind until December and then got on that train again in January, returning home in June.

At both reunions, I was struck by the number who had passed away and touched by those who died in Vietnam serving our country. Vietnam seems to define people of our age but I did not feel that intensity at these reunions, even though many from both schools had served and some died.

This is a time of great change in my life. I have spent my working life practicing law, operating businesses, and serving on boards of directors, trustees, and the South Dakota Board of Regents and always traveling for work. In June of 2017, I will be “of counsel” in the law firm, not actively involved in the day to day operations of a business, and retired from virtually all boards or entities including, after 21 years, the South Dakota Board of Regents. Business travel will virtually cease. This whole experience has lead me to serious bouts of introspection. I have developed a different perspective on things that I had not thought about for many years. In reflection, there are some events and experiences from my life that I would have done differently. I need to take some people to coffee and apologize for things I said, did, or did not do.

What a varied group in Aberdeen who have lived, worked and raised families all over the country and the world! I have never wavered in being proud of Aberdeen, the place where I was born and raised, lived my life, and met the people from the CHS Class of ’66 whom I have the privilege to call my friends.