My Old School, Part Two

The West Coast contingent met up with MOC Friday night at a fancy restaurant in the big city. The boys were clearly out of their element, since most of their meals out are at their local Denny's, but MOC was right at home. Every high school class has an MOC: class president, cheerleader, and heartbreaker.

I showed up first since I pride myself on punctuality. MOC arrived shortly thereafter. I was surprised that she was wearing her senior prom gown but it was in great shape, and so was she. We had about a 20 minute wait for 4M, TK, and the Upgrade King. Their excuse was the traffic from the Giants/As game but I sense they were bickering for quite a while on who got to ride in the front seat. It worked out since MOC and I had some time to catch up, since it had been 32 years. I'm pretty sure I was the main one she was interested in talking to anyway. I had a few things to get off my chest. I confided in her that, although I often put up a good front, it has been a very difficult 34 years, 8 months and 3 days for me since she broke up with me in the school cafeteria.

Actually I spent a summer working with MOC so I had seen her a mere 30 years ago. We worked at the local Holiday Inn. She was tending bar and had to wear a rather skimpy outfit. So I saw quite a bit of her. I was upset by that situation and I excoriated the hotel management, in all my feminist fury, for making her wear it. MOC took it in stride, along with copious tips from the barroom gawkers.

The Upgrade King drove 4M and TK up from the South Bay, which is a good thing since 4M was toting a 1998 Domaine Trevallon and a 2001 Mount Eden Cabernet Sauvignon in a lovely carrying case. And we didn’t even tap into that until he ordered a fine screw top New Zealand sauvignon blanc to start things off. As mentioned previously, 4M is an oenophile and I hang with him mainly to get some good wine. So after hugs all around we started knocking back the vino and getting reacquainted.

We had a lot of territory to cover. We discussed college days, family, and how we ended up in California. TK and I provided a bit of detail about our recent infirmities but that didn’t stop us from getting into a brief fist fight after dinner over who would drive MOC back to her hotel. TK tweaked his back trying to throw a roundhouse so I won.

4M is still in tip top shape so he didn’t bore us with any medical stories. He just bragged about his current 15 minute mile pace and spent the rest of the night schmoozing the waiter, angling for a free glass of dessert wine. The Upgrade King is much younger than us and looks it. I think his front teeth were just coming in when we graduated high school.

We wrapped things up around 10:30. MOC was kind enough to pay for dinner. As I dropped her off at the hotel, she echoed the message I received in the cafeteria in the fall of 1971: “We can still still be friends”.