Class of 1966 Reunion Speech

Immaculate Heart Academy 50th High School Reunion

When my mother had her 50th high school reunion, she seemed so old...How can we be so young?

Thank you to reunion organizers: Eileen Cordo Quaglino who pulled together all of the activities for this weekend, Beth Garrigan, our alumni director, whose experience and guidance were invaluable, Katie Killeen who donated the beautiful flowers from her flower shop, Anuhea's Flowers and Gifts, Mary Maloney Reinthaler who handled all the catering, Johanna Calcuterra for the slide show, Gail Deptula Fink for our name tags, and all the others who worked to make this weekend's events happen.

Good news...how wonderful that so many of us could come together to celebrate this event. Bad news...we are now in the one place we can't lie about when we graduated. Please tell me I'm not the only one who decided last spring to lose 10 pounds before today. I realized how insignificant that was when I can across a book entitled the High School Reunion Diet -­‐ lose 20 years in 30 days. Now there was a goal!

I remember our first day of school. 250 of us, coming together from many small towns and Catholic churches across a wide swath of Northern New Jersey. I remember feeling scared and alone, wondering whether anybody would talk to me, wondering if I had anything in common with these people, wondering who would become my friends.

I now realize that one thing we all shared from that first day were parents who wanted us to get the best possible education, who carpooled and chauffeured, who often sacrificed to pay our tuition, who supported our extra-­‐curricular activities so that we could have the opportunities that many of them never had.

And little did I know that my friends for the next four years, and in many cases for life, would be determined by a check mark on my application. I chose Spanish over French. I cherish those friendships.

Our teachers: Sister Louise, our model of dignity and decorum, Sister Benedicta, full of energy and enthusiasm, our vice principal who wore so many hats, Sister Pedro, sweet and gentle, Sister Agnes Michael, the tiny terror, we all had our

favorites... teachers committed to our education -­‐ women who cared about us while trying to keep us on the straight and narrow...

Just as we had teachers we will always remember, so too there were events and moments that helped to shape us... school plays, basketball and cheerleading, dances, clubs, the camaraderie of homeroom, discussions over cafeteria lunch.

Many shared memories...

I suspect each one of us remembers exactly where we were and whom we were with when Sr. Louise came over the public address system and told us that John Kennedy had been shot. And we moved in unison to the auditorium to pray.

We had rules...no rolled skirts, and those skirts had to touch the floor when you knelt, top blouse button buttoned, no makeup, no dyed hair...and those were just about our appearance.

We got an education that prepared us for the future...most of us went on to college, married, had children, and now grandchildren. Many of us joined the work force. We balanced childcare and full time jobs or active volunteering, with being wives, mothers, daughters.

With other women of our generation, we had opportunities for careers that most of our mothers never had, we pushed against glass ceilings, gained recognition, helped paved the way for our daughters and granddaughters. And as we look at IHA today, we see the tradition continue, a fine education, updated to match the needs of tomorrow. May they be as fortunate as we have been.

We've seen a lot of change in our lifetime. My first job after college was at Goddard Space Flight Center where I worked on a computer that took up a room this size, with cold air circulating around all the tape drives and boxes that housed the computer memory and processors. That computing power is now on my phone, the memory capacity on a flash drive. Our grandchildren use technology that we could not have imagined, and they teach us about the newest, coolest apps and send us pictures on Instagram. My granddaughter typed faster in first grade that I did in Senior year under Sr. Agnes Michael's dire threats of future failure. In a way, I find that both humbling and at the same time, strangely reassuring.

I can't believe its been 50 years since we graduated from IHA. So much has happened, yet standing here today, it seems to have passed so quickly.

I know that we have all faced some great challenges. We have been caregivers -­‐ to parents, to spouses, to children, or even our grandchildren.

We remember those we have loved and lost.

All of us have small aches and pains, but for some of us, health is a more serious problem.

We've worked hard and felt at times overwhelmed by the demands placed upon us. We've earned our wrinkles and grey hair.

But we have been described as the generation of optimists. Before we reached IHA, we were promised the unthinkable...that a man, an American would land on the moon. And shortly after we graduated, we watched on television as Neil Armstrong took one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. We believed anything was possible, even miracles.

As I was looking through our yearbook again this week, I was struck by the fact that each page was a testament to our hope and our belief in our future.

Let's face it, we're older and wiser, with wonderful memories and more frequent senior moments; most importantly, we are with friends, and it is all good.

We are strong, and resilient, and beautiful...wrinkles and all. We are accomplished women.

To the friends we haven't seen in 50 weeks, and the friends we haven't seen in 50 years, I propose a toast to the IHA class of 1966.

Eileen Steets Buchanan