As it happens, I’ve got a fairly big decision to make in the very near future.  Over the past year or so I’ve been in touch with various alum’s from the American Boychoir School through the wonderful and infamous Facebook.com and what makes that significant is that this year marks 20 years since we graduated in 1989.  Usually it takes just about that long for people to really start wondering about their friends from the past again.  We’ve all grown up, gotten over our teenage angst, and started our lives out in the real world.  That means its time for a 20 year reunion.  This year, the alumni association is putting together reunions for the classes of 1949, 1959, 1969, 1989, 1994, 1999, and 2005.   Anyhow, the events will take place in Princeton on March 20 and 21 and they have invited Martin Leyland (former Headmaster) to be recognized as an honorary alumnus.  I think it’s fairly important that I go to this event but lord what a horrendous time of year to hold it!  I’ve got to decide now whether this is important enough to spend a fairly large amount of money on (and I’m leaning that direction) or whether or not I need to save the money and hope I can get out there sometime in the future.  We are talking plane tickets, a rental car and a hotel for a minimum of 3 days in Princeton which isn’t a cheap place to begin with.  I did some looking around last night and I’m looking at about $700-$800 for a 3 or 4 day trip including limited spending money and perhaps a day in New York City (which is LONG over due).  That will end up being a good portion out of one of my upcoming bonuses at work which I honestly need in order to get through the winter months.

It’s pretty hard for me to not consider this though because of the significant role ABS really did play in my life.  Not only did I spend 3 years with ABS proper as a choirboy, touring all over the country, I spent the better part of 10 years in high school and collage working out there in the summers.  To say the least, I knew a lot of people, many of whom had quite a significant influence on my life, also many of whom are now well past retirement and may not be around forever.  The opportunity to likely see Jim Litton again would be especially nice.  Even though I am not doing much with music now, this would give me an opportunity to network with a variety of people, all who share at least one common experience with me which is difficult to help other people really understand.   There are not many of us out there in the world who share this experience, I know most of us didn’t even realize it’s significance until years after the fact.  You don’t get these opportunities very often and my class in particular is full of some very interesting people, none of whom I’ve seen or had much contact with since the 80′s.  I’m told that several people from the class of 88 and 90 may also make an appearance, it would be great to see all these people again.

Anyhow, donations are appreciated but not expected, if I can convince my folks to babysit the dog for a few days, I might have to make this happen, it’s hard to know when I might have a chance to do this again.

class-of-1989American Boychoir Class of 1989