{"id":2443790,"date":"2019-05-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=305290"},"modified":"2019-05-06T07:58:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T13:58:33","slug":"paul-andersen-looking-back-50-years-at-the-class-of-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/paul-andersen-looking-back-50-years-at-the-class-of-69\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Andersen: Looking back 50 years at the class of \u201969"},"content":{"rendered":"
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June will mark 50 years since I graduated from New Trier High School in suburban Chicago back in 1969.<\/p>\n

It was the summer of love and war, of Woodstock and Vietnam. I was 18. My hair was long. My ideas were radical. I was launched into the world with a handshake and a diploma, headed to Western State College in Gunnison where I would discover my true home in the Elk Range.<\/p>\n

A class reunion is being planned, but I have no meaningful bonds with a place I never intended to live. I just grew up there. What I never anticipated was how jackfruit would prod me to reflect on my long lost classmates.<\/p>\n

A fellow student and member of the reunion committee posted on the reunion website under: \u201cSenior tales \u2014 adventures \u2014 from your classmates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have elbowed my way to the front of the food chain at Costco many times to guarantee a sample. On a recent trip I made an even better discovery \u2014 how to get the most! I found an interesting jackfruit sampling so I maneuvered my way through the throng of seniors to be certain to get my share. In order to ensure that I found the largest piece available, I had to turn several of the plastic cups so I could see into them. The sample lady adamantly insisted: \u2018Now you have to take each and every cup you touched.\u2019 The jackfruit industry took a hit that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than share her humor, I fumed over the feckless values of my ge-ge-generation. A following post from another classmate queried our class on how we had been shaped by the tumultuous issues under which we came of age \u2014 the Vietnam War, civil rights, etc.<\/p>\n

After stewing for a week, I fired off my first post, a goad for the class of \u201969 to look beyond the social media groupthink to which many have become habituated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wonder how our generation will be judged by history,\u201d I prodded. \u201cThe demographic wave we have ridden reflects a bulge in consumerism, carbon emissions and self-gratification \u2014 something my 26-year-old son condemns repeatedly. So what values did we learn throughout the \u201960s cultural transformations that can redeem us in the eyes of the future?\u201d<\/p>\n

Here was an edgy invitation to connect \u201con pursuits that go beyond status, image, self-gratification and the mundane.\u201d The message intended to shake things up, wake things up. My post included a link to the nonprofit I founded \u2014 Huts For Vets \u2014 a holier-than-thou example of my lofty service to mankind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m giving back as a means of balancing out the entitlements that our Boomer generation is often accused of exploiting,\u201d I trumpeted. Then came the moral indictment: \u201cThe final line of \u2018Schindler\u2019s List\u2019 \u2014 \u2018I could have done more \u2026\u2019 rings in my ears and prods my conscience.\u201d I hit the submit button \u2014 done!<\/p>\n

I suddenly felt like an ass for putting myself above my classmates by assuming a superior alternative lifestyle compared to the suburban status quo in which we all grew up and in which many still live. I had to wait a few anxious days for a response.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi Paul,\u201d wrote the woman who had posted about jackfruit. \u201cSounds like you are doing an incredibly worthwhile service for veterans. Thank you for that and helping to bring the message forum to such a real level. I know the purpose of this activity was to get former classmates to interact, but sometimes those \u2018everything is glorious in my life\u2019 entries can intimidate and stifle people from responding authentically.\u201d<\/p>\n

This fellow student described herself as a Chicago area educator for 40 years. Now living in Tucson, Arizona, she said she uses dogs to offer emotional support and facilitate learning for children. She cooks meals for ICE refugees. She thanked me for my message. I cringed in guilty self-righteous regret.<\/p>\n

Auguring beneath the mundane surface of social media, one finds real people with real values. I appreciate my classmate in Tucson for causing me to apologetically drop my judgments. I would consider attending the reunion just to thank her.<\/p>\n

Paul Andersen\u2019s column appears on Mondays. He may be reached at: andersen@rof.net<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June will mark 50 years since I graduated from New Trier High School in suburban Chicago back in 1969. It was the summer of love and war, of Woodstock and Vietnam. I was 18. My hair was long. My ideas were radical. I was launched into the world with a handshake and a diploma, headed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 18:23:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}