In order to "share the load" for creating a Homepage, and keep our website active, we have decided to have people volunteer to do a piece each month which you send to tricia@keenes.us for me, Tricia Keene. Easy, Peasy!  Bill Troupe did December, Dan Lutts volunteered to do January, and Laurie (Mahoney) MacDonald took on February. That was followed by the Boston Globe article about Darrell Agnew (with Darrell's permission).  Now David Lister has stepped up with his thoughtful piece.  Read on...

How did I get here?  A question I ask myself too often these days.  Where did the time go?  It seems not that long ago we were all back in high school enjoying that special time in our lives, living for the moment but starting to give some thought to our future.  Now, most of that future is behind us.  The majority of our lifetime has past.  Fortunately, we have a  portion of our brain that functions as a memory keeper.  That is what life is really all about, creating memories.I hope you have far more good and great memories than not so good memories.  As we age, our short term memory is the first to become problematic (Why did I just come upstairs?) while our long term memory hangs on to those treasured moments.  It is as if each of us has written a book about our lives and stored that book in our memory so we can read parts of it during quiet moments or read it to our grandchildren.  We all lived different lives so our memories are different but there is one thing that inexorably connects us, we are all part on the NQHS Class of 1963.  No others can ever say that and there will never be another NQHS Class of 1963. 

More often now we are saying goodbye to members of our class.  It is just where we are in the stages of life.  We are losing friends and relatives, mostly of our generation, and classmates.  Seeing a posting of another classmates passing always gives me a feeling of melancholy.  At the same time it reminds me how fortunate I am to still be here.  The best thing about birthdays these days is being around to celebrate them but I don’t like being labeled as old.  I prefer to think of myself as simply older (obviously).  I don’t think of age as a number but as a state of mind.  I am fully aware of the limits age has placed on me but it is up to me to decide when I am really old.  That is why I am still enjoying life to the fullest.  Reading some of the postings in the forum it is obvious there are lots of you out there that share this thought.  You have done well with your lives and continue to do so.  Keep at it.  I applaud you all.  I continue to be impressed by and proud of the Class of 1963.  Glad I am part of it.

None of us really knows when we will reach our expiration date.  If you are reading this consider yourself one of the lucky ones, you are still here.  When the last one of us finally turns out the light for the last time, remember, in one respect we will continue to exist forever for there will always be a NQHS Class of 1963, a one and only, and that is us.  

Carry on my friends, keep writing that book of memories and enjoy the memories already written.