Times & Transcript | Life - Other
As published on page B5 on August 16, 2002 

Friends & Neighbours, written by Deborah Carr, appears each Friday in Life & Times. If you have an item to contribute - news of visitors arriving, anniversary parties, weddings or reunions, graduations, charitable events or just a good-old fashioned neighbourhood party - drop Deborah a line. Send us your news by emailing neighbours@timestranscript.com, calling 859-4919, faxing 859-4904 or mailing Friends & Neighbours, c/o Times & Transcript, 939 Main St., P.O. Box 1001, Moncton, N.B., E1C 8P9.

Time, distance non-existent during MHS 1962 reunion

Curling up in their pyjamas at Audrey (Attis) Lampert's cottage in Cap Brulé, four faithful friends, wired and wide-eyed, rehashed the night's incredible events. It was morning's wee hours following the Moncton High School 1962 Reunion 'Meet and Greet Night' and Audrey, Elaine (Fowler) Casey, Charlene (Budd) Bain and Susan (Grant) Little - friends for more than 40 years - were not about to coax sleep for many hours yet.

"Friday was overwhelming," says Audrey, who was vice president of the graduating class and one of the event organizers. "It was a very emotional evening. We were meeting some people for the first time in 20 or 40 years, and watching others connecting was one of the highlights - seeing grown men hugging and shaking hands."

Audrey, who helped organize the 20-year reunion in 1982, started plans for this one a year ago. Every member of the 381 person graduating class was located, and of those, 26 were deceased and 150 attended the reunion.

Of all the people who attended, Robert MacFarlane managed to surprise Audrey the most. "He was a kid who sat across from me in Grade 10," laughs Audrey. "At that time, he was my height, but when he came over to me and said 'hello', I had to grab his nametag. He was 5'7" when he graduated, but he grew a foot his first year at university."

Later that night back at the cottage, the four good friends relived the events and decided the best adjectives to describe the evening's synergy were "electric and magical". Audrey says that two things will stay in her mind and memory concerning the reunion. The first was that the co-operation and cohesion of the committee went beyond all expectation. "We become a team, even though we had never worked together before - the only common bond having graduated together 40 years ago.

"The second thing that struck me was people bridging a gap of time and distance from across North America. It was as if that time and distance did not exist, barriers were shattered and people picked right up where they left off. We knew it was a success on Friday when we couldn't get their attention to even make an announcement."

To all who attended, it was a weekend to remember and cherish. As photographs come in, Audrey advises they will be posted on the graduating class Web site: http://www.monctonhigh.ca/mhsgrad/mhsgrads.htm