Who Are We?

(Composed by Nancy Smiler Levinson for

a reunion of her Washburn Class of 1956)

WHO ARE WE?

* We are the children of European. ancestors who journeyed with hope and dreams to America's heartland. We are progeny of the generation that fought a great world war and afterwards planted for us the seeds of prosperity. We belong to our neighborhoods, our churches and synagogues, our scout troops, and our ordered classrooms. (Might we say, too, that we are our Dick and Jane readers?) We swim the lakes, crunch the fallen leaves, glide over the frozen ponds, take shelter in the welcoming warming houses. We are riders on bikes and roller skates, toboggans and sleds. We are small angels in the snow.

* We are students. Geometry, physics, and French, modern problems, business, Shakespeare, and shop ... our minds are eager and open to the dedicated who teach us. We are friends, teams, squads, rivals, clubs, twosomes, loners. Junior Achievers, honor society, ROTC, Blue Tri, football players, wrestlers, cheerleaders, fans, GAA, Grist, Wahian, actors, poets, band, office assistants, work program. We are car hoppers at the drive in and sock hoppers in the gym. We hang around the drugstore and record shops. We are explorers, discoverers., leaders, innovators, joiners. We are cake eaters. We are fiercely proud.

On a June day in 1956 we wear cap and gown, march to a processional, listen to a cornet solo, a valedictorian speech, a choral selection. We receive our diplomas. Awards. Applause.

The class president writes, "God bless you all, there isn't a better class anywhere." The refrain of a song whispers, "These are the moments to remember." The school newspaper promises, "We'll never walk alone."

* We are scholars and workers. We are deliberate. We are hesitant. We seek truths, reflect, search. struggle, take aim.

We are lovers; wives, husbands, singles. divorcees, mothers, fathers.

We live in the city of Minneapolis, the sprawling suburbs, the deep south, the far west,the nation's capital, overseas.

We are airline pilots, printers, postal workers, and priests. Accountants, lawyers, homemakers, educators, realtors, secretaries, and CFOs. We perform social work. We volunteer. We are doctors, dentists, designers, editors, composers, and businesspersons. We are the military.

We have succeeded at landing on the moon. But our world has not been made safe for democracy, after all. The communist threat casts a long shadow. War in southeast Asia stretches on. We are loyal, we question, we protest, we seek new truths.

* We watch our children grow. We are grandparents, widows and widowers, caretakers of our elders. We are graying. We are the ill. We are the deceased. We know joy. We know sorrow. We grasp the replica rolex hands of those we love. We collect the memories of our lives, bitter and sweet. We share our stories.

We continue our work. We retire. We golf, ski, canoe, fish, snowmobile. We read, lunch, travel, worship. We shop the mall and the downtown web of skyways. We email, fax, phone, lunch. We reunite. We reflect on our blessings.  

Washburn High School. Class of 1956.