Thanksgiving makes me so nostalgic. Images come flooding back, conversations float through my mind, visions of the traditional foods, tastes and smells, and even sometimes, the outfit I was wearing that year (ladies, are you with me on this?). This year the feelings were even more overwhelming. You see, my college freshman came home to celebrate Thanksgiving, which in some cosmic twist, coincided with my 30th high school reunion. And about 100 times over the weekend, I kept hearing the Kenny Loggins song that for years has captured my emotions (and many others) of that "coming home" experience. Loggins poignantly sings,
Home for the holidays,
I believe I've missed each and every face,
Come on and play my music,
Let's turn on the love light in the place
And he provides a tip as to how to find that "coming home" feeling just when you need it.
Play me one more song,
That I'll always remember,
And I can recall,
Whenever I find myself too all alone,
I can sing me home.
"Sing me home." I thought of these words as I observed as my freshman and her high school friends, whom she had known since kindergarten, compare notes (and on this part I am only guessing) on classes, adjustments, new friends, activities, romance (they call it something else now), and their social lives in their new environments.
All parents say it when their kids are grown, and I remember thinking it was annoying when my kids were little. "It goes by so fast. You will blink and they will be in college." But you know what, it is true -- where has all the time gone? How is it possible that so much time has passed that I am watching my child have the same experience, one which is still so clear in my own mind?
So it was with those emotions and thoughts going through my head that I walked into the 30th reunion of the graduating class of 1983, in a faceless room in a faceless hotel in a faceless town.
Now, in my opinion, this is really an untapped idea for a reality show. Picture the interesting collection of people, faces, shapes, sizes, careers and life choices reflected in a room of people, many of whom haven't seen each other for 30 years. I think I am going to call Andy Cohen, TV host and creator of the Real Housewives franchise, while the idea is fresh in my head.
Just imagine the casting opportunity that I saw before me as I began "reuning." And I suspect that this happens at every 30th reunion at every high school, in every town and every state.
We have the lawyers, teachers and professors, local business owners, physicians, stay-at-home moms, entrepreneurs, investment bankers, single parents, folks in transition, artists, musicians, happily married, bitterly divorced, the obsessively-anxious parents trying to get pointers on how to get their kids into schools from their classmates with older kids.
Add the hairdresser who reached out and fixed the hair of the IT expert/drummer in local bands she barely knew. Or the recently retired finance whiz turned competitor in IronMan races. And the physician who had college age kids AND newborn twins (actually born that week).
Combine this melting pot of humanity with the apparently required drinking, the '80s music and the tension (some good some bad) of old boyfriends and girlfriends figuring out how to delicately dance around each other (or towards). And I think we have potential for some seriously good TV. In fact, I think we have a ratings winner on our hands.
I am certainly going to suggest "Celebrate Me Home" as the theme song. But who knows, the TV folks might decide that an '80s rock anthem such as "We're Not Gonna Take it (Twister Sister) iworks better. And even if the show never airs, I know that when I find myself too all alone, I can sing me home.