Has it really been 22 years since friends from Harrison High School's class of 1965 pledged to rendezvous on Bull Shoals Lake for a weekend each spring?
Yet here we were arriving again at Ken Reeves' lake cabin in Coffman Cove to revisit all the hormone-fueled craziness that somehow didn't kill us as teenagers and reflect on what's happened since. It's the ideal setting for leaning way back, breathing deeply and listening to waves lapping.
Since beginning these annual weekend escapes inspired by the 1995 death of our late childhood friend, Dr. Bill Hudson, we've lost others. They were good men like Sheridan Garrison and Bob Barker, both of whom enriched our reunions.
Ken, Don Walker of Springdale and Bill Dill of Fayetteville have remained friends through life's vicissitudes after pledging in 1996 to keep our lifelong friendships intact by reuniting at Ken's boathouse each spring.
Some who've followed our reunions know we pitched in to purchase some 1965 Port wine with a simple plan. The lone survivor would pop the cork and toast the three departed. This spring we decided to simply share the bottle together next spring. Seemed kinda pointless and unrealistic to expect a likely octogenarian on life-sustaining meds to swill an entire bottle alone.
Our group of Harrison boys who almost six decades ago strapped on foam chin-straps as Goblin teammates have been actively involved in far different ways across Arkansas and beyond ever since.
Don has flourished nationally in his poultry food service processing sales business. Billy retired from his active dental practice in Fayetteville. Among other endeavors, he is into his fourth year serving on the state Board of Dental Examiners.
Ken's a retired private and corporate attorney for American Freightways and FedEx who previously served on the state Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Conduct and is in his fifth year as an Arkansas Game and a Fish commissioner.
This year, as a tribute of sorts to Sheridan Garrison's life and death 14 years ago, we watched several nostalgic videos of the amazing trucking empire he founded in Harrison. The defunct American Freightways was born from Garrison's creativity and courage, rising to become one of the nation's top less-than-truckload carriers.
The incredible story of Garrison's success in mortgaging all he owned in the 1980s to create a private regional trucking firm would rapidly evolve into the greatly expanded American Freightways, go public, and finally be purchased in a record-setting sale to become FedEx Freight.
Watching company videos made in the 1990s set to stirring songs by Lee Greenwood and Whitney Houston made me realize, yet again, just how fleeting all we work to build and achieve over a lifetime is.
How relevant it was to hear Houston belting out her hit, "One Moment in Time" to the video that reflected the positive company spirit characterizing Garrison's American Freightways that still affects so many lives, yet came and went relatively fast as a company.
We did catch lots of bass on our visit while immersing ourselves nightly in ribs, king crab legs and tenderloin steak, in between kicking back with beverages to soak up shared memories on the houseboat deck.
The earlier-years urges to out-angler each other had long since passed. We were simply four lifelong friends, now graying grandfathers in our early 70s, with so many stories and recollections we hold in common.
Other than the fellowship and merciless teasing, those memories of friends and teachers and experiences from our youths have provided the most enriching moments of these reunions. It is rare to have the opportunity to still share what only friends could know about each other from childhood.
Simply put, our gatherings add context and perspective and a larger sense of who we've become. This year was no exception.
Watching good golf
The Harrison Kiwanis Cub sponsored its annual fundraising four-person scramble on the town's short yet challenging country club course.
Who did I ask to join our four-person team but shaft-manufacturing craftsman Robbie Newton of Chris Knodle's Golf USA in Fayetteville? The friendly 40-year-old who in Fayetteville had won the state high school championship on this course understandably always anticipates returning to these bent-grass greens.
Some may recall last year when I told that Newton ran me through his testing machine at Golf USA to determine which of eight graphite driver shafts was most effective for my swing and speed. The final product he handed over made me grin and has added 15 yards.
Anyway, things looked promising from the very first tee when Robbie, a long-drive competitor with a 137-mph club-head speed, drove the par-four, 320-yard first hole for us to make a two. Then he hit his hybrid club even with the flag on hole No. 2, an uphill 278-yard par four.
By the time Robbie drove to within 138 yards of the 480-yard, 15th (all uphill) par-five, my face was paralyzed from smiling.
While we didn't win the day, we finished close enough. And frankly, it's always worth the price of entry to watch good golf for an entire afternoon.
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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 05/22/2018