Grade School Full Circle

The Jones family visted Stanley Elementary open house tonight. We walked among the art projects and gold-star papers, talked with smiling teachers, now younger than me. I spied a familiar face in the midst of this bustling elementary complex. Jeff Paschal and I attended Roeland Park elementary school, Old Mission Junior High, and Shawnee Mission North during the same era. We discovered that we're nearly neighbors out here on the edge of the metroplex. He's a year older than me, but was a classmate during my second grade year when they split the class, half 2nd graders and half 3rd graders. I had not seen him since the 20th anniversay reunion of the North state championship baseball team five years ago. That was a fluke too. My boss invited me to an after work rocket sauce sampling at the same bar where the team gathered that night.

Back at Stanley elementary, we chatted and I mentioned that I bowl at Mission Bowl with another Roeland Park alum, Kurt Westhoff. It must be Jeff Paschal week. He told me he saw Kurt yesterday. I'll bet Reagan was President the last time he saw us both in the same week. Maybe I'll see him again soon. He was quite the Mission bowl junior bowler and we can always use another rock tosser.