Sara Smith Sevey -- After all these years, still 21

Here we are about to celebrate a 40th class reunion and it just doesn’t sound right. 40th! In my mind, I’m still 21.
After graduating, we moved to California and I started college. Within the first year, two events happened. First, our team was playing San Francisco City and all I heard was that O.J. was coming down. At the time I didn’t understand football so had no clue who this person was but after I watched him almost singlehandedly beat our team, I learned.
A few months later, students from Cal Berkeley started coming on campus to recruit for a big rally up there organized by a guy named Mario Savio who meant nothing to us. Again, I learned.
Flea collars
This was the start of the anti-war and drug scenes and things started changing overnight. Our first trip back to Minnesota was in 1967 and it was like stepping back in time. Here students had long hair, wore jeans, sandals and listened mostly to The Grateful Dead. I actually saw people (mostly guys) wearing flea collars. When we landed in Minneapolis, everyone I saw still had short hair and looked like we did in the early 60's -- but things would start to change there soon too. Still, it was a weird feeling.
I finished school, went to work and was introduced to the guy I married by a mutual friend. Ironically, neither of us liked this guy but it worked out, as we’ve been married for 31 years, have three children and three grandchildren who all live in the area so we see them all the time. Babysitting quickly reminds me of how old I am.
We’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1965 - mostly on The Peninsula which runs from San Francisco down to San Jose. Over these 39 years, it’s been interesting watching the 49ers during their heyday (prior to the current ownership!, but that’s another story), The Giants, Stanford football and basketball, the never- ending population growth, especially here in Silicon Valley, the ridiculous real estate market, THE TRAFFIC, the constant construction on San Francisco International Airport since I’ve lived out here, the earthquakes, O.J.’s trial and now Scott Peterson’s which is just up the road (Judge Clifford, where were you when we needed you out here!) and, of course, the politics ranging from Ronald Reagan to Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) to The Governador today. Did I mention the TRAFFIC?
Doxie club
Besides babysitting, I’m working on getting my golf index down and my bridge master points up, although neither number is moving very fast. My husband is just getting back into playing competitive bridge so we’re having fun doing that although I consider any session a major success if I don’t have the Director called on me. I’m also getting more involved in a dachshund club in our area and am in the process of organizing a doxie contingency for our town’s annual pet parade next spring. I thought I was pathetic when it came to dachshunds but these people are worse. I guess that’s comforting.
My husband and I have been back to Alex the last few summers and have really enjoyed it. The lakes still mean a lot to me and some day we would like to have a summer home there which would give us more opportunities to see family, friends and maybe host some mini-reunions as well. For now, we’ll look forward to next summer and hopefully see a lot of people at the reunion.

Sara Smith Sevey