LHS Alumnus Reflects: LHS Class of 1969 Reunion: Coming the Full Circle

Mon
12
Aug

LHS Alumnus Reflects: LHS Class of 1969 Reunion: Coming the Full Circle

Editor’s Note: Mitch Singer, a member of the Livingston High School Class of 1969, wrote to the Tribune to reflect on the class and its upcoming 50th year reunion. Singer, a retired public relations practitioner, currently lives in Springfield, Virginia. By Mitch Singer I recently attended a high school graduation party for a neighbor’s daughter, which brought back a memory of a similar party my parents held for me 50 years ago. As I observed the gathering of young people brimming with enthusiasm and excitement as they are about to enter the next stage of their life’s path, I asked myself the following question: “Was I ever that young?” As the Livingston High School (LHS) Class of 1969 approaches its 50th reunion over Labor Day weekend, I would imagine many of my former classmates are asking the same. For most LHS Class of 1969 graduates, looking ahead 50 years and having a picture of where they would be and what they would accomplish would’ve been as far-fetched as packages delivered to your home by a drone. Yet, we are all at the stage of life where a clear picture has emerged of one’s professional and personal accomplishments. And as I’ve learned more about my fellow classmates over the past decade than I knew in the previous 40 years, most can feel quite proud. The 1969 class of 607 graduates includes accomplished professionals in medicine, law, architecture, business, communications, education and the arts. They were fortunate to have grown up in Livingston, and their success in part is a testament to the town itself. Livingston was a community with an excellent school system comprised of many committed teachers and administrators, dedicated public servants and, most critically, hands-on and caring parents that nurtured their young lives. If the Livingston ethos continues, I have no doubt that when the LHS Class of 2019 convenes for its 50th reunion in 2069, they will feel the same. History has always been my intellectual passion (rivaled only by my love for baseball), and I’m well aware that, in looking back and analyzing historical events, the human mind often only focuses on the happy times and filters out the negative aspects of their era. The mid-to-late ’60s was a tumultuous, confusing time that resulted in severe divisions, especially between generations. This divide is even more pronounced today to the extent not seen since the Civil War. As a result, it has become nearly impossible ...

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