Dear Friends,
I can’t believe it. It’s almost beyond my comprehension.
I’m back in Centerville, Ohio attending my 50th High School Class Reunion!
How is that possible? How is it possible for 50 years to race by in such short order?
I know that many of you can relate to the feeling that things are happening more and more quickly. But this seems just ridiculous!
Do you remember 1974? The Watergate Scandal was in full bloom, bell-bottomed jeans were still popular, streaking became a fad, and Barbra Streisand had her first number one hit with “The Way We Were.” My biggest concern at the time was getting through advanced biology... and then getting into a good college.
High School was a generally happy time in my life. I played sports, participated in student government, wrote for the school yearbook and newspaper, and was surrounded by a great group of friends. Sadly, some of them have died and it’s amazing to think that some 15 members of my graduating class of 504 students are no longer living. My best friend, Brady Whyte, was killed in an automobile accident on his way back to Hobart College just two years after we graduated. Tomorrow is a promise made to no one.
As you drive through Centerville, Ohio, it doesn’t feel like much has changed over the past 50 years. When my parents were looking to buy a home, Centerville was the southern-most suburb of Dayton and it became a destination for people looking for an affordable suburban lifestyle and good public schools. There are, of course, a few new stores and restaurants. The new high school they were building as I was graduating is now completed. The proverbial hang out, Bill’s Donut Shop, is still serving fresh donuts 24 hours a day. The manufacturing industries which were so vital to the Miami Valley have continued to decline, but new, high-tech employers are gradually taking their place.
When I drive down Dale Ridge Drive today, I can still name the families who used to live in those tract ranch houses lining the street where I grew up: The Ferguson’s, the Tillinghast’s, the Lowry’s, the Poppin’s, the Jackson’s, the DeCamp’s, the Guenthers’, the Saxson’s, the Singer’s, the Mueller’s, the Simmon’s, and the Duteil’s. When the neighborhood was new, there would be big barbecues with kegs of beer, sodas, and lots of children playing on the lawns. There were three design options for houses in the Concept subdivision where we lived. You could choose the 3-bedroom ranch, the 4-bedroom ranch, or the L-shaped ranch. My father, being a man of great economy, believed there was no reason for anyone to have too big a house.
When I attended Centerville High School, we had about 2,000 students with some 504 students in my graduating class. Today, the high school has over 3,000 students and the diversity of races, and ethnicities is much greater than it was when I was a student there.
I’m looking forward to seeing my old Student Body Vice President, Meredith Reeves-Slosberg, who has enjoyed a successful career in medical care and an avocation as a serious potter. I know she will be as fun and quick-witted as she ever was. My friend Vicki Yoder Ferguson was a member of the church youth group which was so important to my formation as a Christian and, later, as a clergyman. Now, she’s a mother and an accomplished gardener and one of the key organizers of this reunion.
The great writer, Thomas Wolfe, was right. You can’t go home again. You can remember and you can long for a former time, but you can never really recover the past. Nostalgia often causes us to see the past in an overly positive light. It’s easy to forget the difficult times and the tough places along the way. We also tend to remember people and places from our past in rather static terms. Yet, time changes all things, especially people.
The same can be said for churches. Our history has helped create and mold us. At St. Bart’s, ours is a storied history filled with grand accomplishments for which we are rightly proud. But we can’t go back to being the fancy church on Park Avenue we once were. We’re different than that now. The world is different than that now and it needs different things from us.
As we return from our summer adventures, let us face squarely the challenges, as well as the opportunities, which are before us at St Bartholomew’s Church in the City of New York.
The prophet Isaiah (43:19) wrote,
“See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
It is fun to look back... but isn’t it entirely possible that the best is yet to come?
Faithfully,
The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe, D.D.
Rector