Old Friends and Cass Tech

 A great treat today as a good friend and colleague from Cass Technical High School came to visit. I can’t get the Paul Simon song “Old Friends” from about our high school time out of my head. We reminisced about high school times and experiences. We had last gotten together about four years ago. 

Cass was a very unique experience. Students were selected from all over Detroit and represented a very exceptional and diverse population. As a high school, it was huge (4,000 students), in a very old building (1929, my father also attended in his high school days), and 9 stories. It offered 24 specialty areas of curriculum (astronautics, automotive, chemistry, engineering, etc.) and all were college preparation as well. My friend was wearing a Cass Tech sweatshirt. At lunch an 80’s something lady came over and said she was also a Cass Tech graduate (1950’s something), in music. We exchanged the secret Cass Tech handshake and agreed Cass was special.

Back to Old Friends. Surely Paul Simon was referring to people older than us only in our mid-seventies! Having been through the common experience of Cass created a strong bond. Our reminiscing included taking city buses, unique liquid lunches of some teachers, trying to squeeze onto the lady operated elevators only to be kicked off because a teacher showed up exercising her/his privilege, and learning to fend off the local homeless population. Real shared bonding experiences! 

What a joy to get together. My experience defines old friends as ones you can pick up in conversation as if you only talked last week. I feel very fortunate to have several old friends. Old friends are the best investments in life.


Comments

  1. Sara HarwoodFebruary 6, 2025 at 9:15 PM

    I didn’t know there was a secret handshake?! The things you learn on your Dad’s blog…

    So glad you had such a fun time reminiscing and visiting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John PawelekFebruary 9, 2025 at 9:17 AM

    Wow, handshake must have been a big secret. I attended Cass with Neil and never knew about it. It must take up there with the sky hook.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John PawelekFebruary 9, 2025 at 9:21 AM

    Auto correct messed up my last sentence just as I sent the message, Should have read: It must rank up ther with the mystery Sky Hook from the tool crib.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Neil SendelbachFebruary 9, 2025 at 12:23 PM

      Good memory John! The original skyhook was awkward to get out the tool crib door but the updated portable model was easier to use and functioned just as well. I haven’t found it on Amazon yet.

      Delete

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