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Seems like old times: at my high school reunion--Wichita Falls, class of '63--I laughed with lifelong friends, mourned the dearly departed, and relived one of the greatest Texas football dynasties that no one ever talks about.

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As the drinks go down and the laughter builds army high school reunion, a DVD of the 1961 state semifinal football game between our former Coyote has recorded a play-by-play in which he says the words "Twenty-Eight Spinner One"--an end run in our offense--as if repeating a mantra Wearing black pants, red jerseys, and white helmets, our heroes are such throwbacks that our obdurate coach, the late Joe Golding, lines them up in the single wing. "The Moose is loose!" the announcer exclaims about our all-state fullback Larry Shields, who would later move to San Antonio and become a commercial pilot. "The Worm squirms!" That would be little Kenny Sims, filling in for our flu-ridden tailback Mike Kelly and running wild in the 41-12 rout. Few of us had any idea that Kenny was an epileptic, and a couple years later, he had a seizure while driving He died after his car veered off a country road. The time warp reminds me of Plato's allegory of the caves. The forms on the screen look real, but they're dim shadows of memory; the drama was played out far behind us, long ago. [paragraph] Held at a Dallas hotel, the two-class reunion is our forty-fourth and forty-third (evidently the planners decided that we'd better not wager on being around for more-conventional anniversaries). My hometown is Austin now, and I haven't seen many of these people since we walked the halls of our redbrick school. I grin after spotting my Marine pal Johnny Stafford, still as trim and handsome as Jimmy Stewart, and flinch seconds later on hearing that another in our straggling troop, Jimmy "Tufty" Castledine, passed away from cancer three months earlier. It's like any high school reunion--a difficult event for spouses who don't know anyone there. My wife and I have a deal: I won't drag her to my reunions, and she won't haul me to hers. [paragraph] I find myself mesmerized by the game film, but I also see a fair amount...

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