The Race Is On

 

The Race Is On

                                                  Steve Bruyn, 2011

Upon graduation from high school in those tender years of naivety, we all had aspirations for greener pastures. Somehow, the lands beyond the west shore of the Hudson River seemed like virgin territory and we would be the pioneers to pursue and develop them. Having survived the stages of childhood social development, we stood on the threshold of our adult future with an anticipation that was fueled by the "can-do" messages of our formative years. We would now prove to ourselves and to the world that we were relevant, a plan that would take many of us away from our moorings at Northport. Some of us went into the service, some got married, some burned their draft cards, some went on to higher education and some just drifted. We were young, upwardly mobile and a generation that inspired the acronym "yuppies". Like our American hero Neil Armstrong, we would take a small step for man, and a giant step beyond the reaches of Newark, NJ.

The 1961 Northport High School Alumnus in the photo is my own brother at age 68. Upon graduation, he joined the Navy, went to college and found a career in marketing. All of that in one gulp sounds very simple but it really is a gargantuan understatement. The years that followed included lots of hard work, living in several different locales, a family, accumulation of assets, and the personal sacrifices that make it all happen. The old cliche goes...."40 years cut across his back". Not so anymore, now it's 60 years, well over a half-century!

Fair to say, that after high school, rarely did anyone from our generation check the rearview mirror to see what had become of our little town. With a focus on life, raising a family, getting ahead and staying ahead, such thoughts seemed trivial. In the pursuit of success, it is easy loose the big picture of all the things we hold dear to who we are. Now, in the late autumn of life, we face a sobering, fearless review of our own social and moral report card. Some of us never really make it to the finish line while others come thundering through with horsepower to spare.

How fitting that the Cow Harbor Run of 2011 served as a mile marker for my own brother's 50th year reunion of the Northport High School, Class of '61, right there where it all began. It is now abundantly clear............the finish line and the starting line are in the same spot.