Rerun: A Convention of Me’s

[My attention was recently brought to my column of May 30, 2015. While I was there, I found an item as true now as it was then, that I enjoyed and decided to repeat, with a couple of tiny revisions. And yes, that is a sign-painter’s apostrophe in the item title; Mes just looked too dumb.]

What would it be like if all the people I've been over my life were able to gather together in a single room for a chat? [like the bus in the Gloria Steinem biopic The Glorias] Would they even know each other? Would they like each other?

[In the recent movie they sniped at each other; I think that would happen to me as well.[]

In grade school, I was talkative and unruly--it's a wonder my teachers didn't strangle me.

I was such a geek in high school I wore a coat and tie to school when it wasn't required. I buttoned my shirts to the top when I wasn't wearing a tie.

In college, thanks to the efforts of good friends (and a couple of lovers), I got my rough edges smoothed down. I was a very different person by the end of my senior year than I was at the start of my freshman year, through a combination of alcohol and friendship. Friends don't let friends wear red polyester. On the other hand, they never told me to get a haircut either.

I was very nearly the man I am now, except for a few difficult affairs of the heart. Thirty years in journalism and 11 years as a teacher [plus seven years of retirement] have made me exactly who I am today. I am not the man my wife married in 1980; I'm better (well, except in terms of physical appearance).