The number 40 has Biblical impact. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Moses was 40 when he was called to lead the Isrealites out of Egypt. Then they wandered 40 years in the wilderness. Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days. There are a lot of 40s in that book.
The number 40 has been on my mind a lot lately. It's the 40th anniversary of the Transamerica Bike Trail, for instance. It runs right through the middle of Elkhorn and I remember seeing a few cross country bikers rolling through in those first few years. Today I see them almost daily.
It's also been 40 years since 100 or so of my best friends and I graduated from a little high school in a place that is long ago and far away.
In 1976 Elkhorn was a busy little town. The coal boom had put a lot of my classmates in new cars. There was a busy railroad yard that kept dozens of local families firmly in the world of middle class. And many local businesses thrived. Hardware stores, clothes stores, grocery stores, we even had a radio station.
Our high school had produced a state championship football contender, we'd beaten our arch rival Pikeville 3 years in a row. We were competitve in all sports. The school produced an award winning marching band, chorus, academic team and student newspaper.
There wasn't a much better place to grow up and graduate from high school. I thought that then and I think that now. We were a pretty confident bunch and we had a lot of fun with it. We were the class of '76, the Bicentennial year of our country. That's 5 40 year sweeps by the way.
I guess my thinking there is the only thing that hasn't changed in the last 40 years. It's been a long time since Elkhorn was a busy town. Most of the money that rolled into town in the booming 70s took the fastest road out. The railroad yard closed in the 80s and took a hundred high paying jobs with it. Local businesses have dwindled, to say the least.
When the high school closed in the late 90s, our center dissolved. Community is hard to maintain when the one thing every person in the town supports is taken away.
Next week 50 or so of my classmates will get together for our 40th reunion. We'll hug and laugh and share a meal. In Pikeville, of course.
A lot of water rolls down a river in forty years. Time and distance and opinions and divorce have come between members of the Elkhorn City High School Class of 1976. But my memory is that I knew something to like about every person in that class. All of them.
It'll be good to see the faces and remember those old scenes. See how much is left of those 18 year olds today. We'll miss several who got a head start on etermity. And those who just couldn't get there.
We'll reminisce about that time on the senior class trip, or that time in the state semifinals, or that time in Mr. Potter's L.O.J. class. You remember that time, don't you?