Great Shares by Sal Carmosino!

Rose, here is my story about my visit with Richard Bruno. You can put it in the blog for everyone to hopefully enjoy. I know its a bit long, but that's my style...

On Thursday, July 30, I had the pleasure of visiting with our RHS 62 classmate, Richard Bruno. He lives in Tigard, Oregon and was visiting his sister in the Cranston area of Rhode Island. I hadn't seen Rich in at least 40 some years so, it was an exciting visit for me. Rich was in my homeroom from the 7th grade at the McKinley School and all through high school. Even though I hadn't seen him in many years, I always considered him one of my best friends.

I arrived at his sister Roberta's house, whom I hadn't seen since she was teenager. Rich's wife, Jan was also there. As soon as we exchanged hugs, we started immediately to be transformed back to our high school days. Suddenly, we were all 16 years old again.....My sister and cousin were both in Roberta's 1965 RHS class, whom she remembered. Of course, I brought my trusty yearbook and together we scanned the pictures. Rich's yearbook was in the possession of his sister so he hadn't seen it for years.

Rich was surprised that I had so many signatures and commented that I must have been popular. I said, no...that most of these signatures were written in the last 2 years!! ....at reunions and get togethers. I relayed the happy experiences that many of us have had since our last reunion in 2007, with several get togethers, mostly when Rose came up from Florida for a visit. I brought an onslaught of pictures of mostly my historical re-enactment hobby. I felt that pictures would take the place of 1,000 words.

Also seeing uniforms and battle scenes brought the stories and my experiences back to life, which I was happy to share with Rich. Since teaching history was Rich's vocation, I felt my "living history" pictures and stories would interest him. I wasn't wrong. Rich has since retired from the various teaching positions that he had held in the Orgeon area. His "retirement'' job now is being a mentor and instructor to teachers which he seems to enjoy. Rich has a degree in what sounded like Political History. He revealed many historical things that were previously unknown by the general public, in the course of his studies. I found this conversation fascinating.

It sounded like Richard Cummings would have enjoyed Rich's explanation of past historical things. Who knows...Maybe Rich Cummings may have been part of these things!! Yikes! We shared our experiences after high school...his being a Vista worker [Peace Corps in the USA] after being rejected from US service due to eyesight problems. Rich has a son and daughter, both successful in life...and I believe he said he was a grandfather. Roberta and Rich's wife, Jan went out shopping, so Rich and I went to lunch together and had more enjoyable conversation relating to our high school days. I was a bit surprised that he didn't remember many of our classmates, even after I showed him pictures from our past reunions and get togethers. But not having his year book for many years made his memory cloudy, which was understandable.

Since Rich hadn't been to any of our past reunions, I reminded him of our next big one in 2012, in hopes that he could make it. I mentioned to him what great fun our class has had after the last get togethers and reunions. He said it might be a possibility since he does have family here an visits occasionally. I do hope he can make it and rejoin our RHS 62 family, which has grown closer now after all these years through reunions and Rose (Franciosa) Sisti' s blog.....which has a been a lifeline for us all. As in past reunions with classmates, I will continue to relive my conversations and visit with Rich.......over and over again.

I do hope we see Rich again. Sal