Bathurst, New Brunswick
Hometown Visit and Reunion - July 12, 2025
Welcome to Bathurst, New Brunswick. My home town. I was born here, grew up here, went to school here. I graduated from high school in the summer of 1985, exactly forty years ago. And hence, one of the reasons for my visit.
Bathurst High School had a graduating class in 1985 of somewhere around 350 students. That's a pretty big group for a small city of around 15,000, especially since half of the population went to the Ecole Secondaire Nepeisguit - the French high school. Leslie, one of my graduating classmates, has been the main driving force for organizing these periodic reunions. She again organized this year's event, booking the Bathurst Marina for the venue, and tirelessly promoting the reunion via Facebook. It looked like upwards of a hundred grads might make it to this year's reunion. That is a lot of people.
These sorts of events always have the potential for awkward moments; not recognizing long-ago friends and classmates being the primary concern. I figured to myself... If I can recognize at least one out of ten people, I think I'll be good and avoid the spectre of wandering around aimlessly, not interacting with anyone.
It was a beautiful, picture-perfect evening at the Bathurst Marina. Not cool, not too warm, and remarkably, very few bugs. That meant the restaurant area could be kept open with the outdoor patio area, and people were able to mingle freely both indoors and outdoors. I soon recognized some familiar faces, including Keith Assaff, a co-graduate that I hung around with quite a lot. And my fears about my 1-in-10 threshold proved to be unfounded. I recognized at least 11% of the people present :-).
The reunion evening was pleasant and straightforward, and soon it was over. Three hours of reminiscing about times long past. I said my goodbyes and said I'd be back for the 50th, in 2035.
My sister Elvira and I spent a total of three days in the Bathurst area, visiting old friends and notable places, and in general taking it easy. We visited my parents' grave at the local cemetary. There's so much of the original Bathurst that is gone - old historic buildings don't seem to survive here.
