My wife and I recently ventured to Aberdeen, South Dakota, for the Northern State University homecoming festivities, along with a few friends that are also NSU alumni. Gypsy Days has been a yearly tradition each fall at Northern State since 1916, and we try to get back for it as often as life permits.

The exercise of mentally tacking 25 years onto people you shared your college experience with can be exhausting. Equally exhausting is chit-chatting and catching up with so many people, but, for the most part, it’s a good exhausting. A lot can happen in a quarter-century of living.

A “quarter-century”…I don’t like the sound of that, it sounds sort of old, sort of wrinkly, sort of greying and/or balding, sort of like everyone I ran into this weekend. At least those that have embraced the white walls and opted to forgo some topical magic in a bottle.

As one tends to do when surrounded by those that you were last surrounded by when your body was relatively shiny and new, I indulged a bit too enthusiastically in the consumable magic in a bottle. When that magic wore off there were a lot of rough looking pumpkins that shouldn’t have pushed the midnight hour as far as they did. So it goes.

The majority of the students traipsing around the campus now were not of this world during the time of my own traipsing. Which makes sense, because I’m the same age as all of their parents. I’m in that age range that is supposed to try and make themselves invisible.

Most of those a quarter-century our junior would probably prefer we all worked the night shift in dimly lit surroundings, so they could avoid witnessing the grizzly effects of aging in full, unflinching daylight.

We visited with a few current students (a.k.a. kids) while we were roaming around, and they were all very kind and polite, and respectfully laughed at all of our attempts at humor. Cross-generational humor is a gap that is rarely traversed successfully, but when you get to a certain age the humor is more for your own entertainment anyway.

There was a kid that went above and beyond in his duties to take care of his elder alumni. We were setting out to walk the 2 miles to the football stadium to catch the homecoming game, when some grumbling in the group regarding such a jaunt prompted me seek out alternative means of travel.

I successfully flagged down a well-worn Subaru being driven by a member of the NSU marching band. He stopped to give me a lift, and was more than a bit shocked when I jumped in the passenger seat and informed him that I had five other people with me. Quincy was a good sport and a nice kid. He made my day, not just because of the ride, but because young people like him, and there are lots of them, generate great hope in our future for me.

We paid him for his troubles, and helped him carry his bass guitar amp into the stadium. To top it off, he let me wear his marching band hat…another bucket list box checked. A lot can change in a quarter-century, but a lot can also stay the same. With young people like Quincy on campus Northern is in good hands.

Enjoy the homecoming season.