(Rolling Prairie, IN) - These days, lasting friendships are hard to come by. Wise men hold on to them. In Rolling Prairie, some lifelong school chums still get together on the regular, 58 years after graduating from high school.

 

Every third Wednesday for over a decade now, a group of men from Rolling Prairie High School’s 1967 graduating class gather at Jenny Rae’s Restaurant and reminisce.

 

They call themselves the ROMEO Club: Retired Old Men Eating Out.

 

“I think it started in 2014,” recalls Bill Adams, one of the regulars. “We were retired, hadn’t seen each other, so we decided this would be a good way.”

 

In the fall, meet-ups subside a bit, since some of the men spend their winters in warmer climates, but in the spring, they pick up right where they left off. “We even did it over COVID when we could, when restaurants were open,” said Adams. “We’ve lost six people since we started, but our numbers are still holding pretty good.”

 

“Most of us have known each other since first grade,” said Rich Mrozisnki, a ’67 grad who joined the group a few years ago. “It’s pretty cool,” he said, “that us guys from little Rolling Prairie High School, a school that doesn’t even exist anymore, that we still get together, enjoy each other’s company.”

 

The Class of ’67 was the next to last class to graduate from Rolling Prairie, before the school district consolidated. Maybe that’s why they’re so tight. They have been faithful with their five-year reunions, which the guys say are always well-attended. They claim a solid 60 percent of their 84-member class participate in reunions, while the national average is only about 20-30 percent.

 

But there’s no substitute for the monthly gatherings over biscuits and gravy at Jenny Rae’s. “This is the only place we haven’t been thrown out of,” joked Mrozinski. The classic diner on the corner of U.S. 20 and Wiley Road holds a lot of memories for the old Rolling Prairie boys, who hung out there (when it was Bob’s BBQ) sipping ten-cent Cokes as kids.

 

“We used to talk about girls and cars and stuff. Now we talk about our last doctor’s appointment,” Mrozinksi chuckled, “but we just have a great time.”

 

At a recent gathering, someone brought a yearbook from their senior year. Conversation flowed casually from one topic to another as they perused the pages: former teachers, football games, boyhood shenanigans, experiences in Vietnam, plans for the winter. Words in the yearbook’s introduction offer a hint at what has kept the men together all these years:

 

Truth is a fleeting moment of joy in the morning of our life, a moment quickly felt, stubbornly endured, and totally cherished.

 

To capture every facet of this exciting life, we are constantly on the move. Sometimes we become so busy that we lose sight of what we really want and need in life. So we stop for a moment and look out a window, or listen to the choir practicing, or just run our hand along the smooth wood of a desk, and in our minds, a dream takes shape, a dream with a plan for our future years…

 

Despite our moments of dreaming, youth is a time of realistic living. We find that to reach our goals, we must first overcome many difficulties… But we take comfort in the knowledge that there is always someone to help and encourage us— a parent, a teacher, a Friend.

 

But so quickly another year, with its own problems and Joys, comes to an end. Before we realize it, the last chapter in the textbook is completed, and the last class has ended.