Above:
Julie Hollander
Kupsov, Lesley
Pearl and
Joanna Rubiner
do the girl-talk
thing.
Left:
Tables were
packed and
friendships
rekindled at
West
Bloomfield High
School's 10-
year reunion.
=Memory
LESLEY PEARL SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
I
didn't create the fastest burn-
ing cigarette paper. I didn't
score a position as fashion ed-
itor for Vogue or boast a buffed
body to show off as in Romy and
Michelle's High School Reunion.
I didn't even have a dark-yet-fas-
cinating career as a professional
hitman like John Cusack in
M THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Grosse Pointe Blank.
So when my classmates ex-
pressed their shock that I re-
turned to West Bloomfield for my
10-year high-school reunion, I had
to share in their surprise. After
all, I wasn't the typical "co-ed."
Somewhere after Adat Shalom
nursery school and cheerleading
practice, I developed a "rebellious
streak." I spent prom night danc-
ing in a gay bar and walked
through commencement cere-
monies in Salvation Army duds
and blue lipstick.
When I arrived in San Fran-
cisco three years ago, I felt like I
was finally home. Like Rudolph
the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the
Land of the Misfit Toys, I had ar-
rived.
Lesley Pearl, a professional
fund-raiser in San Francisco, is
a former staff writer for the
Detroit Jewish News.
And yet, when I received the in-
vitation to my 10-year West
Bloomfield High School reunion,
I was drawn back to the Midwest.
I had visions of Orchard Lake
Road when it was still two lanes
wide and late nights at the Village
Place drinking hazelnut coffee so
weak I could read the newspaper
through it.
I wondered, was Lisa Paulsen
still skinny? Whatever happened
to Nicole Weingarden, the girl
with whom I shared a best-friends
jewelry charm? And was it true
that Joanna Rubiner was dating
Cousin Oliver from "The Brady
Bunch"?
July 12 at the Novi Hilton, I got
my answers.
Yes, Lisa is still skinny. And
gorgeous. Nicole is married and
lives in Chicago. And Joanna was
dating Cousin Oliver, but now
they're just friends.
That's not all I found out.
I discovered that Rodney Wil-
son still has a body to rival fitness
trainer Tony Little's. I learned
that Michelle Gurvitz is a doctor
in Los Angeles, and Linda Rosen-
feld works as a film and video pro-
ducer and writer in Ferndale.
More importantly, I learned that
most of us had grown up.
A former Detroiter "meets her demons"
at a 10-year high-school reunion.
ne
As I walked into the hotel with
my best friend Julie Hollander
Kupsov and her husband, I once
again became a 16-year-old —
smoking a cigarette in an effort to
hide the fear and nervousness of
possible peer rejection. I'm not
wealthy. I'm not married. All Pve
got to show for the past 10 years
is that I "got out." Or so I thought.
I had to stifle the urge to get the
hell out, jump on a plane and go ous," "fund-raising — sounds right
back to San Francisco without up your alley," and "You look won-
ever showing my face. And yet, I'd derful." (No more pink hair, I ex-
traveled more than 3,000 miles to plained.)
see these people. I grabbed Julie's
No one asked if I was married
hand and decided to face my or how much money I make. The
demons. .
lack of a diamond on my left hand
My first glimpse was of Heather and funky platform shoes proba-
Silles, whom I had roller-skated bly made those questions moot.
with at Bonaventure every Sat- But looking back, no one seemed
urday in fourth grade. Her lips to ask those questions of anyone.
curled into a smile, and she threw We all were more interested in
her arms around me.
sharing our little victories and
"My mother asked if you would tripping down memory lane with
be here. I told her I didn't know," inside jokes and nicknames.
she said, adding, "I'm glad you
Most of us have done well for
are." I heard those words a lot ourselves. Some have less hair,
throughout the evening, along many boast a few more wrinkles.
with "San Francisco — Pm so jeal- And yet, it seems, most of us have
Left:
Tah dah!
Lesley
Pearl and
Rachel
Plecas
show off
their class
sweatshirt.
grown into ourselves and look, and
feel, better than ever.
For most of us, high school was
not the pinnacle. In fact, it was an
awkward beginning of life yet to
come, fraught mostly with pain,
angst and growth.
But high school was also
marked with friendships which
seemed to buffer all of that. And
those connections are what we
come back for.
Ten years after graduation I
know that San Francisco is my
home. West Bloomfield is where
I come from. It's where I still re-
turn — a little older, a bit gentler.
I come back to remember who
I was, and glory in who I am. ❑