MADELIA – Mary Ann Evans, a Victorian era English writer known as George Eliot, could have been commenting on class reunions when she wrote “how unspeakably the lengthening of memories in common endears our old friends!”

That’s the way I feel about classmates and long ago shared memories, anyway, after celebrating with those who graduated with me from Madelia High School in the early baby boomer days of 1965. Fifty years is a long, long time but it is remarkable how we reconnected over one week end in our hometown.

Part of it has to be our common, shared place called home: Madelia, population 2308, calling itself the “pride of the prairie.”

My wife and I stayed in a B&B apartment on Main Street in an 1872 structure believed to be the first brick building in Watonwan County. The current building owner, town businessman, benefactor and New Ulm native Ev Christensen, commissioned a huge outdoor mural depicting the gun battle between the Younger Brothers Gang and the citizens of Madelia – the Magnificent Seven – who in 1876 captured three and killed one of the outlaws just outside of town. This brought an end to the James-Younger gang of robbers that had terrorized the Midwestern states for ten years.

We decided to ride our bikes to get around town. I noticed how Madelia seemed much smaller than when I cycled my paper route as a grade schooler. As we saw first hand, the town has about 900 mostly neat and tidy houses, two-thirds of them owner occupied with, we learned, an average sale price of $93K. A visit to the town bowling alley, which serves a popular breakfast beginning at 6 a.m. every day, and a couple fun runs down the town swimming pool’s 122 foot water slide added to our experience.

The highlight of the week end was a casual, outdoor party on the well groomed farm of classmate Rich Selland, whom I had known since grade school and with whom I played on sports teams as well as in the school band for years playing third chair coronet, neither of us ever being promoted to second chair.

Nearly two-thirds of the 65 of us who graduated together attended the reunion, most from out of town. Sadly, we remembered ten who had passed away.

Classmates seemed to lack pretense and were often understated, genuinely interested in hearing each other’s stories as well as sharing their own. There is a good-humored modesty combined with a nostalgic kind of patriotism about their long ago school experiences.

The reunion party, which continued for six hours, included yard games, generous portions of food and drink and a wonderful Elvis Presley lookalike – Bill Brown – sang for some of the greatest hits of our youth. Our Elvis specialized in flirting with the chortling women, sitting on laps and offering up a red ribbon for each one.

Many other social activities were planned by the organizers.

A golf tourney on the local course drew ten contestants as out-of-towners from Redwood Falls; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Stow, Ohio; and, Fifty Lakes, Minnesota pulled down the top links honors.

We toured about every inch of our former high school, still fully operational, and vividly recalled teachers and classes. Our group assembled for an evening chat-a-thon at the VFW & American Legion Post. Many congregated at the local bakery “Sweet Indeed” run by the niece of a local classmate. Others of us shared some fine meals at the La Plaza Fiesta Mexican Restaurant, especially popular with the one-in-four residents who identify as Latino or Hispanic. The Madelia Theatre, owned by Christensen, was built in 1939; we were provided a backstage tour of the hidden nooks and crannies none of us saw when we were growing up in the 1950’s.

Father Jim, a classmate who is a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic, delivered a special Sunday morning mass at St. Mary’s, the largest of the towns nine churches.

While some camped in the popular Watona Park facilities adjacent to the river, many others stayed at the Madelia Hotel where a Sunday brunch cordially ended our festivities.

Like so many other Minnesota small towns, Madelia welcomes visitors and eagerly shares the story of its businesses, schools, lively recreational activities and popular community events.

I am pleased to call it my hometown.

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Chuck Slocum, Minnetonka, is president of The Williston Group, a Twin City based management consulting firm. His Class of ’65 Reunion was June 19-21.

Chuck@WillistonGroup.Com