One of the highlights of my summer experience was the 50th reunion of my graduating class from St. Brigid elementary school on Long Island. Back in 1963, 60 children sat in a small classroom hoping for big things in the future. We had spent eight years together, but now high school beckoned, and all of our lives would change dramatically. Back then, America was a far different place than it is today. John F. Kennedy was president but had fewer than six months to live. The Beatles were just emerging. Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was scaring everybody in the movie...