THEY SANG ABOUT BROKEN DREAMS. AND THEN THEY SAW HER IN THE FRONT ROW. As the group performed “The Class of ’57″—a song tracing the fading lives of high school classmates, from housewives to factory workers to those gone too soon—Don Reid spotted an elderly woman in the front row, sobbing uncontrollably. She was clutching a tattered, yellowed yearbook photo. Don realized she was the real-life embodiment of “Mary” from the lyrics—the girl who once dreamed of being a movie star, but whose hands were now calloused and weathered by a hard life. Don stepped off the stage and gently took her hand. The song didn’t end with applause; it ended with a shared, sympathetic silence for all the youthful dreams that never came true.
Nostalgia is usually a warm, fuzzy feeling. We look back at high school and remember the football games, the proms,…