Class Reunion: The Podcast

Hello, classmates and friends! It has been a while since I posted on this account, but I am back today to share some exciting news: “Class Reunion: The Podcast” was featured in today’s Springfield News-Leader! Reporter (and fellow small town Missouri native) took an interest in the show and wrote this AMAZING story about how the podcast all came together and how it culminated in that wonderful in-person reunion last fall. (She even wrote about the bonfire at Kirk’s and ’s observation about how far we’ve all come in our relationships with each other.) And yes, it is my dream to revisit this podcast again, with the hope that I can eventually interview all of our classmates. Thank you so much for your continued support and cheerleading for this show — and our ever-changing community of classmates. Sending much love to you all! ❤️

Check out the story on the website or pick up a copy if you live in the area! Thanks, Greta, for taking such great care with this piece!

It’s ! Did you know that “Class Reunion: The Podcast” has supported nearly a dozen nonprofits and charity groups, thanks to sponsors and folks who have signed up on Patreon?

I wanted to make sure that this show did more than look back at the past. I wanted to do what I could to support folks who are shaping the future of the Ozarks and beyond.

All season long, I was writing checks to groups on behalf of the classmates featured on the show. It was a great honor to contribute what I could, and I hope to repeat this initiative in any future seasons of the show.

If YOU want to support these donations, go to Patreon.com/classreunionpodcast to chip in as little as $3 per month. I’ll keep the Patreon open through next August, which will mark a year since the show launched.

(There’s still time to sponsor bonus episodes, which will be rolling out next year!)

Conservation areas like this one on Crane Creek offer free access to some of Missouri’s beautiful wilderness. This one’s called Wire Road, and the trail loops through the woods to the creek, where it was warm enough (barely) for my youngest to dip his toes in the water. We also found a huge oyster mushroom growing on a tree next to the water. I’d never been on this trail, even though Aurora is just a few miles up the road!

Found the roller skating rink! I have not been able to determine when it closed, but I found out recently that it was open as early as the 1930s/40s! (You’ll have to listen for that story in an upcoming bonus episode with a certain booster who is one of the most recognizable people in Aurora today.)

Class of 2001, representing this Friendsgiving! Hope everyone had a great holiday week. I’ll share some fun photos from Missouri over the next week here. Bob, who is featured in episode No. 14, lives in Northeast Missouri now, and we got to spend part of the weekend together with his wife and new kiddo.

Is it time for another reunion yet? Debbie, right, was our last classmate episode featured in this season of the podcast, but maybe I can get Clarissa and Kim lined up for the next? When will that be?? I have no idea, but looking through reunion pics makes me so glad I can call these people friends. Not former classmates, but current buddies that I can exchange random GIFs with on Facebook. Kim and I Facetimed making dinner last month, and it was for sure a highlight of my week. Have you ever been to a reunion and it sparked new friendships? Or maybe even new love? I’d love to hear about it!

Last little gem from First Independent Bank. Jack Muench’s wife painted this scene of Aurora, with the iconic mill on the right and the train that brought so many people, goods and growth to this little pocket of Southwest Missouri. It’s the view from Baldwin Park/Old Marionville Road.

At 1,401 ft, it is, indeed, the Summit City of the Ozarks. Springfield comes in at 1,299 ft, and Branson is a whopping 700 ft lower in elevation (774).

I’ve come to realize that this particular spot in Southwest Missouri is exactly where the Midwest ends and the South begins. Just 10 miles south, you’re in the Ozark Mountains, which is really the northernmost part of what most Southerners might call the South. (I just met a woman from Winslow, Arkansas recently who has helped confirmed this theory about the North/South line.)

Aurora flashback, part 2: More photos from the collection at First Independent Bank in Aurora. (Seriously, go check out these photos if you are in town. They so so beautiful to see in large format prints on the wall.)

These are the men and women who called Aurora home, including one of the town’s founders (Stephen Elliott, right, in that second photo. I think that’s Elliott’s mom in the middle).

One of the photos says: “The boys and girls who make business good at the shoe factory.” I know plenty of these folks still have ties to the town now. It would be amazing to find their relatives and show them these images.

Aurora flashback, part 1: This amazing collection of photos is on display at the First Independent Bank on Elliott Street in Aurora, where hometown pride is on display in the form of these stunning images. There are so many, I am going to split them into two posts.

These are what I’ll call the kid photos. Some of these school photos were taken at White Oak School, which was a rural school on the east side of town. That main building in the back of the first photo? That’s the original Aurora High School, and it was still standing in the late 1990s. We called that the A wing, and it full of these big tall classrooms and was *so* old.

They eventually tore it down, but we spent countless hours going up and down those stairs and staring out those huge windows.

The Maple Park Cemetery in Aurora has a small plaza honoring the military veterans from the town, including those who fought in the Civil War.

Missouri is famously the compromise state, winning statehood on 1821 as the only state north of Mason-Dixon Line where it was legal to enslave people. By the time the Civil War started, Missourians enlisted in both the Union and the Confederacy. These bricks make no distinction. Do we?

There are so many underlying questions and even tensions when you start a project like this podcast. How much digging do we do? Where is the line between the personal and the political? What are the universal truths that we agree on? Whose narrative is missing from this cemetery? Whose voices are missing from this podcast?

On Veteran’s Day, my heart feels grateful for veterans who have entered into unthinkable situations to sort out unthinkable crises. To face individual fears for the benefit of the collective. To put aside one’s personal safety to compromise another’s.

Freedom isn’t free, but where is freedom in conscription, enslavement and bloody battles like the one at Wilson’s Creek in nearby Republic? (It’s actually in a town called Battlefield, which is the name of a thoroughfare in Springfield and, with zero irony, the city’s mall.)

These aren’t questions that have concrete answers, but they are ones that come up when we have the courage to enter into this dialogue. Not to engage in battle, though. I didn’t want this show to feel combative in any way, but I know that asking questions like this brings us into an uncomfortable place.

We are living lives that these ancestors couldn’t have imagined. Can we have conversations that are also equally as evolved? That’s the space I’m carving out with this lil show. Thank you to all the veterans out there, both living and dead, who might have shared this desire for unity, equity and, yes, freedom.

By the old Jenkins school, a reminder of how much geography plays a role in small town life.

Aurora is surrounded by rural areas and even smaller communities whose kids sometimes went to Aurora and sometimes went to Monett or Mt. Vernon or Crane. (When the Jenkins school closed, its students split between Aurora and Cassville.)

The country kids, like my recent guest Bobby, had a different experience than the town kids, but we also all intertwined. None of us felt like city kids, that’s for sure. I remember using a subway in New York for the first time or traveling to Europe and wondering if anyone from my town had ever done that. But had any of them gone to EE bridge? Or swam in the lake at Shell K**b? Or found the waterfall on the Nat, where the Aurora plateau gave way to the hollers of the Ozarks? (Anyone know why that backroad was called the Nat?)

1999 Miss Holly Tiffany is on the “Class Reunion” bucket list! *Every* classmate is on the podcast bucket list, but especially Tiffany, a high school pageant winner, dancer and cheerleader who taught me the joys of drinking pickle juice. (Isn’t it weird the memories we keep in our brains?) Who would you want to hear from in future episodes? Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a class from each decade?

As we approach our last episode of “Class Reunion: The Podcast,” I wanted to share some photos of Aurora and our time there that I haven’t shared yet! Over the next couple of days, you’ll see some familiar and not so familiar faces and places.

This one is one of those familiar sights! It’s the Sunset Drive In, one of the last drive-in theaters in the region. It’s been open since 1950, so can you imagine the memories made here during all those years? I can remember birthday parties and late nights watching 1990s classics including “Bio-Dome” and “Anaconda.” (Every once in a while, I’ll be watching something and have this wave of “Ohhhh, I think I saw this at the drive-in.”)

Definitely snuck in via the trunk at least once.

What do you remember about the drive in?? It’s closed for the season but will reopen in the spring.

This whole podcast has been an awesome experience, and it's been especially worth it for these last two episodes, starting with this one featuring Bob Johnson, who also interviews me for the second half of the show.

It was the very first call I recorded for what became “Class Reunion: The Podcast.”

Bob (who is dressed as Einstein in that Halloween pic) and I talk about his around-the-world (literal) journey to becoming a farmer in North Missouri, and my newsprint-stained path toward becoming a journalist. I was still working at the newspaper at the time of this chat, and his wife, Tiffany, was a few weeks away from giving birth to their first kiddo.

Giving Bobby the keys to the interview was such a rewarding experience — I can definitely recommend starting a podcast as a way to get to know your friends and spark new ones. (That’s a hint about the finale!)

If you would have asked me 20 years ago if I thought Bobby Johnson would be one of my closest friends, I’d have said you were nuts. Bobby was super smart and funny but he also annoyed me with his jokes. We went to the same college and went our separate ways, but somehow ended up in each other’s orbit.

By the time this first photo was taken (on our Mizzou graduation day — we both graduated a semester late), we’d squared our knot and knew we’d be friends forever. A year later, he became Uncle Bobby, and he’s been part of the family ever since.

And if you knew Bobby then, you might not believe what he’s been up to now. (He’s Dr. Bob!)

Today’s new episode of “Class Reunion” features back-to-back chats recorded last winter when I was first starting on this podcast journey. I interviewed him and then he interviewed me, and I decided to keep our chats together because they were so interconnected anyway.

Check out the podcast anywhere you listen. And if you want to support the show, go to patreon.com/classreunionpodcast and sign up!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/class-reunion-the-podcast/id1581354016?i=1000540782344

This week's episode of "Class Reunion" is a fun one! Sara Williams married Caleb Hamilton a few years after we all graduated together from Aurora High School. She's now a basketball mom with two teens and a toddler at home, and in this conversation, she tells the story of when she knew she's marry Caleb, what it's been like to be in a relationship so long and what memories she treasures most from her childhood. (Hint: One of the involves going out on the road with her dad, when he was a trucker.)

Does it get any cuter? 🥰.hamilton.927 and I, at the Aurora pool, circa 1992. We would later go on to win the Big 8 Conference in volleyball together, which was, let me tell you, a pretty cool thing when you’re in the thick of the season. It’s still a cool thing, but life (and pics like this) does put it all in perspective.

We’ve got ourselves a new episode of “Class Reunion: The Podcast” coming out this week! The episode features a conversation with one of these ballers, who went on to get an athletic scholarship that she ultimately decided to turn down. You’ll hear all about it in the episode that drops tomorrow!

Sign up at Patreon.com/classreunionpodcast to get an email when it’s out! (Plus you’ll feel good knowing that you’re helping make donations to Aurora-area non-profits. This week’s is going to For the Kids, an org that serves foster kids in Lawrence County.)

Time for episode 12 of “Class Reunion!”

This week, my classmate Travis Meeks takes us along as he recounts the good, the terrible and holy &@:$ I’m still here.

When he was playing football in high school, he was dreaming of a career in scuba. He found his way to the kitchen instead, where he became a chef who is now studying to become a journalist and professional writer. Travis is always full of surprises, and the conversation was brimming with them.

(Also, Travis was cooking for a fundraiser the weekend of our reunion but he brought homemade truffles nonetheless!)

Thanks to this episode’s sponsor Aurora Professional Pharmacy, as well as Patreon supporters (like Travis! Thanks, buddy) who chip in a few bucks each month to support the show. Per tradition, I made a donation to Ozarks Food Harvest on behalf of the class, which was Travis’ nonprofit of choice.

I’m hoping to get a handful of folks to sign up at $3 for the next year to fuel this last month of production on the show! Thank you for considering it!

https://open.spotify.com/show/0lVeRyzGppdysjUsFdgVrO?si=Jemd1vybQfacdEhvsAQPiA

Patrons, check your inboxes! New episode is dropping as we speak. 🏈

'Keep this between just us girls' | Addie Broyles on Patreon Join Addie Broyles on Patreon to get access to this post and more benefits.

New episode alert! 🚨🚨

Travis Boatwright was a kid who could crack you up and p**s you off in the span of 10 minutes. Or maybe that’s just because we spent so much time together in band or killing time on the weekends.

But Travis has turned out to be a pretty decent human, as I discovered during our interview earlier this year.

He and his whole family came to the reunion last month, and it was awesome to see them doing so well. (Coley, you can be an honorary member of the class!)

Listen whenever you find podcasts!

Thanks to this episode’s sponsor: 𝗔𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗿𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗰𝘆, a historic pharmacy in downtown Aurora operated by Tom Morrison, Class of 1973.

Patron support and sponsorships like these pay for production of the podcast and donations that support nonprofits that matter to the featured classmate. (Travis selected St, Jude Children’s Hospital, so I’m making that donation this week.)

Go to Patreon.com/classreunionpodcast if you want to chip in!

One of the best moments for me at our class reunion last month was hanging out with all the mamas, especially the ones like Abby who are raising kids (and pets!) in their chosen village.

So many of us have been through divorce, child or parent loss and job changes, and yet we make sure our kids have what they need to have their own special memories of childhood.

Many classmates brought those kids to the reunion, and it was so great to see them in real life!

So, to all my mama classmate friends: I see you working so hard to give your kids everything you can. Keep going. I’m cheering for us. 💪🏼👩‍👧‍👧👑🦸‍♀️

Listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube! Thanks to Aurora Allstate agent Bill Baker for his sponsorship of this week’s episode.

Want to support the show? Head over to patreon.com/classreunionpodcast to sign up!

It’s Friday! After a week like this one (that started immersed in Aurora history and is now wrapping up back home in Austin), I’m amazed to think that the cycle of time just keeps churning.

This photo of Aurora-area children at a country school called White Oak is one of dozens of incredible images I saw over the course of the class reunion weekend.

I’ll roll them out over the next few weeks, but look at the details in the clothing, the faces, the hair. The little boy in front doesn’t have shoes.

I’m trying to imagine what their Fridays might have looked like. What was it like then when the days got shortener and the nights colder? What did they know about the world outside their community? Where are their ancestors now? (I swear some of these kids look like kids I went to school with!)

This is the kind of storytelling that I love to do, via podcasts or freelance writing or Instagram posts or Zoom sessions. I hope this podcast has helped you think about your own childhood and sense of “home!” ❤️🏡

Abby and I have had a wild friendship.

We were BFFs all through high school, including in classes like chemistry (below), but when we went to college, we broke up.

Twenty years later, we finally talked about it.

New on "Class Reunion: The Podcast" this week: The one and only Abby Byers.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0FRBEkrPrRlLUJswEudL2a?si=4Em4Sgv8TMC_a-22LANkJQ&dl_branch=1

Hi! It’s Addie, back in Texas after a BIG weekend in Aurora for not one but TWO reunions. I laughed and cried and felt all the feels about seeing so many people from this particular time and place in my life. (And yes, I brought my recorder to the bonfire after party for some impromptu podcasting😍🔥.)

As I head into the last few weeks of podcast production, can I ask you to consider heading to Patreon.com/classreunionpodcast to sign up to support this project? The more supporters/sponsors who sign up, the more episodes I can produce, and I want to keep making them! Thanks if you’re already signed up! Makes a big difference. ❤️

We had ourselves a reunion! Chicken wings and tractors and Sonic cups and the best pulled pork I’ve had in years. Thanks to everybody who made this happen. Community doesn’t just happen. We have to make it. And today, we brought this group back together. Thanks, Class of 2001. You’re pretty cool.

I’m in total awe of the historical collection that and her crew have amassed at the Houn Dawg Alumni and Outreach Center. I had no clue the marching band put out a record in 1977 or the details of when the mill was built. The alumni center is open year round but it was buzzing for the All School Reunion today.

Rawley and I were always going head to head.

We competed as neighbor kids trying to see who could run faster and climb higher. In middle school, we ran against each other for student council (and I either lost or there was a recall — I’ve blocked the details from my memory). By high school, we realized that underneath that competition was a friendship that we could rely on as we went through all those ups and downs.

He beat me (again?) to become class president our senior year, and now it’s a running joke that he has to plan the reunions (even though I usually end up doing it 🤣🙃).

In this week’s episode of “Class Reunion,” Rawley explained how he looks back on those years and how he’s changed in the past 20 years becoming a father and husband.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Head to Patreon.com/classreunionpodcast if you want to chip in to help produce the show!

My conversation with Liz Lawson () took me way, way back.

I’d forgotten that she was on one of the (many) teams that my dad coaches over the years (first photo).

In the latest episode of “Class Reunion,” Liz takes us back to the days when we played softball in jean shorts. And bought cleats at L&M Athletics and wore T-shirt jerseys sponsored by the local True Value.

And posed for seemingly endless team photos.

Head over to Patreon.com/classreunionpodcast to sign up for behind-the-scenes updates, which you’re gonna want as we head into our IRL class reunion this weekend!

For $3/month, you can become a Patron and get access to even more gems like these and updates from my trip to MO that starts on Thursday. Thanks for your support!

Two sides of the same family!

Thank you so much for being on “Class Reunion,” Liz! Loved hearing your boys in the background. You’ve built a sweet (and silly!) family.

I spy some upcoming guests (and some faces I hope to see at our IRL class reunion happening next week)! 👀

New episode drops on Thursday!

If you're enjoying "Class Reunion," consider joining Patreon! For less than $1 an episode, you can help support the production of the show.

Addie Broyles is creating Class Reunion: The Podcast | Patreon Become a patron of Addie Broyles today: Get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.

Matt Wrinkle and I are convening at noon on the “Class Reunion” Instagram page to record a LIVE episode of the podcast. Come join us and see how the magic works! Instagram.com/classreunionpodcast

Class Reunion: The Podcast (@classreunionpodcast) • Instagram photos and videos 126 Followers, 273 Following, 34 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Class Reunion: The Podcast ()

The latest episode of "Class Reunion" is up! It features a conversation with Kathy McVey, formerly Caldwell, who was one of my volleyball teammates all the way through high school. She's a teacher in Bentonville now, married to her high school sweetheart, and she's still as involved in sports as ever. Listen on Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts! https://open.spotify.com/show/0lVeRyzGppdysjUsFdgVrO

Sports episode, coming right up.

This week’s episode of “Class Reunion” is sponsored by Pete Young, Aurora High School Class of 1975. He wanted to support the show and spread the word about the annual all-school reunion happening Sept. 24/25 in Aurora. All classes welcome, he says.

A little behind the scenes on the pics: My mom graduated a few years before Pete, and she founds these pics in her yearbooks. He lives down the street from her now, right next to the football field.

A note to my classmates: The Class of 2001 is hosting a few events that weekend. Join the Facebook group to find out more. DM me if you need the link!

Thanks for the support, Pete! Wanna sponsor an upcoming episode? Email me at [email protected].

Thanks for the support! It’s been fun to hear from people who are enjoying the show! Next episode is coming out on Tuesday.

This week's episode of "Class Reunion" is live! It features this goofball, who was one of the most involved students in our class. But at home, Brandon was dealing with more than he let on. I'm grateful that he shared his story with me in this week's show.

Brandon asked that his donation this week go to Honor Flight of the Ozarks, which paid for a trip he took in 2009 with his grandfather, a Purple Heart recipient named Bill Weldy, who raised Brandon and his three younger sisters.

This week's episode also features special shout outs from fellow Aurora alumni, including this episode's sponsor, Pete Young, a member of the Class of 1975, who wanted to help spread the word about the upcoming all-class reunion taking place Sept. 24/25. If you attended Aurora High School, he wants to see you there! Thanks for the support, Pete.

I'll post a link to the show in the comments or you can find it anywhere you listen to podcasts.