BREMERTON — Richard Lewis invites his former Armin Jahr Elementary students to meet at the school's flagpole on Jan. 1, 2010.

In 1990, children in a Bremerton elementary school class made a date. In 20 years, they promised, they'd return to the school on Jan. 1, for a reunion. On Friday, the teacher and close to half his class did just that.

Though he hasn't taught there in 15 years, and those grade-schoolers today are pushing 30, he and 11 of them trickled back to the East Bremerton campus Friday just as they'd promised each other two decades ago. Nine were from one class of 20 gifted kids Lewis taught as third- and fifth-graders in 1990 and 1992.

"In some ways, they were different," Lewis recalled. "They knew how to work together and liked each other. They had a good spirit about them."

Back in 1990, when they were 8 years old, they couldn't fathom that they'd one day have children of their own, that they'd variously become a computer expert, a marketing director, a nuclear pipe fitter, a server, a land-use planner, a journalist for a sports website, an actor or a movie-theater manager.

For Lewis, the reunion was like scoring a touchdown. "It's a very wonderful feeling," he said. "This is my spiking of the ball. This is an affirmation that what I was doing was a good thing," he said of the successful reunion. "It verifies what I did for these kids and the way I did it was right."

The invitation remains open for another reunion on Jan. 1, 2020.

To view the full article by Ed Friedrich from the Seattle Times 1/2/2010 go to http://seattletimes.nwsource.com.