From staff reports

A recent two-vehicle collision involved three alumna of Bass Lake High School.

According to Bass Lake Police Authority, a late-model car was struck from behind by a pickup truck around 1:45 p.m. Friday out on Out-on-the-Highway Road.

The car contained three women who were in the Bass Lake area for their 15-year class reunion, and had gone to a regional outlet mall for a lunchtime excursion, where they could “catch up on old times.” They were returning to Bass Lake when the collision occurred.

The driver, 33, had ordered the fettucine alfredo special at the restaurant at which they decided to dine. The others, 33 and 33, respectively, each opted for salad and water only, since the reunion cookout was scheduled for later that day, and they “didn’t want to get too full.”

As they were leaving the restaurant, one of the salad-only women spotted a childhood friend who had moved away when the two were in fourth grade. Their eyes met, they realized who each other was, and they hugged and talked for a minute or two, and they agreed it was fun to see each other after so many years. The former friend doesn’t even live in the area, but had returned the previous weekend to visit a relative who resides in Nearbytown.

Prior to driving back to Bass Lake, the reunion-trio decided to stop briefly at a a few stores at the mall. Two were completely different than they remembered from their high school days. A onetime travel agency is now a craft store, for example. The third, a bookstore, didn’t appear all that different, they agreed.

The front-seat passenger bought a book there, titled, “Oh, The Places We Will Go and Will Have Been,” said the backseat passenger, who had been driving the car when the class-of-’99’ers were on their way to the luncheon, but didn’t feel like sitting at the helm for the 13-minute return trip, relinquishing the keys to her co-former classmate who wound up smack-dab behind the wheel at the time of the incident.

Nobody was injured in the crash, according to a witness at the scene.

Authorities said the driver of the vehicle that rear-ended the car carrying the three women was ticketed for failure to stop.

Names of pickup-truck operator and the three women in the other car were not released.