Re-Discovery Tour Days 7-10? Keeping Track of the Wonderful Times

Saturday, June 10th brought promise of a form visit to campus with my classmates, but first, we gathered for breakfast at High Acres, for bagels and cream cheese, lox, onions, tomatoes, capers and a frittata with leftover salmon from the Thursday night dinner. The great thing about the weekend was that all the residents of the house and guests stepped up and pitched in, either in prep or in clean up, so the lift was light for all.

Some folks left early to get to campus for the memorial service at 9:30. The rest of us laggards set off to get there at 10:30 for the Alumni Parade.

This year the graduation weekend was separated from the Alumni return, so it was a little anti-climactic to have a parade for which there were no spectators, but that didn’t stop us from having fun along the route to Coit, where we settled in for an early lunch. Jon S. shared the location of our form’s names, a tradition of SPS to list all graduates of each form. We teased Judd Nelson that there was a patina of finger grease that emphasized his name. Most of the rest of us had no such loving caresses apparent.

We took a long meandering walk through the new field house, searching for the advertised pickle ball court. Not finding it, we nevertheless witnessed a merry post prandial pickle ball game for Jon, Lita and Joan and Kevin, with a “net” of yoga mats on end. Meanwhile, the rain began to pummel the roof, and miraculously, the rain stopped just before I walked over to the old Hargate now Friedman Community Center for the 1:00pm panel discussion of “In Service to the Greater Good” led by Rector Kathy Gilles.

Walked over to the Tracy Memorial Theatre, an idylic outdoor performance space nestled on the hill up to Drury House for a little of the memorial service for the class of 1983, including Jonathan, seeing Nora and her sister Paula there.

2:45 Form Photo on the grass in front of the Ohrstrom Library. A mad dash to the boathouse for the 3:30PM outing.

It was a great decision to have some younger formmates assist us getting the precious shell down to the water’s edge. I’m here to tell you it was a lot easier at the 20th reunion than the 45th. Tom L. stepped up to be our coxswain, and thank goodness he did because the deets of how to row were very murky and not used recently enough. I was in a perpetual state of confusion about starboard and port. I knew I rowed starboard, but there I was on the left side of the boat. So even though Tom’s instructions were crystal clear, I was missing that perspective thang – it’s from the POV of the coxswain, not from the rowers. Doh. Finally worked that out sometime later in the evening at the dinner probably. Here’s the one photo I have to show just what a struggle it was this time. I laughed to see the Concord Ambulance waiting outside when we emerged to catch the shuttle back to campus. More than one of us vowed to not try that again at the 50th. Or maybe I should make a vow to do it. The picture made me laugh at the pain on my face and my terrible form. It wasn’t the arms, back or shoulders, but the cringeworthy pain in my knees as I slide forward for the stroke.

Dinner at the Kimball Jenkin’s Estate in Concord was lovely, organized by Nora. Homey petunia pots of purple, white and red graced each of the six tables. Drinks, dinner and dancing followed. It was wonderful to see my dear friend Kaja after 45 years, and to catch up with Carolyn and Paul and Mr. Burns, one of our faculty who returned and spent the evening with us.

Drive back to Pittsfield was uneventful and I slept another blissful night of sleep.

Sunday, Michael and June had arranged for BBQ to be delivered, and it was a delightful day of hanging out and enjoying the house and our gathered friends. Monday morning we rolled out around 10AM fanning out across New England after a successful reunion.

I headed back to New Milford for another brief stop with David and Ando. We had a lovely dinner of reunion leftovers and caught up, reliving our earlier careers together. It was such a great time. After a long quiet sleep, I got back in the car to head to New York to see my friend Bob. More anon.

Self-Discoveries:

• It’s a completely upgraded experience to “couch surf” when you are in your 60s and your friends have quite different accommodations.
• The friends you make when you are still germinating as a person will last longer than those you make as an adult. I guess the trick is to keep germinating.
• Love more than you expect to be loved, and listen up.
• Don’t set arbitrary limits on yourself. I noted that I had made several, noted above in the “not rowing at the 50th” and in my slowness to dance at the dinner.
• If you are going to have an AirBnB, try to imagine every experience your guest will have and anticipate it. There was not anything our hosts didn’t think about. Here’s my favorite shot of the deluxe accommodations.