Update 7-3-12

 

Hi,

 

    There were thunderstorms in Washington, DC, in addition to those in New York.  Well, in Washington, they were a bit more than the usual thunderstorms.  The storm system started in Illinois and pushed straight through to the East coast, wiping out power to about three million people.  When I arrived at my friend's house just outside DC, she said, "Welcome to Hell."

    It seemed the power had been out for twenty-one hours, and I guess that now, a week later, there are some places where it still isn't on.  But her living room was cool, so we talked there for the rest of the afternoon.  We'd intended to go out to dinner, but -- reportedly -- the few restaurants that were open in the area were mobbed.  And the only way we got news from friends, about power or restaurants, was by driving around the neighborhood until our cell phones connected with a still-working microwave tower.

    I mainly needed to call Stu Borman, to see if the intended South gathering at his house was still on for the following afternoon.  "Yep," Stu said when I got through.  It seemed that he and his wife still luckily had power and that there was only minor tree damage in their backyard.  That was fortunate because his neighbors had their car roof crushed by a falling tree.  "I think they'll have to total their car," Stu said.

    More luckily, as my friend was lighting up the barbeque to grill supper, her power came on.  "That's amazing," she said.  "Normally, we have the worst power company in the country.  Let's just hope the electricity stays."  It did.

    When I got to the party the next afternoon -- only a few minutes late because my Mapquest directions, printed out two weeks earlier in Los Angeles couldn't allow for future fallen trees and blocked off streets -- almost everyone was already there:  Stu and his wife Elize, Irene Saunders Goldstein and her friend Jerry, Marion Wachtel and her husband, Jane Wolff and her husband, and Robin Seader Cottmeyer and Marilyn Horowitz Goldhammer.  The only people who arrived shortly after I did were Ira and Rachael Robinson Mitzner, who'd driven in from the beach.  They'd had power there but didn't know if they'd have it at home.  "You can always go back to the beach if you don't," someone suggested, and Rachael and Ira said they'd already thought about that.

    Still, it was great to see everyone, even if we didn't take advantage of Stu and Elize's backyard.  The storms may have passed, but the heat and humidity hadn't, so we all appreciated the working air conditioner.  We also tried to catch up and bring everyone's news to the present.  The Washington group had gathered before, but that was when Robert Fiveson was still in the area, and he's been in Panama for five or six years.  So there was plenty to catch up on.

    Some of it was familiar news, and I accidentally stepped on the punch line of a story Stu was telling Ira because I thought Stu was telling a different story.  And there were some surprises:  it seemed that Jane Wolff and Irene's friend Jerry -- who had never met before -- had spent childhood summers in the same area.  That seemed as coincidental as Irene's first meeting Jerry in Los Angeles, when they both lived in Washington.  Stu had his yearbook, too, so that triggered some old stories.  We mainly tried to avoid them, to prove that we weren't living in the past, but some of the stories were so funny that they had to be told.  Of course, they're unrepeatable here because I'd have to get too many people's permission to tell them, and some of those people weren't at the party.  But, to me, it's always interesting to hear what people's perceptions were in high school and how they've changed.  And, often, when information is filled in, something that seemed unexplainable fifty years ago suddenly makes sense.  Or as much sense as it's ever going to, since it was a decision made by a fifteen-year-old.

    Stu and Elize had generously prepared too much food.  At one point, Stu said, "I thought people would eat more."  For one thing, as usual at these gatherings, everyone was talking too much to eat.  For another, we seemed to be a particularly health conscious group who intended to be around for many more reunions.

    Talk eventually worked around to a possible big fiftieth gathering, and we all agreed that if we could guarantee one as memorable as our thirty-seventh in 2002, many people might be there.  But we also acknowledged how many people now stay in touch electronically and mentioned that our fiftieth reunion is still three years ahead.  It's too early to even consider making plans.

    In addition, we talked about how many of our former class members still can't be found.  As I've mentioned before, Paul DeMartino and many other people did an amazing job in the pre-Facebook summer of 2001 when they located two-hundred-and-twenty-five of our three-hundred member former class.  But ten years later, that quarter of our class has still been hard to find.  Stu said that he'd written almost a dozen Bob Greenes on Facebook, but none of them were his missing friend from grade and high school.  Similarly, people talked about Barry and Irene Cohen, and Rob Coleman and Tom Connelly, mentioning how common those names seem to be, so how untraceable.  I added that even with a name as seemingly uncommon as Mario Derogotis, a half-dozen guys still turned up.  And you can only write so many strangers, so many times before you give up, feeling you're intruding.  Also, married women who change their last names are even harder to find.  Marilyn mentioned that she purposely used both her maiden and married names in some Internet listings to make it easier for people to find her.  Still, we have another three years to find these missing seventy-five people, and if someone wants a puzzle possibly more challenging than Sudoku, just ask for the list.

    So there may be a big reunion in 2015, or we may just keep having these small gatherings.  Personally, I prefer the smaller parties because you get to listen and talk more.  But some people like loud music and dancing, and the power of that can't be denied.  Also, in a few more years, maybe the grandchildren who interrupt some of our plans will be old enough so none of us have to babysit.

 

Photos from Stu's gathering at:  picasaweb . google . com / SouthHS65  (as usual, take out the spaces)