1978

In the interest of trying to write this column from a different place each month, I drove to El Paso, Tex., from the booming metropolis of Deming, N.M. (last column location), boarded a plane, and ended up in Richmond, Va. (boy, this is gonna be good for my Mileage Plus program!). Tomorrow, I'll finish this up just before I go watch the Mets stomp the Cubs at Shea Stadium with Marc Farley.

Farls clued me in on the eastern edition of the August 8th "mini-reunion" weekend held at Otisfield, Maine. However, I think that I'll give you details supplied by one of the major participants, Celia Chen. Celia and John Lee decided to exchange vows, even though they don't plan to live under the same roof, much less in the same state, until possibly next spring. This must be modern romance? I hope the phone companies and airlines appreciate this arrangement. John will continue to work as an instructor in the Sculpture Department at Dartmouth and live with Scott Barthold and Joan Crane, Scott's wife, in Lyme, N.H., and Celia will live in Alexandria, Va., and continue to work at the National Academy of Sciences, co-ordinating five major studies dealing with marine environments. By all accounts the wedding was a great success with swimming, skiing, and windsurfing on Thompson Lake being featured events (except, of course, the ceremony itself!). I believe that about one-third of the class was at the scene obviously the place to be in New England.

The other place to be was at the Rocky Mountain edition of "mini-reunion" weekend. Another one-third of the class flew from Boston to Salt Lake City to attend the wedding of Jon (Jon, I'm resisting great temptation to include nicknames) Keeve and famous rock-and-roll drummer, Tanya Bowen. This was the first wedding I had been to where the bride, the groom, and the minister all played in the band at the reception. And to return a favor to Jon, JimBassett gave a stirring toast as best man. Another notorious '78, only identified as "Annie," made what's hoped to be her final appearance at an "official" function. Many breathed a sigh of relief when she made only a cameo appearance in the front seat of Jon's car after the wedding. Jon and Tanya, lately a Med-Evac nurse with a Life Flight program in Salt Lake, do plan to live under the same roof and, in fact, they are presently living in Munich where Jon is finishing a trauma/emergency care fellowship. Later, they plan to remain together, but not under a roof, as a November-December trek in Nepal and Thailand is planned before temporarily returning to Salt Lake City for the winter.

On the way back to work in New Mexico from the wedding, I stopped in Denver for dinner with Barbara Dau and her husband Stephen Hoffman. Unfortunately, Barb was called away on business (on Sunday!), but Steve and I had a great time discussing their recent trip to India. I did find out from Barb, on my most recent pass through Denver, that Barb and Steve also "enjoy" a modern relationship. Due to her constant travel as a corporate financial advisor and negotiator for Boettcher Cos., Barb is rarely home and her status there has been temporarily downgraded to "roommate."

Question of the month: Where was the other third of the class? Later.

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