1981

It was about 8:25 Sunday morning, and I was halfway through the somewhat ill-timed alumni 10K road race, when this fundamental truth hit me in the face: Hanover has hills, and Boston doesn't. The big orange "V" (for Virginia) on the back of Susan Nutt's T-shirt faded over the horizon, and Will Blanchard chugged past. Way past. My legs felt like lead, my stomach like Gatorade. So this was reunion.

The good news was, most of your more sensible classmates slept through this hell. In fact, about 300 classmates slept through it, not counting those of you who weren't in Hanover to begin with. And most of reunion weekend was a lot more fun in fact, the best weekend in our entire lives.

Rachel Kenzie King arrived with the newest, cutest, and least corrupted class member, a month-old baby daughter. (There were, in fact, '81 offspring all over the place courtesy of Bob Smith, JonBassindale, Hans Helmerich, and, from the looks of it, just about everyone else.) Rachel's working for a biotech start-up in Washington. Tina Power and KathleenClapham drove up from Amherst, Mass., where they're tending to the ministry they helped start nine years ago. And they're programming computers, too.

A lot happened in three days. LynetteEubanks Marshall, with new husband in tow, insisted that yes, damn it, she had changed in nine years. Candace Miller conquered Mt. Moosilauke, but didn't quite make it down in time for the last bus back to Hanover. Dawn Decker presented her spring fashion line at Saturday's earlymorning fire drill reveille. And Mary Favret filled the warm June evenings with the sweet tunes of Patsy Cline. Etienne Boillot, TedHibben, and Stuart Lucas, roommates of old and now high-powered venture capital types, spent one last weekend together in North Fayer, before Ted's trek to the wilds of Australia. Pete Weller and Niels Sokol, the Fayerweather Duo, spent the weekend traipsing together from one tent to the next. Pete's a doctor in Providence, Niels is a Cambridge banker.

Searl Vetter flew in from Hong Kong, and Laila Ladha from Nairobi. Dave Holden, cum fiance Anne, came from London, whence his first book of short stories Thisis What Happens When You Don't Pay Attention will appear late this year. (That, Dave, was not "off the record.")