1977

The scene is Doug Ireland's den. Toys and books are strewn everywhere. Jerry Jeff Walker is singing in the background. Two kids are wandering in and out from the back porch while Mary scrapes raisins and beans from the kitchen floor. Doug is on the couch, Powerbook plugged in, class roster slipping off the coffee table, scraps of mail from the alumni office at his feet.

Mary: Who was it that talked you into this anyway? Doug: Amy Cammann, remember? She called the day Jack was bom.

Mary: Great timing by her. How's it coming?

Doug: Not so hot. A couple of pieces of news. More lawyers and bankers than I'd like. I guess that's what we've got.

Mary: Make any calls this week?

Doug: Some. Not much luck. Hey, Jack, stop drawing on that.

Haley: Read me a book Daddy.

Doug: Sure.

The scene shifts to Burbank Airport. Doug is waiting for a flight to Portland. A PC is in his lap, portable phone in his ear. He is growing increasingly agitated as his plane doesn't arrive and he can't complete any phone calls for the column. He sits nervously dialing, hanging up, listening, swearing, leaving messages, getting cut off. He missed Dave Donnelly going into a meeting at his Silk Road Unlimited job in San Francisco. Lea SikoraFowler was not home or at the work number of her family company in Worthington, Mass. Swapped phone messages with PaulGigot, regular writer of the "Potomac Watch" column for the Wall Street Journal. KevinJohnson and wife Annie Van Curan aren't home in Alberta. Blanche Jones Roberts was on a two-week vacation from her cashmanagement position at Lasalle National Bank in Chicago. Liz Epstein Kadin is no longer working at Mabon Securities in New York. A conversation with a lawyer in Portland is fruitless because he won't share news with his classmates because the column doesn't include a broad enough cross-section of the class. Go figure. Tried to get through directory assistance in Trinidad to find Guy Beckles. No luck.

Gate attendant: Flight 518 will be leaving in approximately 15 minutes.

Doug: Do I have time for a few more calls?

Gate attendant: Not if you want to go to Portland.

Doug: OK.

Next day. Back to the Ireland den. It's neat, quiet but for Lvle Lovett.

Doug: Hey, Mary. Spoke to Krupanszky yesterday. He and Jennifer are buying a van and taking a four-month tour around the country after she takes the Bar and they get married.

Mary: Wouldn't that be great? Sort of a "Lost in America" thing.

Doug: Listen to this. Lizanne FontaineBuckholtz from my class just won a Woman of Achievement award from the Brooklyn D.A.'s office. She's a food co-ordinator and board member of a local interfaith shelter, she founded Heights Hills friends of Brooklyn Museum, she has a job editing a monthly law publication, and she's active in the parent group at her kids' school.

Mary: Wow. Did you know her? Doug: Nope. And get this—she has five kids. Two solo shots and a set of triplets. No wonder they don't have an answering machine. Who has time to return phone calls?

Mary: Did you write up that we saw the Edmundsons last weekend?

Doug: Yeah. Eric just was made managing director of investment banking for Kidder out here. Great job. He also told me that he takes his daughter to Music Time on Saturday mornings.

Mary: Do you want to do something like that?

Doug: Sure.

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