1981

I have already complained to Reunion tsars Keith Hammonds and Lynnette Marshall: Jerry Jeff Walker the Friday night of reunion? I may be in the minority here—and incur the wrath of Beta classmates—but you can't dance to "Pissing in the Wind." Now, "Rock Lobster," sure, you can frugg to that. But I guess the B-52s weren't available that night. OK, how about a compromise, Keith and Lynnette? On Friday night I will mumble the words to those foggily familiar Jerry Jeff tunes as long as the DJ at the tent on Saturday evening has me squirming to the Police and Blondie, the Romantics and Clash, Grace Jones and Prince, all of whom had hits our final year of college. (And if he threw in that Chumbawumba anthem from last summer, I'd be very happy.)

From the"I get knocked down, but I get up again..." files: Julie Koeninger and her husband, Peter, have three active boys, all under the age of 4. "They love trucks, trains, construction, most sports," Julie wrote, her e-mail doubled-over from exhaustion. "Andrew, who's 3, wants to be Nomar Garciaparra. Thomas, twin No. 1, is enamored with hockey, while Matthew, the other twin, is content to do his own thing. When he wants to get involved, however, he can muscle his way into any game and get what he wants, since he's the heftiest." Julie's firm Hancock Agricultural Investment Group was featured in an article in Barron's recently—on increasing institutional investment in farmland—but she did not get any juicy quotations. Just her boss.

Classmate Michael Dennis is busy at Lucent, is married to Nathalie Lomax Dennis, has twin sons Kyle and Casey and daughter Courtney, and is on the board of directors for Inroads of Central New Jersey. "Inroads is a national organization," Michael told me, "that targets young minority students for scholarships, coaching and overall professional development. Students begin their Inroads experience during their last year of high school, and we work with them through graduation from college."

Thanks to Michael and others, Inroads students intern at Fortune 500 companies, and they keep track of conversion rates (permanent jobs at the sponsoring companies) and each company's satisfaction with the quality of Inroads participants. If you want to know more about the work he and others do with these young people, contact Michael at madennis@lucent.com.

Anne Putney Swire and her family are back in this area. Husband Peter landed a job as White House's chief counselor for privacy, working on issues such as medical, internet and financial privacy, while Anne left her job as foundations relations director at Ohio State, happy, at the moment, not to work. Their sons Nathan (11) and Jesse (8) play soccer and hoops hard all day and sleep well, according to Mom, at night. And for our reunion Anne is coordinating a special event, a Saturday afternoon reception for women of all three classes. "Should people wish to volunteer to help out," she wrote, "contact me at aswire@hotmail.com."

Cover boy Greg Slayton took a moment from his crazed schedule—I think he was writing from COMDEX—to say that all is well. "My wife, Marina, and my children Sasha (8), Christian (7) and Daniel (5) are fine," he said. "And we're planning to be at reunion. I am in close touch with Debbie and Bruce McKenzie, who just had a baby; Leah and Hans Helmerich, who are in Tulsa; newlyweds Karen and HaroldWilliams; and Ingrid and Dave Hill, who are pastoring a growing church in Boston."

More on pastoring: when we last heard from Polly Duncan Collum—e-mail is pdcollum@dixie-net.com—she, husband Dan and their two kids were in northeastern Mississippi starting a Catholic church. Now add into that mix one more child, their third.

"I'm curious," she queried. "Are there any more 40-year-old '81s crazy enough to be giving birth?" A good question for reunion, huh? Possible panel topic, with Polly front and center? See you all on the dance floor the night of June 17.

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