1980

Outside is cold and raining, a portent of things to come while in the summer of our lives, or is it just summer in New England? We gather like moths to a flame in front of the bar, an excuse to bunch together and seek out old friends. I spy Makers Mark and my Southern heart says a silent "thank you" to Merle Adelman for all that she has done.

The student workers are coolly frantic as the rush of thirsty, middle-aged alums presses forward. Behind the bar a young woman desperately tries to open a can of juice with a church key, shaip tip pointed straight down, attempting to stab small holes around the circumference of the can's lid. Without saying a word, a classmate, his nametag flipped around and thus unnamed, reaches across the bar, gently takes the students hand, guides it to punch the two proper holes, and the can yields its bounty. A torch is passed to a new generation.

How good it is to see our friends all together in this place, embrace them, keep them close. I sit silently with freshman-year roommates Steve Brooks and Stuart Sarnoff, words unneeded after 29 years. Stuart begins telling stories that Steve and I believe should be left undisturbed in the lockbox. I would like to sit with another old roommate (and our new class president), Mike McClintock, but Mike does not sit still. Some things remain unchanged.

Many classmates look remarkably the same. Mike Perrella is first among them, but Todd Young runs a close second. Many classmates are lean and taut, thinner than ever before. Alas, I have gone in the opposite direction, as Carol Burns Duke, a graduate of the John Bolton school of diplomacy, too quickly affirms.

We have returned from around the girdled earth. Jennie Kugel is back from Moldava. Monica Williams Knox is here from Munich, where she has lived for the last 18 years. Did Bruce Allyn fly in from Moscow?

Children are everywhere. Driving into Hanover we immediately see Todd Pellett, wife Susan '87 and their 7-year-old twins, great-looking Iowa boys. Two young sisters play in the dirt under the tent, while proud dad and reunion chair Rob Daisley watches bemused. Jack, son of Ed and Carla (Boehm) Sloan spills chicken noodle soup down my arm. Colleen O'Brien is overjoyed with Benjamin, age 3. Bert Boles has brought his nine children, all well-mannered, especially during Mass performed by Father Gerry Murray.

Many of us share stories of our teenage progeny, surrounded by the ghosts of our own teen years still haunting this small plain. Alan Putney, Roy and Leigh (Limbach) Johnson and many more, good luck with the college tours. Sarah Alger, Emily Lisberger Vitale and many others, this too shall pass, as I like to tell myself. Libbie Wendell Groves, congratulations on your Dartmouth children, classes of '04 and '06!

Sue Kahil intently outlines the probabilities of change in 2006.

The slide show, Parker Small producer, leaves even non-classmates misty-eyed. We all studied the reunion book, and will for years to come. Lisa Shanahan Tomlinson, reunion book editor extraordinaire, will be glad to sell you a reunion book and slide show DVD for one low, low price. Contact Lisa at lisashan@msn.com for further details. Hurry now, because supplies are limited, and the Tomlinsons need their garage space.

Paul Elmlinger and Frank Fesnak are now the scribes responsible for Class Notes. Many thanks for everyone's kind words to me about this column.

And then we all went home. But the fat lady did not sing.

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