1962

The great class of 1962 welcomed a large number of classmates and assorted guests to its 75th birthday celebration, which proved to be an exciting, actionpacked, three-day weekend in late April. The venue for the event was Coronado Island along southern California, close to San Diego. The attendance was outstanding: 105 total participants, 56 of whom were classmates.

The birthday party was organized and managed by the capable group of Tom Komerek, Charlie Balch, Roger Usborne, Bags Bergman and Kent Graham. Tom was unable to attend the event because of health concerns, but he was present in spirit for the entirety of the affair.

Attendees at the party were conscious of the long tradition of the ’62 five-year birthday observance, which stretches back at least as far as the 50th and which was celebrated in Washington, D.C. The five-year cycle means that the celebrants at the next event will all be about 80 years of age. The realization that we’re not getting younger spurred some discussion of moving to a shorter period of time between future birth- day celebrations. Of course smaller groups can always carry on the tradition of small regional gatherings, such as the ’62 event that took place at the end of March in Ridgewood, New Jersey, where Irwin Kramer, John Clark, Art “Rusty” Hayes, Ed Goldstein, Jim Blair and Frank Kehl met for din- ner and a good time. Irwin and Jim were also able to make the ’62 75th party and reported they enjoyed it all.

Another reason to meet more frequently is to encourage the use of our aging memory banks. Advanced age often brings declining powers of memory, as Mark Twain observed when he was more than 70 years old: “I am grown old and my memory is not as active as it used to be. When I was younger I could remember anything, wheth- er it had happened or not, but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never hap- pened. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it.” The members of ’62 still possess a lot of energy, wisdom and skill. Let’s use these assets as best we can for as long as we are able.

Write if you get work and keep smiling (with an apology to Bob and Ray).

17007 Barn Ridge Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20906; (301) 460-4523; dnbarnes62@ verizon.net