Well, we're back in Raleigh after a week up in the Adirondacks where the weather wouldn't cool off until mid-week. We had a great time despite driving 1100 miles, looking for a non-existant hotel in Montreal and dealing with no A/C in our bed & breakfasts. I'm going to attempt to transcribe my travel journals for this blog. Here goes:
(left to right) Keith, Steve, Martha, Macy and Ann
Saturday, July 15th -- The Reunion
We got out of Raleigh OK and our son was fantastic on the plane. We had a celebrity sighting: Mark Jacobson of Toyota of Durham was checking in his baggage for San Francisco. We took naps when we got to Bonnie's house (my MIL) to rest up for Keith's 1981 reunion.
Keith was a bit nervous. It was held at a very large Hyatt in the middle of Long Island that was very far away from the water. He hadn't seen any of his former classmates since 1981, although he and his best friend from East Meadow High School still keep in touch. It cost $85/person and I thought that would include a wine/beer bar -- Nope! All cash bar with hotel prices. We drank Coors Light ($5) all night, but the food was great, but not $50 worth. Reunions Unlimited organized this shindig and they overcharged. They published this shitty 10-page directory that only included 20 alumni names without e-mail addresses. AND they mispelled our street address and called Keith a "she". Not a good start, but the evening got better as about 60 people trickled in through the doors. Keith ran into his old elementary school pal, Frank, who drove down from the Syracuse area (Baldwinsville, NY), he also ran into this guy who almost beat him up, and we met three of Keith's female classmates who remembered Keith and were nice to chat with: Ann, Macy and Martha. Martha flew all the way from Seattle. One classmate, Steve Stein, remembered everyone's class ranking and he told Martha she ranked 3rd out of 529! Sadly, Steve was hit in a car accident and spent 10 weeks in a coma two years after graduation. He has some trouble speaking/walking, but that didn't slow him down at the reunion! He made time to chat with everyone and cut a rug to Blondie and other early 80s tunes. It was cool that he remembered so many people, because Keith sure didn't (we had name tags and that helped).
I thought everyone looked pretty good, although a lot of the women had too much dark hair, dark lips, dark eyebrows and wore stockings with dress sandles/high heels. ACKKK!. It was pretty funny when the DJ announced, "The Buffet is Now Open" and "The Buffet is Now Closed". We kept to the back of the room because Mr. DJ was blasting the music, not considering a crowd of 40-somethings might like a lower volume.
We walked to our car and who should be parked right next to us? Macy and Martha! They were flipping through the yearbook and we laughed at bad, big hair. Macy said to me, "You remember the feather style, right?" And I wanted to say, "No, I was only 8." (I guess I look good for 43).
Next post: It's a Hot One in Saratoga Springs!
Alice
We got out of Raleigh OK and our son was fantastic on the plane. We had a celebrity sighting: Mark Jacobson of Toyota of Durham was checking in his baggage for San Francisco. We took naps when we got to Bonnie's house (my MIL) to rest up for Keith's 1981 reunion.
Keith was a bit nervous. It was held at a very large Hyatt in the middle of Long Island that was very far away from the water. He hadn't seen any of his former classmates since 1981, although he and his best friend from East Meadow High School still keep in touch. It cost $85/person and I thought that would include a wine/beer bar -- Nope! All cash bar with hotel prices. We drank Coors Light ($5) all night, but the food was great, but not $50 worth. Reunions Unlimited organized this shindig and they overcharged. They published this shitty 10-page directory that only included 20 alumni names without e-mail addresses. AND they mispelled our street address and called Keith a "she". Not a good start, but the evening got better as about 60 people trickled in through the doors. Keith ran into his old elementary school pal, Frank, who drove down from the Syracuse area (Baldwinsville, NY), he also ran into this guy who almost beat him up, and we met three of Keith's female classmates who remembered Keith and were nice to chat with: Ann, Macy and Martha. Martha flew all the way from Seattle. One classmate, Steve Stein, remembered everyone's class ranking and he told Martha she ranked 3rd out of 529! Sadly, Steve was hit in a car accident and spent 10 weeks in a coma two years after graduation. He has some trouble speaking/walking, but that didn't slow him down at the reunion! He made time to chat with everyone and cut a rug to Blondie and other early 80s tunes. It was cool that he remembered so many people, because Keith sure didn't (we had name tags and that helped).
I thought everyone looked pretty good, although a lot of the women had too much dark hair, dark lips, dark eyebrows and wore stockings with dress sandles/high heels. ACKKK!. It was pretty funny when the DJ announced, "The Buffet is Now Open" and "The Buffet is Now Closed". We kept to the back of the room because Mr. DJ was blasting the music, not considering a crowd of 40-somethings might like a lower volume.
We walked to our car and who should be parked right next to us? Macy and Martha! They were flipping through the yearbook and we laughed at bad, big hair. Macy said to me, "You remember the feather style, right?" And I wanted to say, "No, I was only 8." (I guess I look good for 43).
Next post: It's a Hot One in Saratoga Springs!
Alice
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