07/05/2016
The reunion is over. Time to go home. Thank you all for coming to be with us. Safe travels for those who have to get on a boat or a plane.
Every single one of you made an impact. All the stuff we did turned out fine. But what made it so great was the high inclusion rate and everyone just being themselves and adding their spirit to the events. We were all high on the energy around us, but we were also all part of making it happen.
Thank you again to all who showed up for even one event. I sincerely hope each of you is glad you came. I hope each of you realizes you had more camaraderie with your classmates than maybe you'd thought in the past. If you weren't here, we missed you. But those of us who were here had a helluva good time. None of us will ever forget this reunion, so it's good that we made the most of it.
Each event stood out for different reasons. The "Pub Crawl" wasn't even an official event. We just wanted to get started early, so we made sure to publish a meeting place and time to get everyone to the same spot. We ended up at the Arctic, which is now co-owned by one of our own. We just stayed there. We had a tremendous turnout of our classmates. Since we were at a pub, we also had other visitors. We even had a few surprise guests. It ended up being fantastic.
The picnic was planned, and we invited people from all 80s classes. It was just as great, and maybe more so. All sorts of folks from our adjacent classes showed up. There were, naturally, some hiccups. But hey! There is such thing as being TOO organized and prepared. We all answered the bell, and it the party happened. We got a lot of thank you’s and love from people from outside of our class who were grateful for being included. I hope this becomes a tradition going forward. For the record, it was originally Rick Collins’ (87) idea. Glad he came and hung out with us!
It was at night in the later stages of the picnic that we paid our respects to our deceased classmates. I believe in the spiritual healing of honoring the dead and reminding ourselves of their lives. This went better than I could have imagined. First, most of our lanterns actually flew! Next, the reaction from families and friends of the deceased told us that we did the right thing. We were hoping to share with their loved ones, and I think we did that.
The cruise was next. We ended up having some sort of fail with food delivery. Wendy Miller, Tim Kuharich and Darin Perue scrambled to make sure we had food on the boat. The photo thing functioned. The music thing functioned. The drink line went pretty quickly. It was well attended, even though two of our guys ended up on shore. We had another great time. The energy on the boat was great. It was magic!
The dinner was nice. We even had a few late arrivals show up and join us. The food was great. There were many photos taken. The vibe was more relaxed, but fun. The weather even teased us and improved. We joked about how that was nature messing with us, since this was the first all-indoor event. But it would be a preview of the luck we’d have for the parade.
As tired as we were, and as much fun as we already had, I think the parade was the best part. We all got to let loose, and we put smiles on a lot of the audience’s faces with our noise, presentation, and mostly just our rocking the house (and the tunnel). I've heard from a few who watched the parade from the street that the energy changed when we passed by. That float was the best party I've been to in a very long time.
It was like we'd had a long season, and were exhausted from the playoffs. But when the parade arrived, we all found inside of ourselves whatever energy we had left to win the championship game. We left it all out on the field! Also, many of us now know that you can get something resembling sea legs from spending a couple of hours on a shaking flatbed trailer.
Thank you, in particular, to all of those who really didn't want to come to this reunion, but ended up doing so. I understand very well that people have anxiety about these kinds of things. Reunions really aren't something that everyone enjoys. But people were happy to see you. And it only added to the experience for many others that you were here. I hope you ended up having a great time.
We're only on this planet for so long. Life is short, and time is precious. One thing that life can never take away from you is your experiences. Thank you (Yes, YOU!) for helping to pack this last week so full of great, happy memories for the rest of us. Until we see each other again...
