Reunions
Messers Bell and Taylor:
The esteemed Mr. Bell asks the question about
reunions in general. On two fronts, I feel very qualified to shed light on this
subject.
Firstly,
my father is a
professional reunion attendee .For more than 60 years he has attended any and
all reunions, to include, but not limited to Camp Virginia, St. Christopher’s
School, The Episcopal High School, Woodberry Forest Sport’s Camp, The
Gloucester Banks Association, The University of Virginia, including sub sets
such as St. Anthony Hall and Eli Banana. I will be attending his 60th
reunion of the Marine Corps Veterans’ who were in Korea in the 1950’s in Seoul
this September as his “companion” and a guest of the South Korean Government.
As my mother is wont to say,” Ever Ready Eddy never met a crab dip he didn’t
love”.
Secondly,
since 1980 graduation, I was out of
Charlottesville maybe five of those years, so in effect, I never really left
the UVa. reunion scene, albeit as a vendor and not an attendee. Since
establishing my business in 1991, I have catered thousands of reunions and
related events (this weekend is, egad, a PIKA reunion). What I notice the most
is that everyone comes and goes separately, stays in separate accommodations
with one or two friends and then they go to the reunion and talk to people they
really never knew or hung out with, and have not kept up with, have great old
time for a few hours, and make plans to see each other again. Especially
awkward, is when they make plans to be best buddies again, then five years
pass, and they are back at the reunion with nothing to say, for both groups
know that they are not going to be best buddies again. I recently catered the
20th reunion on the class of the class of 1988. Amongst the guests were about
20 Tri-Delts who used to work for me as cater waiters in the early days. There
were lots of hugs for Chef Ted and Melvin, by girls, er, women, who are now
pushing 40. After catching up and having the required grand old time, they went
somewhere and we got in the truck and went somewhere.
Hope this helps, dudes.
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