Rest assured, though, that the Alumni Dinner once again was a success.
This year's featured speaker, Dr. Jim Reynolds ('70), took us on something of a tour of the ages. The ages, that is, that we all hope to reach. From teens to the very elderly years. Sex, he suggested, is something of a common theme. So, too, is discovery. And by our '90s, Jim said, we realize that some things we thought were oh so important in earlier years aren't as special as we thought. We learn that "enough" may be just that -- enough.
Dr. Jim also suggested that Mr. Memmott was quite the authority figure. So true!
Brother Jim Memmott spoke on behalf of the class of '60. As he reports this weekend in his Rochester Democrat & Chronicle column, there was a bit of a dust-up at the class reunion when talk turned to politics (but no punches, or ketchup bottles, were thrown). At the dinner, Jim looked back at the wonders of pickle parties in fifth grade and surprise appearances in the boy's locker room. He writes:
"Could it have been," I asked, by way of example, "that every day in fifth grade, Mrs. C. (I'm not using last names here) had one of us bring a jar of pickles?(The D&C will soon put that link behind its subsriber-only "firewall." If by the time you see this post you can't get to it, shoot me an e-mail ( memmottmark@yahoo.com ). I can forward the whole piece to you.)"And could it have been that she would take a prong and put one pickle on a paper towel on each of our desks? Could have been that we would watch the juice bleed out onto the towel, a spreading green
stain?" "Could it have been," I asked, "that, as we were sitting in the boys locker room, perhaps unclothed, Mrs. M. came into the room on her way to the coach's office, yelling out, 'Close your eyes, boys, I'm coming through'?"
As I remember it, we closed our eyes; we ate the pickles; we obeyed.
I hope all those who were able to attend enjoyed the dinner. Let's do it again next year.
