Friday I met Nate — after a few difficulties finding each other at Union Station — and we took the Metrolink to Claremont. Upon departing Nate started talking with a guy who might have been a Pomona or Claremont Colleges grad, but who was doing culinary school, I think in the Bay area. As Nate then promptly noted, he chatted with him not because he might have been a student, but because he was cute.
As we began our walk we encountered Emily Sherman of the class of ’02 and a former biology major, but the nice coincidence here was that she was a German teacher at a high school in Tennessee, and here she was walking with the two most German-literate of the class of ’97. We were going to register and join her for lunch at the IRC at the ‘Borg, but — alas? — upon registering we were sidetracked and never made it, until after lunch, to Oldenborg. Instead, we crossed the street toward Thatcher from the Seaver House, turned north, and promptly encountered Helgi, who works on the east coast for the nation’s (world’s?) leader in voice recognition software/technology. Megan joined him an we all chatted and admired their two kidlets. Keith Garcia showed up, Helgi went off with his son, I chatted with Megan, and Nate went with Keith to register. Then I joined K&N for lunch at the student center / union — we’d paid for it.
After lunch I walked south on my own but Nate caught up with me and we went to Oldenborg. The dining hall was closed for the afternoon but the door was still unlocked so we entered, looked around, found a table of faculty/staff, and discovered that we were in the presence of the ‘Borg director and the new language lab director. After talking and taking pictures Nate and I joined Felix, the language lab director, who also teaches German and media studies, on the way to Seaver South, formerly the home of Geology but now home to Modern Languages while Mason is renovated — the roof is missing. Nate soon left but Felix and I talked for an hour or longer, until H-J Rindisbacher arrived and we all talked for a bit. An alum from ’67 appeared, then we all left — Vicky the secretary was still there and remembered me — and after saying good-bye to the German staff I went to Millikin for the math reception. I met a guy named Eric from the class of ’02, then I ran into E. Flapan, Cathy, Shahriari, John Tight and Ken S., other math profs (A. Rumbos and “Professor Rad”) and a guy from the class of ’92 who did his math grad work in Madison and was still here when I arrived, but we never crossed paths.
After the reception Nate went one way, I another, and so on, and I worked my way to Frary for the wine tasting, which was such a good idea. There was this amazing syrah that had a wonderful amount of sediment — so it felt/tasted — so that the wine in your mouth did not feel like substance-less water/liquid but rather something with weight, mass, and texture. And it was rich … I could clearly not afford this stuff on my own on a regular basis. Some of the others were likewise great. In the process of trying a dozen wines I talked with faculty, volunteers, the really cute adult daughter of one of the alumni wine makers, and, eventually, fellow alums who were also trying the wines and catching up. Brian Forcum and his pregnant wife, Julie. E. Weissinger, Kristin M., Keith, Clark P., and more.
Late afternoon sun filtered through Frary windows led to blinding patches of light throughout the hall.
Off to Raines we went for dinner, and there our waiter was named Dane and is a stunt-double on “Lost” for Terry O’Quinn.
After dinner — to which Leena finally arrived after hours of hellish traffic from L.A. — many of us headed to the “Smith Campus Center” (Union) and to the basement, to “Dom’s.” There we were pumped with more free booze, and I chatted with Melissa Rawlsky and her man for a while before joining friends, including Chris Mc, but after a while a handful of us headed back to the hotel to call it an evening.
The hotel room is great.
After a shower, a night of sleep, and another shower, Nate and I crowded ourselves into the shuttle van to campus and we ended up in the Ersatz-back-bench alongside a woman from the class of ’72 who recently moved to Bend, Oregon. She studied anthropology, but never used her degree — she instead married and raised children.
And then it was time for Cecil’s Waffle Breakfast/Brunch, meeting more old friends, and class photos.
And to my great surprise a great, great number of our Front Hall Fame friends showed up — we have, probably, the best sponsor-group participation. I saw Esther Friday, as well as Megan, but Justin and Alex showed up in time for the picture, as did Ben. We Front Hall Famers eventually made our way to Mudd-Blaisdell, we re-posed our first M-B picture, and after using an undergrad we got into the building and made our way (with Keith and Peter Leth) to our old hall. We took some photos and found a few freshmen in their rooms. We chatted with them for what seemed like ages and told “back in my days” and similar stories. “Spinal Tap” painted in glow-in-the-dark-bleach on Ben and Nick’s wall is/was one of the better such stories and the 1st years’ eyes were wide with what seemed like sincere interest and amazement.
We met Ben’s wonderful wife, Zhanna, who emigrated from the Soviet Union in the mid-80s, before the end of the Cold War, and who is a doctor. Several of us returned again to Oldenborg and relived memories.
Lunch was a boxed affair … chicken sandwich, salad, water, cookies … and pretty boxes.
