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At my 10-year high-school reunion, back in '97, Grosse Pointe Blank had just come out. Understandably, I think, I thought "Professional Killer" whenever some vaguely-remembered classmate asked me what I'd been doing since high school. For the 20-year -- wow it hurts to write that, since I was 17 when I graduated and thought I knew just about everything there was to know at the time -- there was no such shared cultural meme to either dull or distract from the inevitable smalltalk sessions.
Still, I wanted to go, and also knew that I had to drag Wendy with me; she wasn't necessarily enthusiastic, but almost always had a good attitude about the whole thing. [ She'd gone to the 15-year, and we weren't even married then; I couldn't let her get out of this one.]
Besides, Andover (or more properly, Phillips Academy) was worth visiting again regardless of who showed up or how the 2 days of the reunion were spent. It's a beautiful campus, matched or exceeded by few high schools or even colleges anywhere else in the country. And it gave us the excuse of hitting Boston first and taking a few days in Newport afterwards.
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We lucked out in terms of weather, most of the time. We splurged a bit and rented a Mustang convertible in Boston, then drove north to campus on Friday afternoon. That evening was a large gathering of all the classes (each 5-year-increment was there ('02, '97, '92, '87, '82, '77, '72, etc., back to a few surviving alums from the early part of the 1900s). We were grouped by class for a fairly-bad meal, the split off for individual class gatherings/drinks later. Strangely -- or maybe not -- the people I most-enjoy seeing at these things are those who I usually knew only in passing while actually in school, but with whom I've found I get along a great deal in the intervening years. Still, the inevitable hours of small talk took their toll, and we didn't end up staying especially late.
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Not much else to tell. We had another class dinner and drink get-together Saturday evening, managed to miss breakfast the next day, and headed down the fortunately-more-dry road towards Newport, Rhode Island.
Uh oh, Smurfs rising! I didn't know you went to Andover! I went to Exeter...I don't know if I can read your blog any longer... ;-)
ReplyDeleteha Meg!! it was just Dayne, not me so you can just read my stuff :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent, phew. Panic attack over.
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