Sunday, June 20, 2010

43rd reunion: June 18-20, 2010

Our 43rd Glen Rock High School class of '67 reunion has just ended, and I think I speak for everyone who attended in saying that it was a great gathering.  The weekend began with a round of golf at Knoll West, in Parsippany, thanks to Dave Ryan who secured a tee time for us:  Amesbury, Judd, Healy, Ryan, and myself.

On Friday evening, about 50 of us dropped in at the Glen Rock Inn where we had to put on name tags to prevent some embarrassment.  The wonderful reunion booklet that Elaine Suehnholz (Canto) had compiled was first revealed this evening.  Neil Calman was given high fives when it was discovered he is a father of a 5 year old.  Many of us then headed over to the high school to see this year's graduation decorations--the theme was House of Rock.  It was sort of a NYC nightclub, with a city scape of NYC, and the eating area was on a roof top.  It's a bit difficult to describe all the "alcoves" that were decorated in different themes, much of which had already been somewhat taken down the previous night by the graduates.

On Saturday morning Ed Archbold, historian extraordinaire on the history of Glen Rock, led about 10 of us through the town and back ending up at a mid town restaurant new to me.  Bob Patterson took brother George, Dave Schrader and Gus Katterman fishing at Beaver Lake, in western NJ.   In the afternoon several classmates could be found around the pool at the Woodcliff Hilton, where the Saturday dinner was held.

Saturday evening we had about 70 at the dinner and it was just a great evening to see everyone and to hear about such diverse paths that our classmates have taken.  Many pictures were taken including the traditional "elementary school" pics.  Coleman had the largest contingency but the Byrd School crowd maintains it is quality not quantity.  And, Pam Stephens remarked "what about those of us that came after elementary school".  So, a new category was born, "Finishing Touches".

The general consensus was that Joyce Strange and Joe Vella looked most like their senior pictures.  Joe says his appearance was due to having five kids, eleven grandchildren and the Arizona climate.    Travel-wise, we had three who traveled from the west coast (George Patterson, Norm Judd and Geri Olson),  the largest contingency, outside of NJ, was from Fla (John Brice, Jim Bucci, Jeff Euart, Ox Schrader, and Randy Fogel); Blain Abbott, Sandi Mims and Ellen Bober rolled in from Texas; and Beth Rousseau and her husband came in from North Dakota.

And, finally Sunday morning about 34 of us once again gathered for a brunch at the Hilton before bidding our adieus and heading home.  Ed Archbold had a few extra reunion booklets printed so if you would like to read the bios of over 100 of your classmates, contact Ed at Edwardwa@aol.com (first come, first served until they run-- $ 10 a piece).

We still have over 40 classmates for whom we have no contact information, so if you know how to find them, let us know.


Pictures that I have taken can be found to the left on this page. I encourage others to get their pictures to me as I know I did not get everyone.

Do bookmark this blog as I hope to periodically post news about our classmates, so send me information and pictures whenever you like.

1 comment:

  1. Our 43rd reunion was a great event. Having a 48th sounds good. This was the first time we had been back to Glen Rock in 30 years and even more since I saw my classmates.
    Glen Rock looked great, of course the high school looked good at night, but those fences surrounding the school made it seem a little formidable! Nametags were very helpful Friday night. After looking at people for a long time, they started to look familiar. Some people don't seem to have changed at all, others well, have changed. What hasn't changed or perhaps was more evident was what great, nice people I went to school with.
    I came back to the reunion with a little apprehension. After all I hadn't seen any of you in a long time. Within a few minutes of arriving at the Inn I felt right at home again.
    Thanks to Bob, Elaine, Ed and Bill for all the work you did to make this happen. Thanks to all of you for coming.
    North Dakota is a wonderful place to live and a great place to visit. The western part of the state has more tourist sites available, but it's still a great place. Winnepeg isn't far away if you have a passport. So, if any of you want to see this part of the country let me know and we'll see what we can do to show you this beautiful, flat, not so busy part of our country. See you sometime. Beth Rousseau Lever

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