thoughts after a college reunion
I spent from Friday afternoon through midmorning today on the campuses of Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges for the 40th reunion of my 3rd and final class at Haverford. I joined the class as a 25 year old junior, and thus did not get to know quite as many people through the normal freshman bonding process. Similarly for our sister class at Bryn Mawr (in those days Haverford was still officially single sex), I had met relatively few of them - those that lived on the Haverford Campus, those that dated (and in some cases married) guys I knew, and a few in some of my classes, most notably a class at Bryn Mawr on the History of Women in America. Over the recent cycles of every 5 years I have come to know more people from both campuses. What I offer here is a set of impressions reflecting on both the weekend and the passage of time.
As those who follow my Facebook posts know, there were a number late-night conversation, some well lubricated with alcoholic beverages. Those were important, but there were three events that stood out - meeting with some of the faculty from our days at the college (some are still around, at least one still teaching), our traditional class meeting where people sit in a circle and we go around people sharing key things since the last saw us - for many 5 years, for some, for the first time since graduation (and this always includes a certain amount of quips and spontaneous humor), and what was intended to be an all-classes dance with three bands that overlapped my time at the College, the first with people through the classes of 68 and 69, and the later two with people raning from 71 through I think 74.
As those who follow my Facebook posts know, there were a number late-night conversation, some well lubricated with alcoholic beverages. Those were important, but there were three events that stood out - meeting with some of the faculty from our days at the college (some are still around, at least one still teaching), our traditional class meeting where people sit in a circle and we go around people sharing key things since the last saw us - for many 5 years, for some, for the first time since graduation (and this always includes a certain amount of quips and spontaneous humor), and what was intended to be an all-classes dance with three bands that overlapped my time at the College, the first with people through the classes of 68 and 69, and the later two with people raning from 71 through I think 74.
