Get Out The Old Silver Goblet

Get out the old silver goblet
with Lehigh upon it
and we'll open up another keg of beer.

MORE BEER!

For we all came to college,
but we didn't come for knowledge,
So we'll raise hell while we're here.
- Lehigh fight song

For me, my reunion began (after check-in) with cocktails and dinner on Friday evening under tents by the Rauch Field House. The setting would have been lovely, save for the fact that a Friday storm had dumped several inches of rain onto the area. The result was that water had flowed to low lying areas under the tents and those us us attending wound up working areas of the ground into mire. Women were losing shoes, and many women chose to remove them and get the mud between their toes. It was one of those situations where you could either laugh or cry. I wasn't going to let some mud bother me.


Barb & Bob Daley with Stu Van Winkle (Jack McKeown in background)

We were to be seated by class, and when I walked in, I was the fourth member of the class of 1981 to arrive. So, I greeted the three people seated at the one occupied table. I can't recall who the others were, but seated in the middle was Aurora (de la Cruz) (someone please help me with her married name). A few minutes later, another couple walked over, and I introduced myself. It was Bob and Barb Daley, who had come in from Cleveland. I want to publicly thank them, as they were very gracious about keeping up conversation while I was feeling a bit like a fish out of water. At one point, while getting a beer, I got a greeting from a woman, it was Terry Pagan ('86), who I knew as a TEP little sister, who was up with her husband Mike ('85), a Psi U brother. We had the chance to chat a bit, they had their kids there, and I met them. During dinner, I sat with the Daleys and Jack McKeown; his wife, Brenna; her mom, Jackie, and their kids, who were "in and out." As the evening wound down, I headed back over the mountain to Taylor, where I was staying.

Saturday began for me with the 5K fun run in Saucon Valley. As I drove over, I was a deer in the fog up near the intramural fields at the top of the mountain. I took that to be a good omen. At the run, I managed to place second, but was absolutely crushed by Jonathan Fitton ('91), a Major in the Air Force. In talking to him, he told me that he'd won this race five years ago and was fearful about his ability to defend his title. Trust me, I was no threat. Fitton clocked something in the high 19 minute range. I was five minutes back. I'd gone out fast, trying to hang with him, but a couple of miles in, with nobody on my tail and the discomfort ratcheting up, I decided to walk a bit (I really wish there'd been some competition, it would have been fun to be really racing.) I loved running on the grass, something I rarely get to do at home, and aside from a bit of foot dampening at about 2.5 miles, conditions were excellent.

After showering and getting dressed, I joined the tour of Linderman Library. They are doing major renovations there. I'll make a post soon with some photos of the library and the work being done.

I then attended the Class of '81 lunch under a tent in front of Taylor. It was here that I started seeing significant numbers of familiar faces. Following the luncheon, we headed to the steps of Grace Hall for the class photo and the parade. For the parade, we were decked out in black tee-shirts with silver printing. (I'll add photos of the shirt.) Our theme was "the old silver goblet", which we sang for the judges. We were each equipped with a genuine plastic silver goblet. We did have the only "float" in the parade. It was Anne Kline's husband's old BMW motorcycle with sidecar and riding along with it on the triler was a keg of beer. I don't think that the "float" had much impact on the judges, but I think it was a hit with the class (and many others who helped themselves to some beer). In fact, the fact that many of the goblets were partially full probably hurt our presentation, as were weren't going to thrust our goblets into the air as we shouted the "more beer" line. I doubt the ensuing beer shower would have been well received.

More Beer!
Jerry Sova and Mark and Peggi Taylor (do I have the last name right?)

The class of '56 swept most of the major awards at the reunion. Anne Kline gave me a very amusing recap of the seriousness with which the '56's approached reunion. Clearly, their efforts paid off.

There were six residents of Warren Square at the reunion. I made it a point to get their pictures. (I'd been hoping for a group picture, but we just couldn't get together, so I got them individually.) Here's the mug book:
Anastasia Yeulys Fassuliotis with her husband, George
Tom Wiese lifts a glass of wine
Murray Wilmerding and Barb Engel (need her married name)
Karen Miller Hencken
Tammy Minnick had come in from Switzerland
Rich Titus and me, Wayne Baker

I had a nice time reminiscing with several of the other Warren Square residents about life in those little off-campus dorms and the people we shared our lives with as we embarked on our collegiate careers.

Sue Royer and Rich Mahalko

Most of these pictures were taken at the Class of '81 dinner. One of the more colorful events of the evening was when Fran Sturiale Bartlett sang while being accompanied on the piano by Ricky Coppolla(sp?). I'll just say that in a vocal competition with William Hung, of American Idol fame, it would be close, but I'd rather look at Fran. The saddest point of the evening came when Anne Kline read the list (fortunately, still relatively short) of our classmates who'd passed away. For those of us who'd lived in Warren Square, this was particularly poignant, having three people on that list, Lili Archer, Scott Christ, and Dee Dee Foley.

Tim Kemper and Fran Sturiale Bartlett
Eric Boehm, Aurora (De La Cruz) (Need Married Name), and Anne Kline
Following the dinner, we headed up to Taylor to continue our festivities under the tent. After a good night's sleep, many of us attended a brunch under the tent, said our good-byes and departed for home.

If anyone has any stories they'd like to share, please use the comments section. If you have photos you'd like to share, please e-mail them to me: wayne(dot)f(dot)baker(at)gmail(dot)com [Please make the necessary changes subbing the "." for (dot) and "@" for (at)]. I'd prefer to get them at fairly low resolution - the photos posted here had been reduced to 500 pixels in the long dimension, making them a fairly compact 30Kish. If you can't do that, then send them as they are. Finally, if you want to write something to share, I'll gladly post it. (If you have your own blog and have already made a post, please let me know the permalink and I'll link to it from here.) Lastly, if I've made errors or if you can provide a missing name, etc., please share it, if possible, dedicate the comment ONLY to corrections, as I'd like to delete these when completed.)