50th High School Reunion
After nearly 5 years of planning and labor, my 50th High School Reunion is over.
What day is today? Is it really Tuesday? I suppose the Reunion proper was over on Sunday evening, but last night we had a kind of Dead Dog Party/ debriefing session with most of the committee at a Peruvian restaurant here in Norwich.
Just writing the words "Peruvian restaurant in Norwich" makes me realize how much has changed in this town since our graduation from the Norwich Free Academy in the eventful summer of 1969.
I chaired the Reunion Committee, which was sort of like being Con Chair of a regional SF convention. We had over 300 attendees for 5 days of events. Another analogy I've been using: It was like producing a show with a limited run, except that I was the producer, director, featured actress, stage manager, caterer, and theater janitor.
Thank heavens for a great Con Committee. In addition to all the tasks listed above, I had the brilliant idea of presenting a recital for one of our class's most famous members, who retired as principal violist of the Chicago Symphony. He and I last played together in 1969--and I haven't done much Classical music since then. The recital happened--though he drove me to exhaustion bringing me to his level of performance. We rehearsed over 16 hours for the 30-minute set (not counting the many hours I put in between January and June to learn the music). I'm relieved to know I can still do serious music, the kind where you have to play all the notes on the page.
The audience was delighted. Many of our classmates had never attended a concert of Classical music, and their reactions ranged from pleasant surprise to shock. "Wow. Just wow"--from our class's most accomplished basketball player, now in casino security.
The rest of the Reunion events were very fine--our exhaustive and exhausting preparations paid off--and we accomplished the two goals I set when I took the job: Create an experience that would offer something for everyone and make it affordable. We raised about enough (not tax deductible) dollars to underwrite Reunion expenses, offering a weekend that would normally have cost about $70 a person for only $19.69. And we raised over $50,000 (tax-deductible)to endow our class gift to the school. Pretty good.
What day is today? Is it really Tuesday? I suppose the Reunion proper was over on Sunday evening, but last night we had a kind of Dead Dog Party/ debriefing session with most of the committee at a Peruvian restaurant here in Norwich.
Just writing the words "Peruvian restaurant in Norwich" makes me realize how much has changed in this town since our graduation from the Norwich Free Academy in the eventful summer of 1969.
I chaired the Reunion Committee, which was sort of like being Con Chair of a regional SF convention. We had over 300 attendees for 5 days of events. Another analogy I've been using: It was like producing a show with a limited run, except that I was the producer, director, featured actress, stage manager, caterer, and theater janitor.
Thank heavens for a great Con Committee. In addition to all the tasks listed above, I had the brilliant idea of presenting a recital for one of our class's most famous members, who retired as principal violist of the Chicago Symphony. He and I last played together in 1969--and I haven't done much Classical music since then. The recital happened--though he drove me to exhaustion bringing me to his level of performance. We rehearsed over 16 hours for the 30-minute set (not counting the many hours I put in between January and June to learn the music). I'm relieved to know I can still do serious music, the kind where you have to play all the notes on the page.
The audience was delighted. Many of our classmates had never attended a concert of Classical music, and their reactions ranged from pleasant surprise to shock. "Wow. Just wow"--from our class's most accomplished basketball player, now in casino security.
The rest of the Reunion events were very fine--our exhaustive and exhausting preparations paid off--and we accomplished the two goals I set when I took the job: Create an experience that would offer something for everyone and make it affordable. We raised about enough (not tax deductible) dollars to underwrite Reunion expenses, offering a weekend that would normally have cost about $70 a person for only $19.69. And we raised over $50,000 (tax-deductible)to endow our class gift to the school. Pretty good.