Comments from the Reunion

Comments from classmate emails, from some who attended and some who could not:

“Ellen and I wanted to thank each of you for all the time and effort that you put in to this wonderful reunion weekend. It was so much fun and so great to reconnect with so many “old” friends again. I really can’t think of any way that it could have been any better. The trip back to NH yesterday was so enjoyable with the beautiful foliage, the CD from Rick Dumas of 1967 songs and the memories of being with such really great friends again.

Please pass along my thanks to Ted, Joan and Nancy as well….I couldn’t find an email address for them on the grid. All of you be well and we look forward to the 50th in 2017.

Best regards,

Dick and Ellen Many

Freedom, NH”

———————

“I was telling someone that the weekend felt like visiting some happy alternative universe.”

Pat (Patty) Caldwell

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“This reunion has been a real kick for my mom and dad …they were getting semi live up dates from nancy dumas who was getting live feeds from Kenny and rick all weekend

PS: is Mr. Falvey still the principal?

Be well”

John Howell

———————

"The reunion was really a blast, but so many people and too little time.

It was great to see you, and thanks for all you do. The video was great, as is the website.

I wonder how many of us had cameras back then- I know I didn't. I hope you'll be deluged with

digital images from the reunion. Can't wait to see them. In response to Paul Fruscione's request

for musician info, I'd like to include a few JPG's of my latest mandolin if the link is still being

considered.

Best regards,

Mike Otis"

———————

“Just a short note to say the video was terrific. Hope everyone had a blast this weekend and I’m sorry I couldn’t make it. ”

Debby Bowersox Inscoe

———————

October 9th, 2007 at 10:39 pm e

The reunion weekend was fantastic. Thanks to the committee for organizing a great get-together. Charlie–thanks for a terrific website and slide show. Prior to the weekend, I looked forward to checking in every day to see who had completed the questionnaire. It was wonderful to see so many people back in Delmar. I’m sorry I didn’t speak to everyone individually. I look forward to seeing lots of photos posted on the website. As soon as I can, I will be adding mine. I truly hope we can pull together in 5 years, rather than 10 for the next reunion.

My best to all,
Aileen

———————

October 10th, 2007 at 11:14 pm e

Dear Reunion 40 Attendees and Classmates,

I am still speechless…two nights tried to encompass our teenage years at Bethlehem. There were sooo many people, and too few hours. I really think we need a five day cruise for the 50th !

I had such a good time, met so many friends (at least to say hi)…took some pictures, which I hope to share. Hope with this website that we can continue to stay in touch, and begin to plan our 45th !

Thanks so much, Charlie, for giving us the opportunity to step into the “Online communication business”. It’s so much easier than mailings and phone calls.

Thank you soo much, Ted Wilson, for making sure we had a time and place…at reasonable rates for Friday and Saturday nights.

AND THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH, PAUL FRUSCIONE ! Without out your hope, committment and dedication, this weekend wouldn’t have occurred !

And to those that missed this one, we missed you too ! We really hope to see you at the next one. And if we don’t have your contact info, please contact us here. You won’t want to miss out on the next one !

Love to all, and thanks for the memories,

Nancy A.

+++++++++++++++++++++

From Paul:
The first person I’d like to thank is Carole Clarke, for her beautiful and moving tribute. Carole was on our reunion committee 10 years ago.
We had exchanged a few emails this year when out of the blue one day, she wrote to me, surprised me, offering to do this tribute.
But actually, I’m really NOT surprised to see Carole once again show her class spirit.
Forty years later, fifty, she is there for us. Thank you Carole.

Next is the woman who started all this. She presided over 2 class reunions, the 10th and 20th, and it couldn’t have been easy.
There were no computers or instant emails then. She worked out of a little gray 3X5 file cabinet, which she gave to me years ago.
The only thing that made her job a LITTLE easier, was that back then, she was a heck of a lot younger than this fine group of today.
I’m proud to have taken the torch from Ginny Hill.

Thanks to our Ron Garinger, our Senior Class President, for his generous gift of champagne.

We want to thank Vicki Lee for her tour this morning. Our high school has really changed hasn’t it?
It’s hard to believe that when we were entering Kindergarten, that building on Delaware Avenue was known as “the new school”.
It was fun to see it today, a little newer. Thank you Vicki.

Connie Strong did most of our internet searches. She was able to find your phone numbers, which she passed to the rest of the committee, who then made hundreds of phone calls. Many of us here tonight ARE here as a result of those calls.
Thank you Connie, and thanks to everyone who worked so hard making phone calls, and attending all those (mostly fun) meetings.
Your Reunion Committee - Karen Aupperle, Nancy Austin, Joan Ennis, Cathy Isdell, Ted Phelps, Cheryl Rukwid, Terry Stephany, Connie Strong, Ted Wilson, and Nancy Wyckoff.

Cathy is also our treasurer, and the only person I know of, working in finance, that doesn’t use a computer. But she did a great job.
Thanks Cathy.

By the way, Carla Pelton did a flurry of internet searches just prior to this event.
If you don’t see her right at the moment, she’s probably on her computer somewhere here at Normanside, trying to scare up a few more people for this great night.
She is also the first non member of this year’s committee to volunteer to work on the 50th reunion.
Although she did say she wasn’t quite sure about taking a committee assignment for the 50th, we told her that she was in anyway.
10 years from now we’ll all be 68, and we’re hoping she won’t remember saying maybe. Thanks Carla.

Cheryl Rukwid: Cheryl brought just about everything a person could bring to our many meetings. ehYup, Everything.
Our committee ever so carefully picked the best parts of what Cheryl offered us.
Humor, directness, and efficiency to name a few.
When we were deciding on tonight’s small gift for everyone, Cheryl said “Let’s give them something everyone really needs - another MOUSEPAD!”
– But, ahhhhhhhh this one is different. This one carries our BC class email address, and will lead us all to the next class reunion.
Cheryl is so efficient, she found our eagle logo, sent the layout to mouse pads inc. paid the bill, and had them shipped, in less time than it took the rest of us to make the decision.

Ted Phelps - for bringing his businesslike, statesman like, you could almost say “Presidential” manner to our meetings. Ted is of course our permanent class President, and like most Presidents, he kept a level head. Well, 90% of the time.
Ted was also voted most philosophical in our class. Hey, the yearbook says so. I realized what that meant when Ted’s first question at his very first meeting was: “Well let’s explore this: Is there any precedent for holding a reunion in the Fall? ” I knew we were in for it.
Ted, thanks for hosting the conference call and for providing some much needed focus at meetings.

Charlie Redmond gets a new title with each new class reunion. 10 years ago, he was “Official Photographer”, the first guy to go digital.
This time around he took the title of “Webmeister”. Yes, he took it. No one asked Charlie what he was willing or able to do.
HE came to US and told US what he could do, what his vision was, and then he did it.
On some days, that meant dealing with 10 or more emails per day. And that’s just from Delmar.
Charlie fielded requests, and suggestions from all over the country. And from France, And Germany……
BC67.com definitely helped create so much of the excitement that brought us all here tonight.
Thank you Charlie.
Charlie of course also created tonight’s slide show, with help from Carol Stone. Wait till you see it!

The musicians. What more can we possibly say? They made the party last night!
Frank Morgan was the first musician to agree to play. I had to call his father twice to find Frank. Yeah, forgot where I put the number.
After Frank said yes, I knew we had it made.
There WOULD be music. Everything would fall into place. Little did we know…….
Let me explain.
Now Mark Haskins coordinated all of last night’s music. Doesn’t sound too hard does it?
Well it IS hard if there’s no band! And as of 5 o’clock yesterday, there wasn’t.
One of the guys was unable to play, and although we had all sorts of talent waiting to play, THERE WAS NO BAND.
Somehow, Mark managed to pull it all together, and the band you saw last night materialized. They had NO rehersal, and only an hour’s notice.
But they were professionals and the sound proved that.
Thank you so much - everyone who played: Bert Mayne, Franklin Micare, Frank Morgan, Mike Otis,Kathy Salman, Gary Stiglmeier, and Paul Zeh.

Nancy Austin was so dedicated to this reunion she would have had this thing at her house! She said so.
I’ve gotten to know Nancy a lot better working with her. It seems in high school she was associated with a lot of partying. Who Knew?

And Nancy backed up her words. She created our nametags, and the orange paper mailing we sent.
And she injected a little Irish humor which kept our spirits up when we needed it most.
That was so, so vital to this mission.
Thank you Nancy Austin.

OK - I’m going out on a limb here to thank tonight’s DJ in advance.
We all know that can be a little tricky.
On Tuesday I told Adam the long sad story of the last reunion when the DJ must have mistaken our gathering for a wedding of 19 year olds.
Held in a place we’ve never seen or will ever want to visit.
Can this committee redeem itself after 10 years? Right now, only Adam knows.
On faith - Thanks Adam

The indespensible man.
Couldn’t have done it without him. These words are sometimes over-used. But not in this case. That guy is here.
He did Everything that involved getting in a car. He got the Piano man DJ, the best around. He made a tremendous deal for us at the Comfort Inn.
He made all these arrangements here at Normanside.
Everybody - Ted Wilson.

Yup, Ted did all those things, And he also talked to me.
All efforts like this one have high and low points along the way. Turnout is a major concern.
At one point he said to me “We’ll have this thing even if it’s only 10 of us in a bar someplace”.
That was a turning point. I knew that Ted was serious. He was working, and there WOULD BE a BCHS 1967 Class Reunion.
And here it is. We could not have done it without Ted Wilson.

We’re at the end of the list of thank yous. There’s only one more. And with it, one more title to convey.
He spoke at our 30th reunion, 10 years ago.
He has a knack for this sort of thing,
He’s our permanent class MC.
John Pellittier!

EPILOGUE

If I wrote all my afterthoughts here, all the feelings, all the memories - I might never stop. Instead, I hope everyone will re-read my thank yous.

I am almost emailed out, so I thank Charlie one more time for this website.
bc67.com will carry us beyond email. I have enjoyed being part of the center of our last two class reunions, but the new way is better. The website is better. It’s efficient It’s visual, it’s alive and always changing, and we should make the most of it. All our future class plans depend on it. Stencil the web address on your brand new mousepad.

I just have to tell everyone what the DJ told me on Saturday night. I had had a lengthy discussion with him on Tuesday, just before the reunion. He’s 33 years old, and I’m doing all I can to make him know who we are, where we come from musically, and what he should expect when he fires up the turntable. Turntable? Like most DJs, he has a strong personality, likes his work, and he knows his business, but I’m still trying to make him see US. Finally, he came to understand, to see inside the BC Class of 1967. Toward the end of the night he called me aside and said “Wow, what a group! I do a lot of reunions, and I’m telling you - I’ve done 10 year class reunions where it wasn’t this good. Where there wasn’t this much spirit.”

One Thank you remains to be said. Thank you everyone who attended. Yes, of course we worked hard; the food and music were great. All that is true. But it’s always about the people who come. Bob Dylan & Elvis Costello played Albany while we were dancing. If they somehow walked into Normanside that night and played for us, it would have added something to this reunion. Sure. But that would only have been icing on the cake.

You were there.

Peace, Love, and Understanding, Paul

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From Rick Dumas:

I agree with everything that Dick Many wrote, but we can NOT wait 10 more years for the kind of fun we just enjoyed.

Take a look at the pictures, and notice EVERYONE smiling. For just one night, we turned back the clock, and it could not have been more fun!

Impossible to thank everyone who worked so hard, but thanks to everyone who could attend, it was really a special memory for all of us.

Take Care, and see you ALL in just a few years,

Rick

+++++++++++++++++++

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 6:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Reunion Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “Comments from the Reunion”

1. aileenduc Says:
October 9th, 2007 at 10:39 pm

The reunion weekend was fantastic. Thanks to the committee for organizing a great get-together. Charlie–thanks for a terrific website and slide show. Prior to the weekend, I looked forward to checking in every day to see who had completed the questionnaire. It was wonderful to see so many people back in Delmar. I’m sorry I didn’t speak to everyone individually. I look forward to seeing lots of photos posted on the website. As soon as I can, I will be adding mine. I truly hope we can pull together in 5 years, rather than 10 for the next reunion.

My best to all,
Aileen
2. Nancy Austin Says:
October 10th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

Dear Reunion 40 Attendees and Classmates,

I am still speechless…two nights tried to encompass our teenage years at Bethlehem. There were sooo many people, and too few hours. I really think we need a five day cruise for the 50th !

I had such a good time, met so many friends (at least to say hi)…took some pictures, which I hope to share. Hope with this website that we can continue to stay in touch, and begin to plan our 45th !

Thanks so much, Charlie, for giving us the opportunity to step into the “Online communication business”. It’s so much easier than mailings and phone calls. Thank you soo much, Ted Wilson, for making sure we had a time and place…at reasonable rates for Friday and Saturday nights. AND THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH, PAUL FRUSCIONE ! Without out your hope, committment and dedication, this weekend wouldn’t have occurred !

And to those that missed this one, we missed you too ! We really hope to see you at the next one. And if we don’t have your contact info, please contact us here. You won’t want to miss out on the next one !

Love to all, and thanks for the memories,

Nancy A.