The first thing that should be said is if you weren't there you missed a good time with a great bunch of people.
Saturday was the better of the two days by far. Why, I don't know. But what follows is a run down of the day's activities. Oh yes, guess a good beginning would be to mention those who were there; Steve Beard and his wife Sheri, Bill Peak and his wife, Jeff Sullivan and his daughter Danni, Colleen Oates King, Sue Hodges, Janet Eubanks, and me, Ed Thompson.
Once things began to take off so to speak, some amazing conversations developed. Colleen and Steve discussed the finer points of Chilean wine, but Bill and I brought out the tremendous aspects of Boones Farm, with its multitude of fruity flavors, and Balihi with its more than reasonable price; after all, anytime you can buy a half gallon of wine for four dollars or less, you are one thrifty shopper.
As the afternoon wore into early evening and campfires began to dot the area we noticed that the campers next to us had arranged their logs in teepee fashion, something about the wind circulating better to fan the fire. Not to be out done we just thru our wood in the container provided for said fire, doused it with that miracle fire starter, charcoal lighter, and poof, the mother of all camp fires was now burning brightly.
Jeff decided to go on safari to the campsite that had that perfect fire; Colleen eventually rescued him by telling how the kids needed him and please come back to our campsite, it worked. Later I convinced Jeff to introduce me to his new found friends, we strolled over once more. Not long after arriving at their campsite Jeff made quite a unique observation, "Ed" he says, "did you notice their legs are all crossed in the same direction." You know, he was right. One of their campers remarked, "You know, that didn't just happen overnight, that's twenty-five years of inbreeding." And then invited us to go to a party about four miles over in the woods, and made some reference to the movie Deliverance. "Well, time for me to go" I says, "how about you Jeff, oh yeah time to go", and we made our retreat back to our own campsite with the perfect fire. Speaking of which, Bill had taken over fire duties, and was doing one heck of a job. We all knew he was serious about this fire thing when he carried over a small tree to add to said fire. That thing will still be burning if we all make it back there next year. I can see it now, a thousand years into the future archeologists will be digging up that camp site and thinking, these people weren't much on hunting but they could sure build a hell of a fire.
Steve, my new friend, you definitely hold the record for holding your beer. While most were making multiple trips to the bathroom Steve just sat there and smiled. We all cheered when he finally had to make that trip himself. And just so everybody knows, Steve cooks a mean steak, and baked potato in that great fire of Bill's although he did do the steak on the grill.
Naturally jokes had to start and Sheri you missed your calling, you tell a great joke, and I'm still looking for the rake.
Bill broke out the boom box and played some great tunes, he said he played some blues tunes also, but I don't remember it. And Sue, you are one fine dancer, and that tent, loved it.
Some slowly started to call it a night, and this is when Janet and I took the opportunity to convince Colleen that those strange sounds she was hearing in the night were probably panthers. We also told Colleen how these panthers sometimes roamed into camp and pulled people out of their tents, we are so bad.
To wrap it up the only regret that I personally have is that we waited so many years for this get together. It would be nice to do it again next year, or who knows, may be even sooner. But I almost forgot, Sue, thanks for the dance lassie, you still have the moves!
Ed Thompson (Class of 1969)
Ed's photos below are in very random order!
