Ralph, you and I were born in 1953; my course of study, BS Pharmacy, was a 5 year program, so I graduated in the year of the Bicentennial, 1976. My 50th is next year.
“What now? I wondered. The future was past. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as peering over a precipice; but rather that one had reached the crest of something and it was downhill from here.”
You framed the feeling so well; but I would change the sentiment a bit and say that we’ve reached the crest and will remain there for the rest of our moment here on Earth. *As an aside, it should be humbling to us all to live on a planet named for Dirt!
“Few others seemed to be subjecting their spouses to the experience and she would be doing so for me.”
OMG!! Taking/going with a spouse to a reunion is near the top of life’s worst decisions; from every angle.
“I checked in and got my dorm room.”
Now, Ohio Northern had a campus hotel that I stayed at for my 25th; I took a quick tour through my old haunts in the dorm and the rooms have all been renovated from the early 70’s when our rooms were right out of the movie “Stalag 17.”
“When you’re older it’s about who’s aging most gracefully.”
Ralph, that's the 1st college class I took, too! At Youngstown State back in ‘71.
“On the other hand, I previously thought it unlikely that I’d be able to recapture the magic of college this late in my career. Somehow, I did.”
That’s wonderful. The magic of college has never left me; I can recall it all and the excitement of being at an academic institution that was “freeing” and not claustrophobic in the manner of elementary and high school; the dorm-rats I hung with were my brothers as we chased all the ONU girls who were nowhere near as attractive as the girls back home, but they were the only game in town.
Ralph, I have a very good friend, Patricia Zupan C.A. Dana Professor of Italian, who has taught at Middlebury for at least the last 40 years. Her late husband, Franco Ciccone, had a dual Doctorate in English and Italian and happily chose to operate a coffee-house in Middlebury.
Ralph, you and I were born in 1953; my course of study, BS Pharmacy, was a 5 year program, so I graduated in the year of the Bicentennial, 1976. My 50th is next year.
“What now? I wondered. The future was past. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as peering over a precipice; but rather that one had reached the crest of something and it was downhill from here.”
You framed the feeling so well; but I would change the sentiment a bit and say that we’ve reached the crest and will remain there for the rest of our moment here on Earth. *As an aside, it should be humbling to us all to live on a planet named for Dirt!
“Few others seemed to be subjecting their spouses to the experience and she would be doing so for me.”
OMG!! Taking/going with a spouse to a reunion is near the top of life’s worst decisions; from every angle.
“I checked in and got my dorm room.”
Now, Ohio Northern had a campus hotel that I stayed at for my 25th; I took a quick tour through my old haunts in the dorm and the rooms have all been renovated from the early 70’s when our rooms were right out of the movie “Stalag 17.”
“When you’re older it’s about who’s aging most gracefully.”
That’s the ONLY reason I attend any reunion; HS, college, workplace…because I was blessed with my parent’s genes and they never looked old…I still have a full head of hair which is surprising since so many were after my scalp. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TA9sY8wuEIw5PRhypMugo7iiuBtLdaOl/view?usp=sharing
“I took his Art History 101 class.”
Ralph, that's the 1st college class I took, too! At Youngstown State back in ‘71.
“On the other hand, I previously thought it unlikely that I’d be able to recapture the magic of college this late in my career. Somehow, I did.”
That’s wonderful. The magic of college has never left me; I can recall it all and the excitement of being at an academic institution that was “freeing” and not claustrophobic in the manner of elementary and high school; the dorm-rats I hung with were my brothers as we chased all the ONU girls who were nowhere near as attractive as the girls back home, but they were the only game in town.
Ralph, I have a very good friend, Patricia Zupan C.A. Dana Professor of Italian, who has taught at Middlebury for at least the last 40 years. Her late husband, Franco Ciccone, had a dual Doctorate in English and Italian and happily chose to operate a coffee-house in Middlebury.