Dear Class Of ’68 Brothers and Sisters,
I only got to the Saturday events of the reunion, living now so far away, in Silver Bay, MN , on the Lake Superior North Shore, with no scheduled airport, but loved it nonetheless, and cherished it all the more for the short time I did get to have with many.
I feel that I’ve gotten to develop a special, long term connection, with those who have religiously, or otherwise, found a way to attend most of our reunions, decade after decade. I have come to love, see and speak with these same faces repeatedly and I think it’s become one of the best parts of my life. I can’t list everyone, but if you consider the breadth of our class from JanaLee, to Paula, to Barb, to Susan, to Anne, to Phil and Cheryl, to Angie, to Chuck, to Liz, to Dick and Karen, to Ron, to Sam, to Rick, to David and Nancy, to Kathy, to Blake, to Judy, to John and Kris and more, I’m sure you’ll remember all of the others.
As for events to remember, not previously mentioned at the reunion, I think that the replacement of the stolen original college stone by Susan Swanson’s longtime Gustavus Family is one worth noting, maybe the tradition of “hello” to one another on Hello Walk mandated by Dean Melva Lind on Freshman Orientation Day in Christ Chapel is another and then maybe the jailing of a fraternity for “unlawful assembly” (beer drinking wasn’t even mentioned) in Le Sueur County may be one more.
More personally memorable and more current for me was the comment by my best friend, non-Gustie graduate Renee Pearson, while I was explaining to her a few weeks ago about our longtime reunion slogan of “Still Crazy After All These Years,” coined I think by long ago lost classmate Roger Schwakopf, “maybe it’s time to update your slogan to ‘Still Continent After All These Years.'”
Jim Krieger