Feb 1999
Okay, so it’s time for another little adventure in Yale-Land. Let’s get down to some stuff to warm your heart and make you feel good about being a 50-plus geezer on the cosine side of the actuarial tables.
Remember, remember, that our 30th Class Reunion (right, 30th) comes Memorial Day weekend of 1999. If you haven’t done so already, mark Thursday, May 27 through Sunday, May 30 as the time/space for this activity. Your reunion chairmen, Walter Cummings and Woody Collins, are planning an excellent series of fiestas for our benefit. The only reason I can conceive of for your not attending reunion is that its first day falls on the feast of Saint Bede the Venerable (at least on the old calendar). If this is the cause of anyone’s diffidence, I feel confident that Messrs. Cummings and Collinswould be able to accommodate a groundswell of sentiment in that corner through some appropriate ceremonies. In the absence of said groundswell, they have an excellent mix of partying, catching up with old friends, old-time (i.e., 1960s) music, and some serious events about Yale and our society. Have I urged you enough? Those of you who have managed to ignore the importuning letter in October from our chairmen may wish to contact them to sign up. Contact Walter Cummings at tel. 617-278-9095, email: (wcummings@gis.net); or Woody Collins at tel. 212-350-2650, email: (acollins@mandtbank.com).
More on the reunion and our feeble attempts to stay with the tech wave: our chairmen are trying to make it easier to communicate with all of our class through email. Three ways to make this easier. First, send in your communications/sign-up form for reunion and make sure you include your email address. Second, sign up for Virtual Yale Station. If you have your password from your dues mailing, log onto Yale’s web page (http://www.yale.edu/aya) and follow directions to sign up. If you don’t have your password, e-mail to (VYS@aya.yale.edu) and ask for it. Third, get yourself signed up to our class’s Yale listserv, which forwards on to all subscribing class members an e-mail sent by any other subscriber. If enough of us get on this, it will create an effective bulletin board for the class. Send an e-mail to (aya@yale.edu), request to be put on the list, and specify in the body of the message your name, Yale affiliations, and undergraduate residential college. You will eventually get a long message back, confirming your enrollment and providing a detailed series of instructions, tips, and the like. Bruce Weinstein suggested to me that it was too late for him for e-mail, and he was waiting for f-mail. Call it what you want, but sign up.
A couple of social notes, and some more drumbeats. First, in our continuing series of regional and similar class events, overseen by your events czar John Gazzoli, a group of your more lighthearted — and, presumably, lightheaded — classmates braved the wilds of Napa Valley for a winetasting tour in October. The Sherpa for this occasion was none other than said Gazzoli, who from what I hear knew a lot more about wine and where to taste it than your average Sherpa. Also attending were Beinecke, Chopivsky(our class council czar), Collins, Earley, Knight, Treffers, Woolery, Spellerberg, Sacerdoti, and Larson. The further review I have had runs: “Outstanding food and wine; great massages and body wraps; great conversation and socializing. Most had spouses/SOs.” Draw your own conclusions, friends.
Second, as advertised, Lang Wheeler was kind enough to host a brunch at his Cambridge manse on the morning of the Harvard game. I have not had complete first-hand reports (presumably those who went are still reveling in the Yale victory), but I have heard that roughly 75 souls attended, that Whim’n Rhythm sang, and that a good, social, time was had by all. Thanks to Lang for his generosity and hospitality. Gazzoli is working hard for our collective benefit — thinking of about three regional events per year. He is hoping to have worked out the next round of events in time to let us know about them at the reunion.
The mail is stacking up. (You are such busy, busy people!) Just a couple of items before we close this little chat out. I am pleased to advise that Mrs. Helen Gates, the mother ofThomas H.M. Gates of our class, has funded a Yale College scholarship in Tom’s name, in accordance with his wishes expressed prior to his death. The Thomas H.M. Gates scholarship will be awarded each year with preference to a student in Jonathan Edwards College and/or an African American student, with the gender of the recipient alternating. We should be proud of this exemplary donation.
Some words via e-mail. Allen Richardson wrote that, in aid of the 100th anniversary of Yale swimming in October (bet you didn’t know that), he, Ahern, David Johnson, andWaples were Class of 1969 attendees at festivities in New Haven. We should be aware, he notes, that “Yale looks to be in great shape with all the money that was collected for the campaign. Sterling, the Law School, and the Grad School are all cleaned up. Berkeley is under construction. Even New Haven looked very clean to me [too much chlorine?]. . . . I stayed at the Holiday Inn on Whalley, which is exactly the same as when a date kicked me out of it. . . . All of this is said to encourage those of us who frequent New Haven rarely, to come to the 30th. Those of you who are golfers should be reminded that the Yale Golf Course is in the top 100 in the country, and is still one of the most beautiful courses in the world. . . . ”
And now a coda: My burdens have been too heavy — and, after almost ten years (the last two only sometimes), it’s time to turn over the regular writing of these Notes to a better, less tired, writer. John Yarmuth (our Louisville publisher of the Louisville Eccentric Observer who purports, for God’s sake, to write for a living) has kindly agreed to take the helm. You’ll still have Bogaty to kick around . . . I plan to write in for a change.