Weather: hot and sunny, then an horrendous deluge, then a good day but parade cancelled. I'd call the weather mixed.
In the olden days reunion just used to be literally the "Old Boys", and the numbers were smaller because classes were half the size.
But 30-some old guys did show up for the '56ers 55th. Our 50th had been 120 (≠60%). There were offers of activities galore. Without taking anything at all from the importance and super job done by the school on graduation. the reunion classes are a nice windfall for a four-day weekend: the 25th donated $13 mil,the 50th an astounding $22 mil as class gifts. Thus the attention to services, tents, bands, great food, and plenty of alcohol.
Our class HQ was in the old-guys quad, call it "The Old Guard": the four white frame houses that run along either side of the drive to the Old Williams Inn ... now Dodd House. Only two of us stayed in house, Hugh Deane and me. Both without wives' present. The class dinners were in Dodd, The Faculty Club, and the new Williams Inn where the Kap house used to be until it burned. Need I mention that coat and neckties were the prevailing wear? With cocktails partaken prior, wine with, and even among some of us (well, ok ... me) a post digestive to ease into evening.
Reunion is a tableaux of time and its passing: there are plenty of children in tow with parents in the younger classes, and in the very older classes, the reverse, parents in the tow of children and even grandchildren. The Class of '41 had seven members present, some with the loving help of offspring.
A shimmer of camaraderie falls over the older classes as the striving for a life position in the 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25th years gives way to something a great deal more valuable as age stills the need for competition. The enjoyment of each other sets in. This feeling is palpable among the older set. And remember, no female alums until the end of the 60's-early 70's. So I am describing an aged alpha-pride.
Short takes:
1. I rented a car in Boston from Enterprise using my ultra exclusive Costco membership. They both pick you up and drop you off ... a great service. I was at daughter Wendy's. I rented, for one person, the next to the cheapest model. I can't do the Ford Aspire. And through my much-sought after Costco card, was given an upgrade. I ended up with this: an eight passenger TV-aided Toyota Sienna. My contribution to reunion was to raise the college CO2 footprint. Quite comfortable, though. I ignored calculating the milage.
Just the thought of the hours needed with the painstaking individual instructions to be followed. I dropped a note to Darra Goldstein after sending another sub to Gastronomica to another daughter in law, that an interesting compare and contrast would be Lewitt and Julia Childs, since they are both artists yet leaving instructions for the creation of the piece since neither will be there.
"The large-scale photographs by Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth featured in this exhibition offer distinct but connected perspectives on the ways individuals interact with the spaces they inhabit". 
Gigantic knock-your-eyes-out C prints! Hofer shows the power of space without people. Stroth shows the complexity of interrelations in space when people are added. I later saw two Struths at Boston in a show of photo holdings of the BofA. But the point of each is stronger in the combination. Great curating!
b. The Pissaro's People show. All old farts admitted free the day before the show opened.
The concentration on the people in the paintings and their relationship to Pissaro and his political leanings gives the viewer a totally new insight into Pissaro. Another outstanding piece of scholarship.
Three of us '56ers, all married, sitting together discover we have had nine wives between us.And so it goes ...
In re #1: Phat hooptie, homes. Way to represent.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.readthehook.com/76519/wahooptie-offers-phat-ride
"Out-of-towner" writes:
ReplyDeleteI, too, enjoyed the Clark this summer, especially the large format photographs.
They were a breath of fresh air for a room that seems immutable. For anyone familiar with the museum most of the huge photos were on the walls of the "Renoir" room. http://clarkart.edu/exhibitions/spaces/content/exhibition.cfm
While I was there, a guard attested to the perceived immutability of this room: Many repeat visitors were disappointed that they were unable to see the Renoirs again. They, as well as other European paintings in the collection, are currently "advertising" the Clark through their travels for the next few years. This summer they were in Giverny, a bit of a reunion for some of the works. http://www.clarkart.edu/about/press/content.cfm?ID=3290&year=2011