Going Back, Going Back - Princeton Part I

This year I went to my 30th Reunion at Princeton. The Peace Corps forced me to narrow down my traditions to the things that were most important to me. I subscribed to mlb.com and had access of radio feeds to regular-season and post-season games, so it wasn’t 27 months without baseball, but other than that it was The New Yorker magazine and Princeton Reunions (while I was in Morocco it was also the See the World trip with my sister and her family, but after Morocco they went on vacations without me! I think I am back on the list for 2011…).


I used to prefer the off-year Reunions to the majors; the majors have a lot of structure to them, with many scheduled class activities, and I like being a free agent. But the past few majors have been among my favorites, and this one might have been the best yet! I was involved just enough to have a sense of purpose but not so much that I felt stressed or overwhelmed, as I had in the past. On my way back from Philadelphia, I stayed with Arlene and made some memory boards to post at the headquarters site – they turned out well (in the October 11 post I’m standing in front of one of them). I went to Arlene’s again the Wednesday of Reunions week to put together registration packets. We were joined by Duane, the person in charge of the P-rade; he was working on copy for P-rade signs. I ended up helping him put the signs together the next morning, and we had so much fun! It was one of the highlights of the weekend (and it was gratifying to see people choose their signs with enthusiasm). My last job was that of gathering and finding a way to publish class essays; I wish more people had submitted them, but I am glad I took this on, because we wouldn’t have had it at all otherwise. I enjoy reading people’s essays and of course I like writing my own!


Another highlight was a lunch for Professor Billington, who retired this year. He was my favorite professor and it was nice to honor him this way. I do have trip writeups somewhere of the In the Wake of Lewis and Clark trip that we were both on. If I had been blogging at the time I would have made mention of the symposium I attended for his 75th birthday, too – at the time I felt on the edge career-wise and ready to break down if anyone asked me what I did. Instead, I met other lapsed engineers and people in career transition and felt nothing but support from fellow Princetonians and Billington fans!


And even though I have been going back for 30 years (plus I attended four as an undergraduate), I am still doing some Reunions first. My classmate John Rogers was slated to win an award at the Princeton Varsity Club dinner on the Thursday night of Reunions. Even though I was on the rifle team and have the letter sweater to prove it, I’m not really an athlete so I didn’t think about going. I told my freshman-year roommate Meg about it though, since she and John are friends, and that I’d see her at some point. As the dinner got closer, she emailed to ask if I’d reconsidered going to the dinner. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I could go to the dinner with her and spend the time with her there! I was seated at a women’s basketball table and given a window onto a different aspect of Princeton. The speeches were long and the evening showed signs of being a long one – and then (as usual for Reunions weekend) major thunderstorms went through the area, forcing us to evacuate the tent. This worked to our benefit – not only could we spend more time talking each other, but we also spent time talking with John! I’m going to the Princeton-Harvard game this coming weekend – I had been to every fall Harvard or Yale home game from 1980 until I went into the Peace Corps, but this will be my first since 2005 – and I convinced Meg to join me!