45 YEARS? 45 YEARS!

October 4-6, 2012

Oye.  Nothing puts you into a funk faster than realizing another “milestone” reunion is upon you.  What’s alarming is that they seem to be coming around faster and faster.  Slow down!  This time it was my 45th Stanford reunion.  Gads.  Surely it was just a little while ago that I was racing across Quad, late (again) for class?  Oh.  Right.  That was my kids, and the younger is getting close to his tenth.  As you see, I’m still sporting that old-man beard as Loni and I relax in front of MemAud.  That fountain sure wasn’t there 45 years ago, along with a lot of other infrastructure changes.  On the whole, despite a lot of new buildings and reconfiguring roads, Stanford has done a very nice job of retaining the beauty of the campus and its view sightlines.  Considering the money they’ve had to work with, they ought to have.

This reunion followed the script from the many we have attended in the past.  Classes gather for lunches at their year’s tent (don’t know why I’m looking so gloomy, it wasn’t bad at all; that’s Chuck and Alice with me).  We attend “Classes Without Quizzes” on a wide spectrum of topics.  I always pick things from disciplines I never had much to do with as an undergrad, mostly the science and engineering stuff.  Loni goes her own way to whatever strikes her fancy.  One of the classes I attended was in the “Project Realization” facility.  There’s a complete woodworking shop, metal working, plastics, laser cutters, 3-D printers, etc.  Just about everything needed for a student to build whatever he/she can design.  Very cool.  There are panel presentations and guest speakers in MemAud, which are always interesting.

Another nifty class I attended was the virtual reality lab.  Here we got to put on these big goggles and “stroll” about one of several environments.  The one shown is some plaza in Spain.  The wall projection is just so that those waiting their turn can see what the wearer is seeing as he/she stumbles about the room;  what you see through the goggles is much better.  The guide has to keep stopping the wearer from walking into someone or a wall, as they think they are striding about the plaza.  The effect was pretty good, but certainly far from lifelike.

Our favorite event each reunion is the colossally overpriced “Dinner On The Quad.”  This year they seemed more challenged than usual in getting reasonably warm food to the table.  Since they’ve been doing this every year for decades, you’d think they’d have it down pat by now.  Even so, the setting is beautiful, and we wouldn’t miss it.  I met Chuck my freshman year, we were fraternity brothers the next three.  Alice trained with Loni as a med tech, and right after I met her we introduced them to each other.  First date was a double with us at Dodger Stadium.  They married within months and, 40+ years later, we’re still all together.

Reunion weekend is always on a football game weekend.  This year the opponent was Arizona and the game turned out to be a doozy.  Stanford came from way behind to tie it at 48 (!) all just before regulation ran out, then won it in overtime.  We really had written them off in this one, and it was a very exciting finish.  Now, if we hadn’t been absolutely jobbed at Notre Dame, we would have had an undefeated season.  Ah, well.  There would be glory yet to come.

Afterwards, we gathered back at the class tents area where we were surrounded by the incomparable zanies, if not musicians, of the Band.  Click on that link for a UTube video I took of the nonsense, including the dancing tree, which this year (it changes every year, depending upon the imagination of the student who plays the part and makes the costume) seemed particularly weird.  Both of our boys played in the Band when they were here, so we forgive just about anything the group does.  As at all our reunions, we had a great time.  This October, it’s Loni’s turn.  Can’t wait.  The game will be against UCLA, so a sure sellout.  Let’s hope the celebration is the same.