June 10-11, 2018: A Visit With My Sister
	May 7-10, 2018: A Visit to Madrid, Spain
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For some time, I have been planning to attend my 50th college reunion, which will be held on June 8-10 at Davidson College, in Davidson, North Carolina. Having two new kittens that we need to take with us has complicated things, but we think we can manage.

One note:
We will, of course, be taking lots of pictures of Gracie and Cole on our trip to North Carolina and the subsequent trip down to Fort Lauderdale. I will be putting almost all of those pictures on the "Pets" page for this year.

Getting to Charlotte, North Carolina (June 7)

Since the reunion will be Friday and Saturday, the 8th and 9th of June, we will be leaving Dallas early on the 7th so we can arrive in Charlotte very late that night.

The trip to Charlotte is one I have made many times before, although not recently. After my mother moved to Dallas, there was little reason to drive home; visits to my sister were normally in conjunction with business trips or I might fly. Fred has also made this trip before, most recently when we did a vacation in North Georgia.

The route is an easy one, thanks to Interstate highways. We left Dallas with the two kittens and headed east on US 80 to Terrell where we picked up I-20 east. At Shreveport, instead of heading south on I-49, we just continued east across Louisiana, and then into Mississippi at Vicksburg. We passed by Jackson and then crossed into Alabama. In Alabama, I-20 angled up northeast through Tuscaloosa and then around Birmingham, continuing east towards Atlanta. At Atlanta, we turned north on the I-285 beltway and then took I-85 northeast towards South Carolina. It was in Atlanta that we stopped for a late dinner. Continuing northeast, we passed across South Carolina and then crossed into North Carolina at Gastonia. We continued towards Charlotte and its north side, still on I-85.

I am still very familiar with much of Charlotte, although not its suburbs, as it has grown so much over the years. I-85 is very close-in to downtown when it crosses the north side, and knowing that the Red Roof Inn is just off Sugar Creek Road, I knew right where to get off, although I will have to admit that the signs directing us to the motel were, shall we way, less than obvious. But we did find it fairly easily.

I would have preferred to stay closer to Davidson itself, but it turned out that the two kittens were the deciding factor. In looking at the hotels near the campus, very few of them even allowed pets, and the couple that did charged what we thought were very hefty fees. We have stayed at two hotels that are not only pet-friendly but charge no fees for pets- La Quinta and Red Roof. There was no La Quinta nearby so the Red Roof it was.

We got the first floor room I had asked for, and the first thing we had to do was get the kittens situated. They still had to be sequestered in the tiled bathroom as they weren't yet litterbox trained. The only problem turned out to be that the hotel has installed bathroom lights that go off by themselves if they are left on for a long time. Since we wanted to have a kind of night light for the two animals, this was inconvenient. For the first night, the kittens were in the dark most of the time, but the next morning we went to Walmart to find an inexpensive lamp. When we couldn't find anything, I asked the front desk if it would be possible to disconnect the automatic shutoff. When the maintenance guy came by to take a look, and we explained what we needed, he simply went to their storeroom and brought us exactly the kind of small lamp that we needed.

So, by one in the morning we were settled into our room for the first of three nights.

Getting to Davidson, North Carolina (June 8)

Of course, having lived in Charlotte all those years, and going to Davidson for four of them, I knew my way around the area pretty well, and getting back to the college was simple.

From the Red Roof Inn, we got back on I-85 heading back southwest to the interchange with I-77 north. We could have simply taken Sugar Creek Road north and wandered through some urban areas to get to the old Statesville Road that would have taken us to the college, but for a fifteen-mile trip, the freeway was better. At the interchange, we got onto I-77 north, navigated what is apparently a constant traffic jam where there is construction going on, and fifteen miles later were getting off at the Davidson exit.

What has changed a great deal is the area of the college and around the college. The town of Davidson has grown all the way out to I-77, fueled by the growth in the college itself (it has more than doubled in size since I attended) and the fact that this entire area north of the city has become one big group of bedroom communities; residents can live in an idyllic, small town like Davison yet be fifteen minutes from one of the largest cities in the Southeast.

The road in from the Interstate goes through a couple of picturesque traffic circles and goes between some small shopping plazas and many, many houses on both sides before reaching Main Street, the eponymous portion of NC Route 115 that runs through the town and along the western border of the college campus. At Main Street, we crossed over to a small parking lot by the Guest House and went to register. That done, we headed off to the first event of the day- the morning session and lunch in the new Lilly Family Gallery in the Chambers Building.

This is probably a good time to show you how Davidson College is laid out, and the aerial view at right will do that quite nicely. The college now extends north and east out of the view, but the view does encompass the areas where the events of Reunion Weekend took place.

After checking in at the Guest House, we walked east in front of dormitory row so I could point out Belk Hall, where I lived for three years, and East Hall, where I roomed my freshman year, to Fred, and then we walked to the east entrance to Chambers Hall (where most of my classes were held) and the Lilly Family Gallery addition on its east side.

I have marked other sites where events took place, and you can refer back to this aerial view as the weekend goes on. Davidson has grown a great deal since I graduated in 1968, of course, although the dormitories that existed then are still the same, as is Chambers Hall (save for the Lilly addition), and the church. The Smith Student Union moved years ago to the completely remodelled gymnasium when a new sports complex was constructed on the east side of the campus.

The former C. Shaw Smith Student Union Building, east of Chambers, was expanded and has become the E. H. Little Library. Many other new buildings have been constructed, notably the Wall Academic Center (more classrooms) that was a major expansion of what had been Martin Hall (physical sciences). Just southwest of Chambers Hall, the former Little Library building was renovated and expanded and has become a new music and cultural center.

Opening Session and Lunch (June 8)

The opening session included a keynote speech by a former Davidson coach (why are coaches always considered "inspirational"?) as well as lunch. I made a movie of part of his speech, but must have had my finger over the microphone, for there is no sound (which, of course, means I won't bother to include the movie here.

Myself, Tom Peddicord, Steve Lee, and Ted Winter

Fred and I picked up our lanyards and some materials as we came into the Lilly Gallery. Inside, the entire room was set up with round tables for the opening session and lunch. It was here that we hooked up with Steve Lee, who has been to visit us a couple of times in Dallas, and some of my other classmates. I want to say at the outset that Fred was a real trouper, sitting through talks and sessions and meeting lots of people he'd never met before and had no connection to. I tried my best to introduce him thoroughly to anyone that we spent more than a couple of minutes talking to; during the weekend he did "connect" with a number of my classmates that shared interests in common with his, so I hope he enjoyed himself.

In the picture at right are myself and three of the Reunion Weekend attendees I knew best. Over the years, these three have stayed close as they live near each other; I was the odd man out, living half a continent away. And here are three more of the pictures that Fred took during the opening session:

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Lunch was a time to reconnect with a few other guys that I met in the serving line and around the room. Most looked pretty much the same- exactly what you might expect if you ran their college pictures through that CSI-type "aging" software. I was interested to find that almost no one had become much, much larger or much skinnier than I remembered them. I, myself, am a good deal thinner now than I was then, but not so much than anybody's jaw dropped. Where Fred or I took a picture of someone whose name I can remember now (eight months after the reunion), I am going to include their yearbook picture from 1968. So here are the four guys in the picture above, right:

A Talk by Dr. Jim Martin (June 8)

One of Davidson's more famous alumni, Dr. Jim Martin was a Chemistry professor when I attended Davidson, and I, like many of my fellow classmates, took at least one of his courses.

Dr. James Martin

In 1972, Dr. Martin left his professorship and ran as a moderate Republican to represent Charlotte's 9th Congressional District. As a Republican myself, I would have supported him had I still been a North Carolina voter, but by that election I had moved to Chicago. He served six terms in the House and then returned to North Carolina to run for Governor, a post he won in 1984 (unusual because at the time North Carolina was still considered a Democratic state). Term-limited, he left office in 1992 after fulfilling is one specific campaign promise- to complete Interstate 40 all the way from the state's western border to Wilmington, on the coast.

NOTE:
I can't resist saying here that were Dr. Martin still in political life, my opinion would be that he would no longer find himself comfortable in the modern Republican Party. I say this based on personal experience; I was a Republican then (a Goldwater Republican, if you must know), and remained one until switching to become a Democrat in 1988.

Dr. Martin, like many Davidson professors, personnel, and students, was a man of faith- nor surprising since Davidson was a Presbyterian college. On the subject, I was even then the skeptic, but I wanted to attend Dr. Martin's talk not only to see what he had to say but of course to reintroduce myself to him. And I enjoyed doing both- meeting him again after so many years and after his having had at least three illustrious careers, and listening to his talk. Here are a couple of short movies of part of his talk, and two pictures that Fred took during the session:

Part of James Martin's Talk (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Part of James Martin's Talk (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Dr. Martin's Concluding Slide

Dr. James Martin

Walking Around Campus (June 8)

For the remainder of the afternoon after Dr. Martin's session, Fred and I walked around the campus, and I pointed out the buildings that were of importance to me during my time here. This was Fred's second visit to Davidson, but the first one was only for an hour or so and it was at night; we were on our way to have dinner in Charlotte with my nephew Ted as part of a trip that involved some hiking in the Appalachians. Here are some of the locations we visited and pictures we took.

Chambers Hall and The Quadrangle

Fred and I at Chambers Hall (West Front)

Since we were already in Chambers Hall, we went out to the lawn west of the building to get some pictures. Other than my dormitories, I spent more time in this building than any other, since it is the primary classroom building and the academic center of campus. Almost all classrooms for non-science and non-arts subjects are here. The building additionally houses several administrative offices as well as the majority of faculty offices.

Maxwell Chambers, planter and manufacturer, was born in Salisbury in 1780. His father died in 1784, and he lived with two of his uncles, receiving his education in Salisbury, North Carolina. While yet a young man Maxwell went to Charleston, S.C., in company with an uncle, Hugh Campbell. There he is supposed to have laid the basis of his fortune, which by the time of his death amounted to a half million dollars, a considerable amount for anyone living in Piedmont North Carolina between 1820 and 1850.

Following his return to Salisbury in about 1820, Chambers lived with his widowed half sister, liquidated most of his business holdings and set himself up as a one-man loan company. The many mortgages and deeds he executed show that he loaned money to prominent citizens in the county, often acquiring their homes or plantations when they failed to pay off their loans. It was said that he "never mixed business and charity together"; he "would give and take the last cent due in a trade, and when he chose to give, he gave liberally."

Three of his many homes he placed at the disposal of the Reverend Archibald Baker, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Salisbury. One of these homes, now the Rowan Museum, was called for years the Maxwell Chambers House.

It was through Baker that Chambers was drawn to the support of Davidson College, to which institution he left a legacy of about $250,000, making it for a short time the wealthiest private college in the South. (It was at this time that Davidson College acquired the nickname of "The Princeton of the South", since Chambers's bequest made it "the wealthiest college south of Princeton".) Owing to the limitations of the school's charter, however, Davidson could not actually receive the full amount, but with the funds it did get it erected Chambers Hall, dwarfing in size and magnificence anything even at Princeton itself. Chambers Hall burned in 1921, and another Chambers Hall was erected on the site in 1929.

Chambers, whose name is closely identified with Salisbury, served his local community in a number of positions, and was also a member of the building committee for Davidson College. In another college-related turn, the Salisbury Cotton Factory, which Chambers purchased for $30,000 in 1848, also passed into the hands of Davidson College; the college sold it in 1861 to the Confederate government for use as a prison.

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At left are some additional views of myself and Fred out here in front of Chambers Hall.

Chambers's association with the college is not without its controversy, as there is some indication that Chambers actually made his money by dealing in slaves. A kinsman was a slave dealer, and Chambers's great-nephew states that Maxwell Chambers used his brother Joseph as a front man in the slave trade in Alexandria, Va., and by so doing kept himself well in the background. If, indeed, Chambers was a slaver, however, his interest in African-Americans was ambivalent. While he may have made money in that market, he was, apparently, occupied with their welfare. A year before he died, Chambers manumitted eighteen or twenty of his slaves, giving them transportation to Oberlin, Ohio, and funds with which to begin life anew. At his death he freed forty-eight more slaves with the same provisions for their safe journey to Ohio.

In addition to the offices and classrooms reference above, Chambers Hall also houses the Lilly Family Gallery and two computer labs. When I attended Davidson, the college kept its first computer, an IBM 1620, in the basement of Chambers Hall, and it was there that I got my first introduction to computers and, specifically, to computer programming. From the Quips and Cranks for 1968, at left is a picture of that machine. That's not me in the picture, but the punchcard leaning up against the console was my handiwork (reminding everyone of a rule that the administration had put in place to monitor access to the machine.

While the college used it for its own purposes, when not in use some of us were allowed to practice programming it, and I (as well as my friend, Steve Lee) took to it quickly. I remember that our investment club used it, and I wrote a program to keep track of our investments and everyone's shares. Steve, for his part, discovered that as the computer executed instructions, it gave off electronic waves that could actually be picked up on a transistor radio, and that each instruction resulted in a specific frequency. So he wrote a program that executed the instructions necessary to result in a recognizable tune.

I attribute my later career almost entirely to that first introduction to what shortly became the burgeoning computer industry. I was fortunate to have been born at just the right time to take advantage of this new opportunity and build a 35-year career upon it. So I turned out to be at the leading edge of two major social trends of the twentieth century- the baby boom and the computer revolution. So thanks to my parents, Davidson College, and IBM.

Back out on the quadrangle on this sunny afternoon, I was showing Fred the buildings I remembered, and introducing myself to the new ones that had been constructed.

Philanthropic Hall and Eumanean Hall Two of the oldest buildings on the campus, these two halls were the original classroom buildings (used for Humanities breakout groups when I attended).

The Baker-Watt Science Complex This is the Watson Life Science Building, which houses laboratories for instruction and research. The two buildings in the complex were built in 1999.

We were walking west from Chambers Hall towards Main Street, and passed some of the campus's oldest and newest structures.

Davidson College Presbyterian Church

Davidson College was founded by Presbyterians in 1837 and the first actual church built on this side was completed in 1885.

Historical Sign Off Main Street

When I attended Davidson, and for about the next five years after I left in 1968, chapel was a requirement for all students. I was something of a skeptic even then, but I am pretty sure that my skepticism had little if anything to do with the college's decision to eliminate the requirement. Though the days of mandatory chapel are gone, Davidson is still affiliated with the Presbyterian Church-USA. The original Davidson College Presbyterian Church was 65 years old when its building was demolished in 1952 to make way for the current building, which was completed that same year. The sanctuary seats up to 1,200 people.

Music in the Sanctuary is provided by a 50-year-old organ, which has been rebuilt twice, once in the 1970s and again in 2006 by the Wicks Pipe Organ Company. The main entrance to the Sanctuary, shown in Fred's picture at left, faces the Davidson College quadrangle adjacent to Main Street.

While we won't be here on Sunday for services, we will attend the Class of 1968 Memorial service tomorrow. It will be held in Lingle Chapel, located on the west side of Davidson College Presbyterian Church along Main Street. The small chapel seats 150 and is used not only for Presbyterian services, but for worship of other denominations including a weekly Catholic Mass and occasional ecumenical services. Lingle Chapel is named for Walter L. Lingle, Class of 1892 and Davidson College President, 1929-1941.

The Town of Davidson

From the church, we crossed Main Street to see how the town had changed. It was as picturesque as I remember it, although much gentrified- with art galleries, coffee shops, eateries, and such. One new building was the College Store. I believe that the original store was a small affair located in the Student Union east of Chambers Hall. We went in to look around and I think Fred acquired a Christmas gift or two. We walked north up the street and passed the Copeland House, named for its current owner. Originally built in the 1850s, Dr. Holt, the town physician, owned the house first. In 1912, Mrs M.A Henderson bought the house, and ran it as a boarding house (where quite a few Davidson students lived). In the 1940s, it was acquired by the Copeland family and continued as a boarding house for some years, eventually becoming a private residence again and, most recently, a college office.

The Belk Visual Arts Center

We walked north up Main Street, back towards where we parked the car, and came in front of the Belk Visual Arts Center. At first we thought it was a museum, so we headed inside.

The Belk Visual Arts Center

The Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center (known around campus as the "VAC") is a 43,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility that houses classrooms and studios devoted to both Art History and Studio Art. It houses two galleries for visiting and student art shows, as well as an AV-equipped lecture hall, seminar room, and studios for art majors and faculty.

It was named in 1998 for Katherine McKay Belk, a member of the Davidson Board of Trustees and her husband Tom Belk, Class of 1946, a member of the Board of Trustees from 1972-1984. (The two people, of course, are part of the Belk Department Store family; both my Mom and I worked at their downtown Charlotte store at different times.)

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Just inside the center, on either side of the front entrance, we found two galleries- one named for William H. Van Every, Jr. and the other for Edward M. Smith Galleries- that together provide a couple thousand square feet of space for rotating exhibitions. Exhibits by student, faculty, regional, national, and international artists are hosted approximately every six weeks.

The Atrium of the Visual Arts Center

Built in 1992-1993, the visual arts center is modeled after two of Davidson's oldest buildings, Eumenaean Hall and Philanthropic Hall. Those two buildings, seen above as we walked through the quadrangle, have architectural similarities to each other and to the visual arts center- including small atriums. So the visual arts center has used the same model, with all the classrooms, offices, and studios on two floors enclosing the two-story, glass-ceilinged atrium. In the atrium (on the ground floor) is a sculpture, "Jean D'Aire, Nu" by August Rodin, executed in 1886. It is one of many studies Rodin created for his monumental tribute to the burghers of Calais.

Here are some of the pictures I took inside the center- of the art on display and of the beautiful atrium:

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Dormitory Row

Along the north side of the quadrangle, from west to east are the Carnegie Guest House and then six dormitories. I know that they are called "Residence Halls" or something like that now, but we just called them dormitories.

The Carnegie Guest House

One of the campus's older buildings, the Carnegie Guest House has served many different functions over the years, but for quite some time it has been used as a place where alumni and other visitors to the college could stay. It is run much like a B&B- reservations are required, there is a cost, and breakfast is served- and has been thoroughly updated over the years to offer all the conveniences of an upscale hotel.

It's front faces the quadrangle, rather than Main Street, and on its east side is one of the campus's many sculptures (none of which were installed, if memory serves, when I was a student). Fred's eagle eye also spotted an interesting visitor at the Guest House.

We walked east past Little Hall and Watts Hall, both residence halls that were present when I was a student, and came to the smaller quadrangle that sits south of Belk Hall and between Watts Hall on the west and Cannon Hall on the east.

The West Wing of Belk Hall

While a student at Davidson, I lived in two different residence halls. My second, third, and fourth years were all in Belk Hall, but in two different locations.

The East Wing of Belk Hall

My second year was in a double room on the top floor of the east wing of the hall. The room that I shared with Bob Love had the dormer window nearest the right end of the wing (shown behind me in the picture at left). We chose it because it was quiet and a bit more spacious than the typical double room.

I liked this room so much, than when I got a different roommate for my junior and senior years (Peter Guerrant, from Pasadena, California) we opted for the identical room in the west wing of Belk Hall. That wing is shown behind Fred in the picture at right, although we aren't looking at and angle to where you can see the dormer window of our room which, like the window in my sophomore room, faced the quadrangle.

So what about my freshman year? Where did I live then? Well, that's a bit more of an interesting story.

Sentelle Hall

For the fifty years between my graduation and the reunion, I had always remembered that my residence hall was East Hall, situated between Cannon Hall on the west and Duke Hall on the east. I recall that when Fred and I visited, we walked by it and I pointed it out to him, alhough I don't remember actually looking at the name on the front of the hall.

Mystery Solved

Today, when we walked by it and took the picture at left, I saw that the building I thought I'd lived in (in a single room for my first year) had the name "Sentelle Hall" on the front. So today, as I am creating this page, I went to the Davidson website to see if the name of that hall had changed at some point, but I found no reference to it having once had the name East Hall.

Had I been imagining things? Had I been wrong all this time? I did quite a bit of searching around the Internet, trying to find some reference to the history of Sentelle Hall, but could find nothing.

Not until I thought that maybe, just maybe, there might be some reference to the hall in my copy of Quips and Cranks, the Davidson College yearbook. So I dug out my copy of the 1968 edition and started flipping through it. It took some time, but I was eventually rewarded with the picture at right.

Indeed, Sentelle Hall was once called East Hall. I wasn't imagining things. I am planning on emailing the college and suggesting to them that they note on the website entry for Sentelle Hall that it was once named East Hall- if only to assuage the fears of East Hall residents that they are suffering the beginnings of age-related memory loss.

NOTE:
Instead of emailing, I thought I would find someone I could call to talk about the name change, and I eventually found the name of the Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life- Jason Shaffer. I reached him just now in his office in the Belk basement, and I was able to confirm the name change. I forgot to ask when that happened, but at least I have a 50-year window. I actually had an interesting chat with Jason, and discovered that other campus structures have changed their names, and that it seems to be a constant battle to ensure that the new names are used instead of the old. I hope Jason is successful, but sadly I will always remember and refer to my freshman year dorm as East Hall.

The Student Union

Beyond Duke Hall to the east is today the new Knobloch Campus Center, but when I attended Davidson that building was the Johnston Gymnasium (where many of watched home basketball games in the years that Davidson came close to a national title).

Inside the Knobloch Campus Center

Built in 1948, the building that now houses the Student Union was the gymnasium named for Charles Worth Johnston, class of 1884. The last Davidson varsity basketball game was played in that gymnasium on February 25, 1989.

The building was remodeled into the new Knobloch Campus Center in 2000-2001 (and was renamed for the Knobloch family, a wealthy family that saw two of its daughters graduate from Davidson. The 125,000 square foot, 5-floor, Knobloch Campus Center is the center of college community life. The Center combines the Alvarez College Union and the Duke Family Performance Hall. Knobloch is the gathering place for students, faculty, staff, and visitors, providing opportunities for involvement in formal and informal activities.

The Student Union used to be the C. Shaw Smith Student Union, and while he is immortalized with the "900 Room", I am not sure why the entire student union is no longer referred to by that name. I can only assume that naming is the primary reward that the college can give major donors. Here are a few more views of the inside of the student union:

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Public Sculpture

One change since I attended has been the installation of a number of public sculpture pieces that can be found around campus. There was one that I wasn't sure was a sculpture installation or just an artistic "park bench" (but since I didn't see a plaque, I'm assuming it's just a bench). We didn't, I assume, see all of the sculptures, but here are a couple that we passed between the Student Center and Chambers Hall:

"The Group of Ten" (2011) This sculpture, executed by Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017), was a gift of the artist and other Davidson patrons.

"Waves III" (2012) Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa (b. 1955) executed this piece in stainless steel and stone. The installation was a gift of James Pepper, Class of 1965

Our walking tour completed, Fred and I returned to the hotel to attend to the kittens and relax for a while before we returned to the campus at 6:30 for the Class of 1968 Dinner- which was also held in the Lilly Family Gallery in Chambers Hall. The dinner was excellent, and I had a chance to connect with more of my classmates.

Class of 1968 "In Memoriam" (June 9)

At 9:30, Fred and I arrived at the Davidson College Presbyterian Church's Lingle Chapel for a program recognizing our classmates who had died prior to this 50th Reunion. The program, which was a little like a church service, had, as its centerpiece, a slideshow reminiscent of those you might see on the Academy Awards. Some of my classmates died before graduation, and so their pictures are not in my Quips and Cranks. The deceased classmates were:

A Morning Walk in Town (June 9)

After the memorial service, we were on our own until lunch, so since we were across the street from town, we took another walk down Main Street.

Fred on Davidson's Main Street

I was impressed again with how picturesque Davidson has become- and how gentrified. Main Street looks like a movie set for the ideal of small town America, and one could imagine a zillion romantic comedies using the town for a backdrop. We found a really interesting sculpture here in town, and nearby an art gallery that we thought we would check out. They had a fair number of pastels and a couple of artists that we thought Prudence might like, so we took some pictures and came away with a business card.

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A Presentation by Carol Quillen (June 9)

At eleven, Fred and I walked back to the Student Center where I left him in the lobby and went into the Duke Family Performance Hall to hear from President Quillen about key college initiatives, including the current priorities of the Davidson Game Changers: Inspiring Leaders to Transform the World campaign.

Before her presentation, I got a picture of the stage, and during Dr. Quillen's presentation, took a picture when my friend from Myers Park High School and fellow Class of 1968 member, Monroe Gilmour, was honored with a Kuykendall award.

Lunch on the Quadrangle (June 9)

For lunch, Fred and I reconnected with Steve Lee and Ted Winter for a box lunch on the quadrangle, and we spent a pleasant hour talking and meeting other classmates. Here are the two pictures I had Fred take at luncb:

Myself, Steve Lee, and Ted Winter

At the Al Fresco Box Lunch

The 40th - 50th Reunion Barbeque Dinner (June 9)

Once again, Fred and I returned temporarily to the Red Roof Inn to look in on the two kittens, and then about 5PM we returned to Davidson to visit Steve at his house in town. I'd seen pictures of his house, but this was the first time we'd visited. After a tour and some conversation, Fred, myself, Steve, and Ted headed over to the former tennis court site north of the Student Center for an al fresco BBQ dinner- shared, under separate tents, with the alumni celebrating their 40th and 45th reunions.

George, Toby, and Bob

During the meal, I happened to run across one of my best friends from my college days- Bob Travers- who is the only mathematician that I know. He was with Toby Watt and George Shaw, two other classmates, and I took the portrait at left of the three of them. And below is what they looked like then:

George Shaw

Toby Watt

Bob Travers

When we got to the venue it was distinctly cloudy, and someone said there were storms moving through, which turned out to be quite true- as just after the buffet opened so did the sky. That was too bad, of course, for there were tables set up out in the open and we ended up huddled under tents- dashing from the drinks tent to the food tent and back.

So Much for Being a Church School (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Being in such close quarters under a tent made movie-making difficult, as I couldn't get back very far from anything. But I did want to record the ambience of the evening, so I tried one anyway. Not very good, as being so close to things fooled the focus sensor pretty continually, but I'm going to include it here anyway. If you want to watch, use the player at right.

Or just have a look at some of the candid pictures I took:

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This was actually second reunion; I returned for my 20th in 1988, when we all looked a lot more like our college pictures. I found it hard to place most of my classmates, but then I was a pretty solitary person back then and didn't get to know more than five or six people well enough to be able to recognize them even just a few years later. But I found that I'd aged less appearancewise than most of my classmates (and got told that a few times). The reunion was fun, made more so because Fred and I were able to hang with at least one person we'd both met before- Steve Lee. Of course it was good to see some other classmates, like Tom Peddicord and Ted Winter, again, and to visit the campus that has changed so much.

The rain eventually stopped, and a few hours after we arrived, Fred and I and Steve and Ted walked back to our cars and said our goodbyes.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	June 10-11, 2018: A Visit With My Sister
	May 7-10, 2018: A Visit to Madrid, Spain
	Return to the Index for 2018