"TINGLY" REUNION REFLECTIONS

(Oscar Rivera and Leo, old buddies together again)

It has been 10 days and I am still tingly all over from all the emotions from attending the reunion.

Top kudos are definitely in order for the 1966 Reunion Committee who brought all of us together and put on the best celebration of our high school years. Thank you, thank you, thank you all!

The Grand Prize goes to Danny McMahon whose unselfish nature, long hours, and enduring love for our class gave us all a beautiful night and a moment in time to renew our friendships and to again bond as a class.

I was fortunate to attend the Mass and to get Fr. Kerry Beaulieu to hear my confession. I asked if anyone will be hearing confessions and he and I walked over to the side of the church past the pews and Kerry started, Let us pray. I figured that we would be there well past the reunion dinner so I asked if he could do a general confession. He obliged. I am pleased he did since I went blank and could not remember if I had eaten meat the previous Friday.

Ok, now. This question is for all the other recovering Catholics. When did the Church stop saying the Mass in Latin?

It was good to receive communion. It was even more special to be in communion with my fellow classmates and especially to attend the Mass being held by Kerry, Art Holquin, Larry Neumeier and Tom Benedict. That was quite an honor. And, it was also emotional when we honored our classmates and teachers who have passed away. The homage from Tom Benedict was quite moving as well.

Also thanks for the open bar. I had earlier sprained my back and those first 3 martinis did the trick!

I knew the reunion would be good but I never expected all the fun everyone was having. If you were not discussing old times you were catching up on new times. And, it did not matter if you were a great success or a shmoe. You were a part of the Alemany 1966 class and that in itself made you special and accepted. That is all that matters to this class. That is why we were honored to have people like Jay Pelzer and Chuck Abel, et al, who attended the reunion. Even they felt the calling to attend even though we didn’t graduate together. Now that is a great class to belong to!

You did not have to be talking about old times. You could just raise your eyes and view your fellow classmates enjoying themselves across the room to know that this night was a reuniting of special friends.

Master of Ceremonies, Danny McMahon, is a class act and a stellar organizer. His updated slide show was a phenomenal work of artistic quality and again brought the class back to the era of innocence of the mid 1960s. I vote that Danny be presented with an honorary Academy Award/Alemany Award Oscar (Rivera) statue next time we meet. I’m sure we can get Oscar to pose naked while someone chisels out the statue.

Kudos to Marty Molidor for his great expertise and technical achievement in getting the slide show converted to CD. We cannot wait to get it. I know several of my local friends will be blown away by this historical collage of the 1960s.

Kudos to my dear friend Bob Johnson for coordinating the pictures and website tasks. Bob, you did us a great favor in posting the pictures of us. I have misplaced my Recuerdos yearbook and this was a fantastic way to get to see our classmates. Bob, we all missed you!

However, it appears that a majority of our classmates do not age. There must be some elixir or additive someone put in the Alemany holy water. I want to say this for the record. We have the best looking group of people, period! The ladies are truly beautiful and the guys are, well, the ladies are truly beautiful.

It was great to see the old teachers. Mr. Diaz looks the same and Coach Phil Ahn has the memory of an elephant. Truly amazing!

Upon reading many of the post reunion emails I find that I too felt the reunion went too fast and we should meet again soon. I think we should all meet at the Meddock house next year, Saturday October 27, 2007. Whatdya all say to that? Ken, do you have a BBQ?

Kudos to everyone who posted and emailed pictures of the reunion and pre/post reunion events.

I missed the brunch. I was devastated. I forgot to set my clock back for daylight savings and went to the Odyssey too early. Noone was there so I left. I went to the church to see if our classmates were attending Mass. I went inside for Mass and found that I was the only person there who was not Japanese. I gotta tell you that was a strange feeling. I thought I was still feeling the effect of those 3 martinis. I did not remember everyone being so short!

Yet the joy and fun persist in memory today. I was not able to greet and meet everyone I remembered. I also wanted to introduce myself to all the classmates who I did not know personally and get to know them. I especially wanted to meet the ladies who never crossed the quadrangle and remain mysterious to this day. I did want to meet them and be continually amazed by their lives and achievements. But like I said, the achievements do not matter. What matters is that they were a part of our class and I'd like to get to know them.

I would like to tell everyone I did get to meet that I was privileged to know them and honored to be their friend. I choose not to mention names since I would forget one or two and probably run out of paper in the process.

This reunion made my heart glad and I look forward to our next reunion together.

Your classmate,

Leo Restrich

Simpsonville, SC

(Ed Note: It would not be appropriate to post this blog without a thank you to Leo's much better half, Marianne. To those spouses who trusted the Alemanians to return their loved ones undamaged, even if a bit weary, you have our heartfelt thanks.)