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The Firehouse Winery –
The morning of Friday, August 3, 2001 dawned dark and
rainy. Skies looked grim for the
Friday evening gathering at The Firehouse Winery in Geneva-on-the-Lake. However, by mid-afternoon the sky began to
clear. The evening promised to be
rather steamy, but would not be spoiled by rain.
The Firehouse Winery was a “happening place” that night. Several other class reunions had chosen it
for their Friday mixers – Class of ’81 from HHS, and Class of ’68 from AHS –
and with two other parties also enjoying the venue and live music, the joint
was jumping.
People
for the All-Class Reunion began arriving at 7:00 pm and gathering under the
candy-striped tent. Conversation,
wine, and beer flowed in equal proportions – punctuated by enthusiastic
greetings – as classmates and schoolmates discovered each other in the crowd
and caught up on each other’s lives since graduation. Hairlines, waistlines, and laugh lines
were compared; photos of kids and
grandkids were proudly displayed;
hugs and histories shared.
Mother Nature beamed her contribution to the event in the form
of a spectacular pink sunset display.
By the end of the gathering at midnight, many of the 200 or so
who had attended were still there, reluctant to part company and see the
evening come to an end. Fortunately,
there was still more to come on Saturday!
2001 All-Class Reunion
August 4th brought another hot and humid day. Reunion co-chairs Leslie and Marti with
their “other halves” Jim and Keith, along with Ann and Pat McDonald, met at
Dasco Papers to pick up the balloon table decorations. What a challenge! As the balloon clusters left the
air-conditioned environment of the store and hit the hot sun-warmed air
outside, they expanded quickly and started to burst! The balloons’ “pop! pop! pop!” accompanied
the group the whole drive from the store to the Grotto Hall. Fortunately, the actual loss was limited,
and they were able to rearrange the clusters to fill in for the ones that
popped, and no one was the wiser!
Once at Grotto Hall, the volunteer decorating committee and DJ
Dan Bucci arrived, joining the catering crew in getting the place ready for
the reunion. A great team effort got
the job done in record time.
The reunion itself was a resounding success! Once the flurry of 300+ registrations was
complete, classmates and schoolmates clustered to talk, reminisce, and catch
up. Harborites gathered around the
display of memorabilia donated by Topky Library, and bought souvenir mugs and
Harbor History booklets made available by Eleanor Andrews. In the lobby, attendees were encouraged to
autograph a Harbor flag (one of two ultimately presented to Marti and Leslie)
and to place a pin in a US map to indicate where they had traveled from for
the reunion. Judging by the noise level, everybody was having a great time!
In due time, Mike Pelyhes and his volunteer catering crew
served a delicious dinner, the trivia quiz was “graded”, door prizes were
awarded, and the dancing commenced.
Ebbing and flowing around every moment were the conversations and
laughter that signaled a successful party.
Read the program booklet for details of the
evening’s schedule of events.
Some of your reunion coordinators’ favorite moments were:
·
the awarding of the souvenir brick from the Jackson
Building (a door prize donated by Sam Lebold, ’71) to Ruth Brunstad Miller,
’35, who was also the oldest Harbor graduate in attendance and the mother of
one of their classmates Butch Miller;
·
watching a group of people, arms linked, swaying
together at the back of the room as the last of the party-goers sang The
Harbor Hymn at the end of the evening;
·
seeing the 8 (of 9) Bent siblings, who live spread out
all over the country, having such a good time making the most of this family
reunion opportunity;
·
re-connecting with classmates and watching the
individual reunions of old friends occurring throughout the evening.
It was definitely a
once-in-a-lifetime event!
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