Sunday, August 18, 2013 Pietrasanta, Italy
I wanted to make sure to keep this update somewhere I could find it:
As many classmates already have
heard, because of our email communiqués, the 45th reunion turned out
to be a true blast! I think I’ll let a few of my classmates share their
experiences, along with life stories that we may or may not have shared with
each other because, well, we were just having too much fun! Let’s start off
with the classmate who traveled the farthest and who even convinced her husband
to come along…Anne Moses Bennett:
“Reunion was such a lot of fun! Everyone
looked wonderful and Bill loved it - he felt so welcome. And it was good to see
many familiar faces. We laughed and danced and learned things and met new and
old friends. Five years ago, Bill had just retired after 38 years in the Royal
Navy and we had recently left Naples after seven great years to move to Athens.
Since then, we have completed the 23-month renovation of our lovely old
neoclassical house in the center of the city, a few minutes walk to the
Acropolis. This huge project managed to satisfy my passion for architecture,
design and re-thinking a structure, at least temporarily. Along the way we were
joined by Gracie, our very clever English Cocker Spaniel. She writes
books, naturally, and the first of ‘The Gracie Guides’ should be in print within a year. In the
meantime, I continue to paint, with the occasional exhibit, but writing and
illustrating children's books has pretty much taken over. The first big
project, a bedtime story, is due to come out this fall. It was a
brilliant 45th reunion. After so many years of being elsewhere, it was just so
nice to be 'home' with people I've known forever and where some things, even
over the years, manage to stay the same. Gordie, Kenny, Al, Duncan,
Annette and amazing ‘Route 66’ lady- thank you for the music. Rob - thank you
for Bill's hat. And wonderful Abbot friends...what a time we had! To
all of you - please do come visit us in Greece. It's still a wonderful
place to be.”
Karen Seaward, who, if I’m not mistaken, traveled the second farthest from California,
agrees that it was one of our most special times: “Folks who weren’t there – you
really missed out! And folks who were there – thank you so much for making the Reunion
weekend a totally memorable experience for me. Cary Cleaver, my roommate at the Courtyard Marriott, so delightful and so glad I
know you better, thanks for asking me to room with you. Anne Moses Bennett, my first Abbot
roommate, and her husband Bill. Anne is always warm and elegant and Bill always
full of mischief. Annette Davis, our biggest cheerleader, still way cute and a way good singer and crowd
pleaser. Patty Rockwood, after 45
years she has aged very well and has not lost her huge laugh. Laney Finbury,
with many irons in the fire, nice to catch up a bit over dinner and lunch. Lee Sullivan, still
looking great and being a great leader, even while handling difficult family
obligations, my respect went way up for you. Karen Urie and Florence Newcomb Verrill, still inseparable, but did
manage to talk with each of you, great to catch up a bit! Of course, there was
Gordie Baird’s band that played outside next to Rabbit Pond on Saturday night,
I danced and sang my heart out, other classes joined us, and I am comforted
knowing that we still live and act from these 1968 roots – sex, drugs, rock and
roll! OK, maybe the drugs have changed (ibuprofen?) and the sex may have
changed (?) but not the rock and roll. Kenny joined in with his liquid sax, Al with
wicked harmonica riffs, Annette sang and played tambourine, and a 1963 Abbot
lady took the mike to sing a bluesy, long rendition of Route 66. Like, wow!” Karen sends hugs to all and “plans to harass you
regularly to show up for our 50th!!!”
Cary Cleaver remarked to me that she thinks the two classes AA’68 and PA’68 were
unified this time, that “we Rabbits were truly welcomed and an integral part of
the party- and a great party it was!” Cary continues her quest to become a
cowgirl with her faithful quarter horse, Guinness.
As
for me, Annette Davis Esteves,
perhaps the biggest surprise of all was the moment my husband and I pulled up
to register and then park at the Courtyard Marriott (where almost all of us
Rabbits stayed). As I got out of the car, a woman standing by her car right
next to me asked if I was Annette Davis. That woman was Tina Kaupe, who attended Abbot in10th grade (What was
that-Junior?) and back then we recognized each other from kindergarten, first
and second grade at Lewisboro School in Westchester County, New York! But at
Abbot she disappeared as quickly as she appeared when she did not return for 11th
grade, so I always wondered if I had imagined the whole thing…? Anyhow there we
were, together again, and spent some of the weekend reminiscing about our
antics at the ages of 5-7…taking naps- or rather NOT taking naps - on those
blue cots in Mrs. White’s Kindergarten class, and then in second grade terrorizing
the boys with a kissing game at recess.
Here’s
what Tina wrote: Annette, the
reunion was so much fun and seeing you first was largely responsible for my not
feeling totally awkward! Why did I attend after 47 years? I refer to the fact
that my mother couldn't afford to return me to Abbot (we failed to check on
scholarship options) as my being "untimely ripped" from Abbot's
bosom. What I loved about Abbot was being thrown together with a group of
characters 24/7 and exposed to courses that were not mainstream - ‘Visual
Perceptions’ to name my favorite! The opportunities at Andover continue to
astound me and Addison Gallery did not disappoint as a busy director treated
four of us to a private tour of the storage area! The place and the
people loomed large whenever I conjured up images mainly with each delivery of
Andover, the magazine. I was curious to return. It was more than wonderful to see Cary, Annette, Anne, Patty, two Karens,
Lanie, Lee and Florence! Final reason to attend - live music!!! Gordo
Baird's excellent, highly danceable band, occasionally accompanied by Kenny's
saxophone and Annette's vocals! Fantastic acoustic sets with Ward, Dougal, and
Al on Friday night. Rabbit sightings were few over the years: saw Diane Russell at Barnard (wish that
ever-passionate woman had attended!), Betty
Briggs at Duke, and Bonnie Cook
at The Philadelphia Inquirer. I "ran into" Debby Webster at Machu Picchu. Several jobs and two sons later,
semi-retirement has landed me in New Canaan, CT, where I continue my interest
in art, play lots of tennis, and make a few bucks organizing people's messy
lives!
Karen Urie and I were too busy that
weekend to catch up on life details, so she wrote me this afterwards. “One of
the greatest things this year has been spending more time with Florence.
While clearly we have always kept in touch we have managed to get
together on 2 trips so far this year and have consciously decided there will be
at least one girl trip a year going forward. Yes, sometimes old friends
are, indeed, the best friends. After
30 plus years in financial services I took a job in 2012 as the Marketing and
Business Development Manager for the Dave Perry-Miller Team, one of Dallas’
largest residential real estate firms. Lots of fun, lots of learning and I’m
brushing up on my Mac skills. I am just finishing up my year as president of
the board of the USA Film Festival here in Dallas. It’s a great group,
with a wonderful festival in the spring, sanctioned Academy Awards venue and
movies all year long. And finally what has become my consuming passion is my
work with the SPCA of Texas and any other animal welfare group I can assist.
I am fortunate to be a board member and work on such things as the Puppy
Mill Initiative to make the public aware of the existence of and problems with
puppy mills, and Big Fix for Big D - our spay neuter initiative reaching out to
various neighborhoods around Dallas to provide low cost and/or no cost
spay/neuter procedures. What started it all was a benefit called Paws Cause,
which raises money for the SPCA Of Texas Clinic at Village Fair. Right up my
alley, plan a party, have a party - go to a party…AND we manage to raise a
significant amount of money for the clinic. Yahoo!”
Speaking
of Karen’s dear friend, Florence Newcomb
Verrill, I was so happy to see her in attendance this June. After my
somewhat ludicrous appearance in the FLASHMOB dance that the 50th
reunion AA Class of ’63 (and ’73) performed at the lunchtime picnic in front of
Sam Phillips – great idea – well planned and executed – could’ve been a real
hit had the music been a lot louder… Anyway, following my first and perhaps
last flash mob, Florence and I sat
together at lunch to catch up: She lives with her husband of 42 years (!!!!) in
Southport, Connecticut. Her son, Gordon, graduated from Cornell in 2010 and now
works in NYC. Her daughter, Sarah, is a senior at Emerson College in Boston.
She is studying photojournalism and plans to be a travel writer. Florence
discussed openly her many years battling a life-threatening illness, and she is
a staunch survivor with an incredible amount of courage and belief that is
truly inspiring. She credits her ongoing good health in the face of all odds to
an epiphany she had that she would
get better, and, shortly after, a new medication was prescribed that has made
all the difference. All my respect to you, Florence, for your optimism and
positivity - (she always was like that, wasn’t she?) She enjoys her many pets
and loves spending hours in her flower gardens. She still works some, but says
that the key to working at this stage of her life is to have a bit of
flexibility…Boy, that’s good advice for us all.
Patty
Rockwood greeted me at the Abbot dinner on
Friday night with blonde hair and a huge smile: I’m thinking, who the heck is
this??? I didn’t feel so bad when she reminded me that she only attended as a
senior, but I did know her back then, it was the hair that threw me off…well, she
looks wonderful, trim, healthy and happy. She has a place in the San Diego area
called Rocky’s, where she is the owner operator of a very happening
restaurant/bar. She wrote me afterwards: “I cannot even begin to tell you how
much I enjoyed coming to the reunion; I felt so reconnected to you and the rest
of the girls. Quite honestly, I'm happy there were so few of us or I never
would have had the opportunity to become reacquainted. I promise to stay in
touch so I don't lose the thread again.”
Also
at the Reunion was local resident Lanie
Finbury, with whom I always look forward to catching up. She’s a busy lady
and a lovely person whose first words to me at the Abbot Dinner were, “Thank
you for being class secretary and keeping us all a bit more connected.” It was
rewarding to be thanked after all these years writing for the Bulletin and
wondering who is reading- after all, that’s part of what got Tina here…
And kudos to our reunion chairperson, Lee Sullivan,
steadfast and true all these years. In spite of an incredibly busy schedule,
she always manages to pull things together and make it look effortless. I saw a
nice picture of her and Rob Barber leading the parade with the banner, which is
probably here in the Bulletin. I spent the afternoon with Lee at her beautiful
home in Rye, NH, following the reunion weekend. She spoke of her deep
commitment and passion for “The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum,” a yearlong
language arts curriculum for 6th and 9th grade to strengthen the literacy skills and
character development of students by recognizing the role of courage in
all our lives. One of the organization’s main goals is to engage and inspire
students, particularly urban children, to make meaningful connections with
literature, thus motivating them to improve their reading, writing and thinking
skills, while acknowledging acts of moral courage in their lives and others in
their communities. “The Max” started in the Boston area 22 years ago and not
only has Max expanded in the US and gone global, but with the help of Blake
Hazzard Allen, AA’66, it has reached Pakistan. A worthy cause,
Lee, and one with far reaching implications, as literacy and courage have no
boundaries.
Too bad Cher Lewis
wasn’t there, as I quite sure she would have loved being interviewed for a
documentary about Abbot, called the Personal Histories Project. Some alumnae, Cary Cleaver for one, have written
thoughtful responses to questions posed by those in charge of the project, but
the chance to do an impromptu interview while at reunion was hard to resist! Karen Seaward and I took the bait, went
to Draper Hall in the McKeen room area, and spoke individually on camera in
response to probing, open-ended questions about our Abbot years. The
interviewer was very good and a real character to boot. He promises to keep us
informed as to when it will be completed – probably 2014. Cher could’ve certainly added to our juicy stories. She writes: “Isn't it amazing how walking through
those gates and across that campus magically turns you into the sixteen-year
old still lurking in the psyche? I feel the marks of the knee socks, the
splendid smell of the Bondes’ baking breads, the thrill of the sherry cocktails
at the Bensley's welcoming household. And who can forget Pam and Chris'
rock-outs? Or those intense, worried and bravely whispered conversations in the
wee hours of the morning? Our shared thrill of being happy for being smart and
our anguish at realizing we would always be ‘just girls’ in the eyes of many. But
we survived and thrived and have so many tales to tell! Looking forward to
perfect attendance at the 50th.... no going to the infirmary!! “
Barbara Camp Linville, Paula Atwood*,
Betsy Handy McCormack and Nan Roberts had other engagements reunion weekend
as did Kathy Weis Dietz, but all are
planning on or will try to make the 50th.
I do hope many more of you will plan
ahead and be available for what will certainly be a momentous occasion. THIS
IS THE BIG ONE!!!!
In
closing, picture the recessional from the Chapel on Saturday morning: The PA
class of ’68 broke into a rousingly beautiful, strong rendition of the school
song, “The Royal Blue” that was being played instrumentally as the old guard
exited Cochran. As every head turned towards our side of the room and listened
with rapt attention- I was proud to be a ’68-er… it was a classic moment!
Paula Atwood: Here is my update from Ayacucho,Peru. That´s my
excuse for not attending! I retired from full-time work in Feb and then took a
locum NP job down the road from my house; I´ll go back part-time when I return
from Peru. I am here on my first medical mission and enjoying it very much.The
work is interesting but frustrating since what you can do is limited. I do get
to speak Spanish though, Miss Judd would be pleased. I´ll spend another 2 weeks
traveling before going home.
See everyone at the 50th.
