Featuring Four (or Five or Six) More Classmates:

Bonnie (and Kathy), Jackie (and Scott), Jeff, and Rick



For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
                -- Robert Burns 1788

Well, the last round of classmate interviews that I conducted before our 45th reunion was fun, but as I circulated that October evening, more and more great stories surfaced about what our former classmates are doing nowadays. One theme that emerged was that many of us, in or nearing retirement, had begun focusing on fun activities with their spouses. So here is my account of four couples who are doing just that: Bonnie Andrews Kolberg, Jackie Lumbatis Ludwig (and Scott Ludwig), Jeff Snyder, and Rick Smyser. You will not believe what these people have been up to. Uh well, maybe if you knew them back then, you will.  

I conducted in-person, in situe (as the French say, meaning a bar, a craft store, and a coffee shop) interviews with Bonnie, Jackie, and Rick, while I interviewed Jeff with emails and YouTube viewing. Since Jackie is married to a PHS '68 classmate, I talked to him too, and since Bonnie remains lifelong friends with our classmate Kathy Indorf Morgan, I hit her up for further information on Bonnie. (What a friend: she never cracked.) And then, I emailed Greg Lintner and Jim Ferber about the band Jeff was in, and I talked to the Saylors, about the Smysers, who are all long-standing friends.
 



The poet Raymond Carver has a poem titled "Gravy," which seems fitting for these couples:

No other word will do. For that's what it was.
Gravy.
Gravy, these past ten years
Alive, sober, working, loving and
being loved by a good woman

and, in all cases, being loved by a good man, too. And not to put too fine a point on "sober." But the kids are raised, and we are retired or retiring. And we're still having fun. And (s)he's still the one. Read about them in the following four blogs.