20th Reunion

PHOTO ALBUM
OUR 20th REUNION
May, 1982

The 20th was our first major, organized reunion. I had made a year-long effort, using the class newsletter and phone calls made at Darrow telethons, to convince you to come back for it. My goal was to get 20 members of the class to attend; we actually got 19, which if I am not mistaken was then a record turnout for any reunion of any class (and stood until we broke it, with 22 members at our 40th.) Many of the guys who attended had not been back to Darrow since graduation. It was a fantastic reunion, one of the best ever.

We reserved a block of rooms at the Queechy Lake Motel, and had a party there Friday night. On Saturday morning we all put on our “62” reunion T-shirts and went over to the school and made ourselves the center of attention. I’d challenged Dave Miller to an all-’62 vs. faculty softball game. We played a shortened game (so that the rest of the alumni could play in the regularly scheduled event) and whipped their butts. (Do not believe the Peg Board account, which claims we lost, 1-0.) Cook, Coffee and Groth provided key hitting, pitchers Hopper and Sharpe baffled the faculty batters, and Griswold, Lang and Coffee anchored a stingy defense. The cover of the reunions issue of the Peg Board has a picture of Joe connecting on one of his hits (misidentified by the editors as Gene Cook, but hey, all those left-hand power-hitting 38-year-old guys look alike.)

I spent so much time taking photos at this reunion that I must not have done much of anything else. But I got some wonderful pictures. Enjoy them, and if you have any of your own (Howdy Davis has submitted a few, included here), please send them in.

There was no “official” group picture that year, but we assembled for our own, next to Tanner’s Pond, on Saturday before lunch. We missed a couple of people: John Prentiss had already left, and I believe Bill Anthony arrived a little bit later. In this photo, left to right, front row: Steve Foote, John Ho, Carl Sharpe, Kip Smith, Dave Griswold, Scott Leake, Gib Manchester, Howdy Davis. Back row: Denny Hopper, Ned Groth, Tom Bird, Peter Deri, Gene Cook, Towner Lapp, Frank Rosenberg, Bob Lang, Joe Coffee. Many wives and children swelled our crowd, to the point that no matter where you looked that day, those ’62 T-shirts were everywhere.

FRIDAY NIGHT, QUEECHY LAKE

Nothing unusual about seeing Gris and Lang draped on each other, but who’s that in the cowboy hat? Eeeyow! This was the first time we’d seen ole Kipper since 1962.

John, Frank and I had encountered each other in and around NYC, but none of us had seen Carl since our 10th reunion.

Denny and Joan Hopper, with John Prentiss

On Friday night, significant quantities of alcoholic beverages were consumed….

Lots of music (good music, even) was made….

And a good time was had by all.

SATURDAY MORNING, AT DARROW

Left: Kip, Gib, Gris, Denny and Carl

Below left: Tom Bird, Gib Manchester (is that coffee he’s drinking?)

Below: Kip Smith and Towner Lapp

Above and right: We hung out on the Meeting House steps for a while Saturday morning. (Photo above from Howdy Davis.)

Below: Peter and Laura Deri, Steve Foote, Towner Lapp.

MANY FORMER TEACHERS SHOWED UP FOR OUR REUNION

Left: Old friends speaking music.

Below: Two New York City guys out walking their dogs, met by the lacrosse field.

Above: Charles Brodhead

Right: Horton Durfee

Far right: Coach Mahnken with his daughter Wendy.

Left, John and Jean Joline

Right, Charles and Sue Brodhead with Horton Durfee

JFJ: Seriously, Harry, this year the Red Sox are going to kick Yankee butt…

HAM: I dunno John, you could be right.

The school put on the traditional buffet lunch. Here, ’62, led by Lang, Manchester, Hopper and Smith, does its best to eat the whole thing, while Coffee waits patiently, hoping there will be something left for him.

We sat on the grass next to the pond and enjoyed our lunch.

Scott arrived just in time to eat…and get into the group picture.

After lunch, we took on the faculty at softball, fielding an all-’62 alumni team.

Hopper showed a previously-hidden talent for pitching; Cook put on an expected exhibition of hitting.

The infield was the same as the varsity starting lineup in 1962: Coffee at third, Griswold at short, Groth at second, Lang at first. Frustrated by our stalwart infield, the faculty tried hitting to short center. So Carl Sharpe threw ‘em out.

Groth hits to right to move Coffee over to third. The game was a victory, no matter what the score was.

Many of us brought our families to the reunion. Here, Frank poses for my camera with Ellie and Amy, at the motel on Sunday morning.

Left: Howdy and Jerrie Davis, with Morgan and Erica

Below: Carl, Heather and Francie Sharpe

Far left: Joe Coffee shows Bevin the pond by the sheep barn

Center: Scott and Jeff Leake with John Ho

Right: Gib and Liz Manchester after Gib’s morning run

Just to show what a rowdy bunch we were, these are “candid” shots taken by Jerrie Davis as we were trying to get the gang lined up for the group photo at the top of this album. In these shots, we were still getting organized. Not everyone was there (note that John Ho has joined the group between the first and second photos, and Steve Foote wasn’t there yet in the second one.) People are clowning around, not looking at the camera. In other words, ’62 at its finest!