1. Arrived at Diane's vacation rental around 1:00 and joined other early arrivers getting things set up for today's reunion party. Our school colors are purple and gold and so we had purple and gold streamers, signs, a banner, and balloons. Ysidro handmade a bunch of handsome purple and gold braided key chains to hand out. We set up a bar, put beer, water, and soft drinks in coolers, prepared salads, got the registration table set up, created displays with pictures of reunions gone by and of class members who have died. We put out yearbooks and other memorabilia. I thought we had a great set up for a fun and lively party.
2. Between 40-45 classmates joined the party at one time or another, filling Diane's house and the patio area in the back with stories, laughter, updates, discussions, good cheer, and mirth. I got to see everyone who came in because most of the time I sat at the registration table, checked off people's arrivals, found out if they plan to go up to the high school on Saturday morning, and handed out badges on lanyards with our names and a picture from high school. It was a fun place to be. Different people hung out at that table and I got to listen to all kinds of stories and find out fascinating details about different classmates. We have scattered far and wide over the last 50 years both in the USA and overseas. I did my best to take it all in. It was invigorating and it was a lot!
3. I guess you could call it a dream come true. A while back, I discovered that 7 Seas Brewing in Gig Harbor/Tacoma had decided to resurrect the old Heidelberg beer recipe and brew it at their Tacoma location -- the site of the old Heidelberg brewery. I had hoped and dreamed I could figure out a way to get a hold of some of this beer, knowing that the brewery distributes in only in the Tacoma area.
Well, classmate Don Knott was also very interested. His dad, like mine, was a Heidelberg man. Don also had a beer route back in the Heidelberg days and delivered tons of the beer.
Last weekend, Don drove to Tacoma and purchased 14 cases (that's 336 16 oz cans) of Heidelberg. I ordered two cases. Wanda did, too, for her husband, Gary.
So, today, when he arrived at the party, Don had a cooler stocked with ice cold cans of Heidelberg beer. He grabbed one for each of us, we popped them open, and I, never thinking I would have this experience again, initiated a toast to Norm and Pert (our fathers) and took a deep velvety draw from the Heidelberg tall boy and it was blissful. It brought back all kinds of memories -- getting cans of beer for Dad from the fridge and stealing a little sip when I popped his can open, drinking Heidelberg with my Dick and Floyd's slow pitch softball teammates, since one of our guys ran the distributorship that peddled Heidelberg, and I remembered the last time I'd drunk this beer.
It was in July of 2003. Family and friends celebrated Carol's 40th birthday with a big party in Mom's (now our) back yard. Dick and Renae Costa dropped by that late afternoon or evening and, even though Dick's dad was an Oly guy, I wanted to drink Heidelberg with Dick in memory of my dad who'd died in 1996. So I bolted down to Stein's IGA. Earlier, I'd spotted Heidelberg in their beer case, so I grabbed a sixer of tall boys and Dickie and I stood in the back yard and drank them, gaining and expressing more and more expertise on life in the USA with every sip and every can.
Just for the record, we didn't stop with those beers. We finished the Heidelbergs and made our way down Cameron Ave. to Eddie Joe's and continued our beer drinking marathon that night. It was my first visit to Eddie Joe's and Ed Miller (R.I.P.) himself was at the bar. We hadn't seen each other for several years and he called Don Knott to tell him I was in the house, but Don couldn't make it down that night.
That was an epic night of fun with Dick Costa after Carol's party ended and taking that first sip of Heidelberg at the registration table in the company of my KHS Class of 72 classmates brought it all back.
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