Dear Diary-Hooray for us

I can't write nearly as often as Jack Spatafora. Too many distractions with work, travel and going to our new loft downtown on the beautiful Chicago summer days.
Recently I sent a general information e-mail to our 39 committee members, half of whom live away from the Chicago area. The response was overwhelming, informative, humorous and warm. The wealth of knowledge in just that small sample of our group really impressed me. We all have more to offer having gone through 66 years of life and this seemed to be the focus of the conversations. Not a run of the mill, cookie-cutter reunion but a more open weekend where reconnecting is the keyword. There will be traditional activities such as a meet and greet gathering on Friday, a nice dinner on Saturday and some sort of a Sunday brunch and farewell gathering. Between those events we will have tours, golfing and tennis tournaments, seminars revolving about our life experiences and much more. By 2011 I would imagine most of us will be retired and not confined by specific days of availability. This could lead to more visiting before and after our planned reunion. There will be updates as we plan our great event.

Dear Diary-How did they get there

We were in downtown Chicago today and every corner had at least one homeless, pathetic person begging for a few coins to feed themselves. So sad and I wondered how they got to that awful place in their life. They were young once, like us, and probably went to a decent school. Enjoyed rather normal homelifes but something went wrong. Some traumatic event sent their world to a dark place. It might have been the war or a divorce or alcoholism, who knows. My first reaction wold be "suck it up and get back on your feet" but that may not be an option for them. I wouldn't be surprised with a class our size that we have some members of that terrible group. The 600 people we have found are fine but the 300 we can't find may have gotten lost on their trip through life. I applaud groups like The Salvation Army and PADS for their work in trying to help them. There will probably never be an answer to this problem but in our relatively short timespan on this earth I am very grateful to have a nice family, good friends, wonderful classmates and a decent place to live.