Reunion Meeting in Portola Valley

The Alpine Inn sit along Alpine Road in Portola Valley. It seems as if it is a favorite meeting spot for groups. Our 1971 LAHS reunion committee had a meeting there yesterday to keep our party plans on track.

It does the heart good to see familiar faces, (albeit morphed by time). There is a commonality of where you have come from , the people you know in common, the experiences we each have had, that adds a richness to these relationships that brand new acquaintances need years to match.

I ran off to this meeting without my camera and like Blanche DuBois, I am going to have to rely on the kindness of "others", to get some to post. The only photo I took yesterday was one of the Inn. You know... I supposed that was a good thing in a way, because I was able to talk more and be surprised by seeing some people who were not supposed to even be there.

While we were meeting a cute girl came up bubbling over with enthusiasm. "I know you" she said "you went to Los Altos High School. You guys were my heroes." She went on to say her name was Stacey Houston and she was there with Greg Lyons. Now, you have to understand, Greg is one of the Lyons brothers. The Lyons lived in our neighborhood around Cypress Drive. There was Ladd and Greg and Richie. Their parents were Dick and Ida. In our neighborhood we all were close. Richie was my brother Ken's age. Ladd was my age and Greg was in between. I found out they all (except Ladd) were there to celebrate Ida' s 83rd Birthday. It was great too see them. I never asked Greg what he does for a living, but someone told me Richie is now the Dean of the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley. I said that is so hard to believe when my strongest memories were of him causing trouble with his brothers and his perpetually runny snotty nose. He was the epitome of the snotty nosed kid. He also played baseball with my brother. He remembered the pitching mound my father built for Ken in our back yard. I bought them a pitcher of beer, and when Roxie send me her picture of us... I will post it back here.

Back at the reunion table we caught up on what everyone was doing. We ran down the list of "lost" knights to see who might still be findable. I presented my findings about the catering for the event. We shared so stories of "back when." We drank some beer, while sitting at picnic tables next to a creek under California Oaks. It was a warm and productive day.

We all are looking forward to our next meeting in November. What a fun day! The reunion will end up to be the best yet!