P-rade at P-ton with P-ter

That Time of Year!

I always enjoy Reunions. In part that's because nobody does it like Princeton (it ain't bragging if it's true), but also because I get to see classmates, teammates, former students, and new friends, too. Over 20,000 alums return each year, all wearing orange and black garb in all sorts of themes.

This year was very special. On Friday, I attended a total of four panel discussions all of which feature detailed examinations of issues by alums and faculty. Topics: Climate Change (scary), Living the Arts (hopeful, and one of my former students was on that panel), Privacy and Secrecy (scary) and Too Big to Fail? (Scary, Pop's classmate Paul Volcker was on the panel and is very pessimistic). I spent some time after with Pop's classmate Brendan Byrne and hitched a ride in his State Trooper driven car down to the Class of '49 dinner. Pop's class had its 65th Reunion, and in Princeton lore that's your last as a separate Reunion, after this, you're just part of the "Old Guard." I spent some time chatting with some of Pop's and Mom's dear friends. Only 250 of the original 820 remain. On Friday night, Janet and I did some serious dancing.

Each "major" reunion class (i.e., those whose years out end in 5 or 0) has its own site, and off-year classes two years before and after share that site (for free, too!) So this year's 40th was the class of '74, the year after me, and the real treat here was all the soccer players who were juniors when I was a senior. I haven't seen any of them since I graduated. It's fascinating what you remember and what others remember about the team. I heard all sorts of stories about things I had long since forgotten. Factoid: over a nine year period, I was the only goalkeeper for Princeton soccer who did not become a doctor. I also got to see a few of my former students.

The centerpiece of Reunions (well, other than the Friday and Saturday night parties) is the P-Rade, a huge festive affair in which all the classes march through the campus dressed up in their orange and black costumes. The route is lined with classes waiting to march. When the Class of '49 came through, all the members were in golf carts (too far to walk). The first was Brendan Byrne and the second was Judge John Kern, for whom I clerked after my first year of law school. I chatted with both. When my classmates asked who they were, I said "my first two bosses." That evening Janet and I went to the University Orchestra concert down by the stadium and enjoyed the spectacular fireworks that are now part of Reunions, and then danced the night away to the sounds of a band which did great covers of 50s, 60s and 70s songs. As we always do, we closed the place down. An added bonus was seeing a play the next day in Trenton.

You can see why this weekend is so special for me, because it covers such a large span of my life. Pop's class includes two people I worked for, and who gave me very important boosts in life, and he was and still is much adored and admired by his classmates. They often remind me that he had three jobs as a student and yet graduated in two and half years. He was Class Agent and President and head of the entire Alumni Council. Then there are those from my era, including in some cases new friends I did not know then. And then there are the ten plus years worth of students from my teaching days. Add in the panel discussions and the parties and it's hard to think of a more meaningful weekend. I am not the least bit sentimental about my time in college, but it was certainly influential and continues to be influential in all sorts of ways I couldn't foresee. It's a very large part of my very good fortune in life.