Warning: Dion is in some of these photos. It's unavoidable. And I doubt he will mind. No matter - anyone who can lug a bottle of a nice Pinot Noir many thousands of miles to share only with us gets plenty of space in the blog.
Let's start with the person at the reunion I may have known the longest, Jack. Since kindergarten, in fact. Well, halfway through. My family moved from Calgary to Terrace in January of 1976, so I began school in the bigger city. Jack was in my class then, and through high school we often worked together on the annual, student council, and other activities. His wife Preet was with him, adding to the tally of stunning (well-educated, interesting) women in attendance. We hope to see him in the Lower Mainland again before too long.
I can't recall when I first met Ben. Now a successful furniture store owner, he was also on our plane to Vancouver the next day. It was then, even after catching up at the bar two nights in a row, that we really learned of his love and experience with travel. We hope he's having a great time right now in London and Morocco.
James was the only other person than Dion (and me, but I was manager, not a player) of the basketball team to put in an appearance. We didn't chat much, I am sorry to say. I was always fond of his family, too, and I hope they are well. Dion, for his part, was chagrined to find that James is now taller than Dion.
I think I've known Allan since about grade 2, both from school and church. Curiously, he's someone with whom I have a very tenuous Chicago connection: his older brother David moved here right about when I did, and we always intended to get together while he lived here. No such luck, but I did have lunch with Allan's mother on one occasion and with his father on another. In any case, Allan is another classmate whose great success adds to the lustre of the entire class. He has a degree, his own company, a terrific (and, it must be said, gorgeous) wife, children, and two years of living in Italy working on construction of a theme park under his belt. He, too, lives in the Lower Mainland - not far from Jack, it seems - and given especially how much Conrad enjoyed sitting chatting with Michelle, Allan's wife, while we were all flitting around from classmate to classmate, I hope we get a chance to see them back west one day again.
Finally, a shot of the spouses. Ever patient with all of us. I hope most of all that the loved ones we dragged to the event had a good time. I think it was overwhelming for Conrad the first night, but the second night he relaxed into it and now hopes we see a number of these new/old friends in years ahead.
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