This month I asked ’90s to fill in the blank: “2016 was the summer of —.” Marcus Weiss: “2016 was the summer of love—quite literally. My 7-year-old son, Jacob, was cast in Cirque Du Soleil’s show, The Beatles’ Love. We spent the summer in Las Vegas so he could rehearse and fully integrate into the production. Now he’s a working actor, just like daddy!” Timothy Kolk: “Meeting my future wife, which certainly took a lot of uncertainty out of things.” Ali Long:“Camp Dartmouth! My boys Quincy (12) and Zack (8) and I, along with Bernardine Wu and her kids Will (15) and Mae (12), as well as Sebastian Atucha and Dave Kelsey and their families, had a fabulous time looking at Saturn and Mars from the Green with an astronomy professor; getting a taste of rugby, volleyball, archery, water balloons, wheelbarrowing and other such Camp Dartmouth Olympic games; and the piece de resistance: listening to professor Don Pease’s talk about the life of Dr. Seuss!” Ute Bowman Otley: “Feeling old. We sent our firstborn, Sadie, to college (Tufts) this week and watched our babies, Mason and Cole, get their driver’s licenses.” Kyle Davis: “2016 was the summer of ‘and then there was one.’ We sent the first kid off to college (Denison) and now the daughter is the sole subject of our attention. Well, the daughter and the dog.” Tony Jones: “2016 was the summer of taking my kids to Rome and introducing them to the sites of my 1989 classics foreign study program: the Campo de Fiore, the Forum, the Vatican and, of course, Giolitti’s gelato.” Jen Gittes: “2016 was the summer of our 30th high school reunions! I had a heartwarming time at Lake Lanier, Georgia, in the great company of my 13-year-old son, Trevor, with my beloved class from Alliance Academy in Quito, Ecuador. It was also the summer of teaching English to two bright and enthusiastic 10- and 11-year-old sisters, newly arrived from Venezuela.” Rob Uhrig: “Summer school. All three kids (two in college, one in high school) took classes this summer.” Karen Behling: “Change and trips. I decided to leave my private primary care practice and will start working for Duke Primary Care in September. I am excited be part of their transforming primary care initiative, in which they are hiring medical assistants to work as scribes for each doctor. This will enable me to practice medicine and focus on patients instead of dealing with data entry.” Derek Symer: “2016 was the summer of Sweden. I flew to Sweden with my sons, Tommy and Luke, to play in the Gothia Cup, the world’s largest youth soccer tournament. Both Symer boys’ teams advanced to the knockout phase of the tournament and had a great time meeting other players from around the world.” Phil Privitera: “John Rassias—life study at home and abroad—all day, every day! This was our first summer without John and it was the first time since his passing that it hit me how short life is, as well as how he always advised and lectured me to get out of my ‘safe haven’ and see as much of the world as I could—to break all barriers, mend all bridges, meet all people and experience all things. So I opened up the bucket list and went everywhere I could, including El Salvador, Mexico, Cayman Islands, Hawaii, Lake Tahoe, Reno and Florida. I even went on the field at Fenway Park for batting practice and staged a ‘fake catch’ at the 420-foot sign on the centerfield wall!”

—Rob Crawford, 101 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA, 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com